First time seeing this - what is it

[SoapDaddy70]

Hope everybody had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I was making soap this afternoon and when I mixed my lye solution into the oils I got these weird looking flakes that just showed up a couple of seconds into mixing with spatulas. I attached my recipe which is the same recipe I have used for my last 2 batches. Only thing I did differently was place the mason jar that I had my lye solution in into a bowl of ice water. I usually don't do this but I unexpectedly had to go somewhere so I needed to cool lye solution down quickly. It was already around 125-130F before I did this. Placed the mason jar with the lye solution in a bowl filled with ice water and stirred until it got down to around 100F. Oils were around 90F. Once I stick blended for a couple of seconds those flakes got mixed back in I guess. Did this have something to do with rapid cooling of the lye solution?

 

[Obsidian]

Not sure on the flakes but you need a different container for your lye asap. Glass is known to break and I have personal experience with a mason jar exploding.
Even pyrex is know to crack and break after awhile.

Use plastic container with a 5 on the bottom. I use a large plastic measuring cup from the dollar store or a stainless steel pitcher made for mixing chemicals.

 

[SoapDaddy70]

Not sure on the flakes but you need a different container for your lye asap. Glass is known to break and I have personal experience with a mason jar exploding.
Even pyrex is know to crack and break after awhile.

Use plastic container with a 5 on the bottom. I use a large plastic measuring cup from the dollar store or a stainless steel pitcher made for mixing chemicals.

Will definitely switch back to plastic. First few batches I made I was using the #5 plastic deli container and for some reason I switched to a mason jar I had in my cabinet. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[GemstonePony]

Lye solution can precipitate out onto a hard surface if it gets too cold, it's nice that it reincorporated for you.

 

[earlene]

Those look like PKO that reformed when the oils began to cool. Did you record your temps or recall them at all?

Oh, you did. I'm pretty sure that's what happened because I've seen it happen when soaping too cool. PKO likes to be warmer than 90° F. The flakes may have already started re-solidifying before you even added the Lye solution and you hadn't noticed because you were busy getting ready with the lye.

 

[AliOop]

^^ what @earlene said.

 

[SoapDaddy70]

Those look like PKO that reformed when the oils began to cool. Did you record your temps or recall them at all?

Oh, you did. I'm pretty sure that's what happened because I've seen it happen when soaping too cool. PKO likes to be warmer than 90° F. The flakes may have already started re-solidifying before you even added the Lye solution and you hadn't noticed because you were busy getting ready with the lye.

Yea. That makes sense. They looked exactly like the PKO flakes. Once I stick blended for a few seconds they seemed to break apart and reincorporate. This is the soap and it looks ok to me.

 

[earlene]

Very pretty swirls, SoapDaddy.