How to prvent stearic acid spots in soap ? Alternative to?

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vjbakke

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I have a few batches that have palm oil in them that have white small white spots specked throughout the bar. I have found that they are stearic acid spots. Are they caused by the oil not being hot or warm enough? The palm oil. I use spectrum organic shorting. Ingredients are pressed palm oil. I usually mix when oil is 100-115 degrees. Also how do you prevent this from happening with milk soaps when you need the temp lower. I just wrap my mold up, would putting it in a warm oven help? Thank

Also what would a good alternative to palm oil be ? I will add that I won't use lard or Crisco, we don't use any soy in our house. We also avoid corn as well.
 
I would melt all of your palm oil and keep stirring as it cools. Then measure it for your soap batch. I normally soap at 110 degrees, but I don't use palm oil.
 
I've found that soaping warmer helps (120 to 125 degreesF). I use the same temp for my milk soaps, too, when soaped in my higher stearic formulas (I use the split method- 50% water to mix the lye in, and 50% warm milk mixed in with my warm oils).

IrishLass :)
 
I have used up the last of the palm oil, still have palm kernel left. When the last of it is gone, I won't be replacing it for the same reason stated above.
 
What oil is a good replacement for palm oil? I would prefer to formulate my recipes without it but haven't mastered how to yet.
 
Tallow or Lard are good sub's for Palm.

I was having a stearic problem but never with Spectrum (very expensive) but I love using it.
You might try soaping hotter. (edited)

When are you cutting? I thought I had stearic spots but I realized it was air bubbles from my wire cutter. So that might be something to consider before you kill Palm. In my slab mold- I never have spots and use Palm.
 
I soap a bit hotter lately to avoid the stearic prob. Also I make sure I really stir all my oils together before I add the lye. I found this to help tremendously.
 
I don't use lard. The spectrum is the cheapest and easiest for me to get. They are not air bubbles. I made a chocolate soap and you can really see them with that one. I will try hotter oils and melting all the palm oil before giving it up
 
Sheesh- where do you get Spectrum cheap? I love the stuff but it's a fortune here.

Are you using a wire cutter to cut the soap or a blade?
 
I'm curious, why do you object to Crisco if you are willing to use palm? It's just hydrogenated palm and soy oils, at least the variety sold in my region is. Is it due to GMO concerns?
 
vjbakke said:
I use a blade cutter. I get the spectrum for $ 5.95 from Azure.

Well yep- that's stearic. Soap hotter that should help.

5.95 is pretty cheap- it's 8.95 here which is why I only get it if I'm in a pinch. It soaps nicely though. :)
 
I was having this problem too. I reformulated my recipe and *knock on wood*, I've not had stearic spots since.

I found soaping hotter didn't work for me....

Best of luck. I know how disappointing it is when you slice your soap and there they are!
 
dOttY said:
I was having this problem too. I reformulated my recipe and *knock on wood*, I've not had stearic spots since.

I found soaping hotter didn't work for me....

Best of luck. I know how disappointing it is when you slice your soap and there they are!

What ways did you reformulate your recipes?

And yes it is a GMO and soy issue with the crisco. We don't buy food made by that company sorry.
 
carebear said:
vjbakke said:
What ways did you reformulate your recipes?

And yes it is a GMO and soy issue with the crisco. We don't buy food made by that company sorry.

must make shopping challenging. crisco is part of smuckers, and smuckers owns tons: http://www.smuckers.com/family_company/ ... fault.aspx

We make a lot of our own food ( bread, jam, soup etc ) I can say that we very rarely will buy anything from that list of brands.

Now back to soap:) Anyone have a good way to reformulate the recipes? Less palm oil more of another oil?
 
IrishLass said:
I've found that soaping warmer helps (120 to 125 degreesF). I use the same temp for my milk soaps, too, when soaped in my higher stearic formulas (I use the split method- 50% water to mix the lye in, and 50% warm milk mixed in with my warm oils).

IrishLass :)

Forgive the intrusion to your thread but, can you tell me please Irishlass why you like your milk added warm and some other people advocate freezing their milk? I find this quite confusing and would like to make milk soap with fresh milk instead of powdered but am a little wary of doing so. :oops:
 
laundry soap

I made the laundry from the recipe on this forum, the one with the lard,lye washing soda, borax. hot and cold water
I have whisked this for two days, and the lard is still floating on the top.
It said it would set up in three days, but so far, there isn't any sign of it mixing together.
Is there a way I can add more lye to help the lard saponsifiy and not waste my product? I added the amount in the recipe, but didn't run it through the calculator, so am wondering if that could be the problem.
Has anyone else had this problem? I would appreciate any help.
Thanks[/i]
 
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