Is this ricing? (pictures included)

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royon

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Hi everyone my name is Ryan and I'm new to the forum.

I've made quite a few batches with cold process soap and have had some amazing results where nothing bad happens, the scent is strong, and anyone that smells it wants to buy it.

Unfortunately I've run into some problems.

Every batch of soap I make on the inside of the bars get these little white lumps.

For this batch that I have made I did a 34% olive oil/33% coconut oil/33% lard combo. I've had much success with this in the past but now it is not working.

For most batches I would ensure that the temperature was around 115-125 degree temp range to make my batches and have had this white lump problem.

So I tried making the soap at around 100 degrees and the pictures I've posted are the results.

I've tried using different brands of fragrance/essential oils and have had this happen. For this particular batch I used brambleberrys lemongrass essential oil. Before making this batch I used brambleberrys lye and fragrance calculator and followed it to the T.

I'm sure you pros out there will spot what this is and help me out.

Looking forward to your responses. :) Happy Soaping
 

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Ricing usually occurs when mixing the lye solution with oils/fats. Were the lard and coconut oils fully melted?
 
Ricing usually occurs when mixing the lye solution with oils/fats. Were the lard and coconut oils fully melted?

Yes, I've heated them up to 130 degrees and let it cool down to about 115 before mixing with lye water as well and had the same results.

I’m no pro but I believe those are stearic acid spots. Do a search for that term & I believe you’ll find more info on how, when & why they appear in CP soap.

I will do more research into this thanks for the input so far really appreciate it :)
 
Ricing is just like it sounds - the soap clumps up like small hard grains of rice that create a bumpy look and feel to the bars.

As Lynette said, those mostly look like stearic spots to me as well. The other possibility is an unmixed additive like titanium dioxide, white kaolin clay, or powdered milk. Did you use any additives?
 
Ricing is just like it sounds - the soap clumps up like small hard grains of rice that create a bumpy look and feel to the bars.

As Lynette said, those mostly look like stearic spots to me as well. The other possibility is an unmixed additive like titanium dioxide, white kaolin clay, or powdered milk. Did you use any additives?

Here is a list of my full ingredients: Extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil, lard, lye, water, lemongrass essential oil, mica.

For a minute I thought it might be wire cutter bumps since the ends and edges of the soap dont have any of the spots. But I don't think so because if I take some water to where the wire cut the marks don't go away.

After doing research people online say to melt the hard oils first and then add the soft oils. I did this in reverse, but the oils were fully melted before adding the lye water solution.

My next batch I'll fully melt the hard oils before adding the EVOO and hopefully this problem clears up.

I also tested my stick blender to see if it was putting out excessive air and it's not.

Any other comments would be very helpful, I appreciate them all, thanks for your time and input everyone.
 
It wasn't a white mica, was it? If so, those could be unmixed mica spots.

However, you mentioned heating your soft oils first, and then adding the hard ones. The soft oils don't need to be heated at all, really - only the hard ones. The advice to melt the hard oils first is pretty sensible in that regard, plus it can help avoid stearic spots because it is easier to make sure that the hard oils are fully melted and clear, before adding the soft ones.

Good luck, and let us know how it turns out.
 
Welcome Ryan!

If what you are seeing are air bubbles, they will be hollow if you shave through them with a knife or planer. Stearic spots will still look like white spots. As @AliOop mentioned, melting the hard fats until they are crystal clear should eliminate stearic spots. The lard I use won’t fully melt/become crystal clear below 140 F even if I let it sit at that temperature on the stove. If you’re uncertain about whether or not your lard and coconut oil are fully melting, err on the warmer side (150 F).
 
Welcome Ryan!

If what you are seeing are air bubbles, they will be hollow if you shave through them with a knife or planer. Stearic spots will still look like white spots. As @AliOop mentioned, melting the hard fats until they are crystal clear should eliminate stearic spots. The lard I use won’t fully melt/become crystal clear below 140 F even if I let it sit at that temperature on the stove. If you’re uncertain about whether or not your lard and coconut oil are fully melting, err on the warmer side (150 F).

I made 2 loaves with 10 bars each of chocolate fragrance soap today and heated the coconut and lard to 150 this time. Hopefully the stearic spots are no longer there and everything is ok now. Will report back tomorrow after cutting. Thanks for all the responses.

If all goes well I'm gonna pump out 40 bars after cutting the chocolate and freeing up the mold.
 
OK made 2 more batches and I'm back with my update.

First batch I made the chocolate soap which is the darker soap of the pictures I've attached to this post.

All my batches have the same ingredients which is 34% EVOO, 33% lard, 33% coconut.

For the chocolate batch I heated the hard oils to 150 degrees then added the EVOO and once temp dropped to about 120 I mixed the oils and lye together.

The result is more of these spots.

When that batch didn't turn out the way I wanted I thought maybe I didn't heat the oil up enough (even though I temp gunned it and saw 150) so for my next batch I heated the hard oils to about 200 degrees let it cool down to about 110 degrees and then mixed the oil and lye water together to see if that would get rid of the spots. That batch is the white and grey swirl soap I've attached to this post.

It did not get rid of the white spots.

The only thing I can think of to try something else is maybe replace my stick blender just in case those are air bubbles even though I really don't think they are and I tested my stick blender to see if it broke and was putting out excess air, which it was not.

But if those are stearic acid spots I wonder if I swapped out lard for palm oil would these spots go away.

I've used this recipe for a while and never had these spots and I'm not doing anything differently so I'm not sure why it's happening I'm really stumped.

Anyways any input is very appreciated and am looking forward to your responses about what it might be. Thanks and have a good day.

Also if you guys need me to I can write down every step I took with this batch along with exact weights of oils, lye, water, etc that I use.



Found this vid just gonna get a new stick blender that has to be it, will report back
 

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