Lye Crystals and White Rings in Soap

[ariella42]

I made yet another ugly soap. Of course, this one smells great (rosemary and eucalyptus EOs), unlike my wine soap. Unfortunately, this one has also developed lye crystals. They're most prominent in the second photo and definitely zap. The soap itself does not zap. The loaf I made also has some white rings in it that seem to be larger ovals around the part in the middle that gelled. The white rings do not zap.

Here's the breakdown of what I did for this batch. I can post the recipe too if that would help. First of all, this was only the second time I did the 50/50 split for milk and the first one was an HP soap. This was also my second batch with the tallow I rendered. I added my lye to my water, added silk and kaolin clay, then let it cool before adding SL. I let my oils cool before adding my milk and EOs to them, then I let both the oils and the lye get to about 110 degrees. When I mixed them, it took longer for them to come to trace than my usual recipe, but I had noticed that with a very similar recipe I made HP before.

Everything seemed normal until I tried to mix my mica into a portion of the batter. The mica just wouldn't blend and color it like normal. I ended up putting all the mica I had left (it was a sample size) into the batter, but it never really colored it. I've used the mica before and it blended and colored beautifully (though in my salt soap it morphed a bit as it cured). Nonetheless, I attempted my swirl in my log mold, then did an in the pot with the remainder and poured it into individual molds. I put everything in the freezer to prevent gel.

I unmolded everything about 12-15 hours later. I noticed that the soaps were still very soft and the log mold was too soft to cut, so I stuck that one back into the freezer for about 12 more hours. By the time I cut the log, the ones that had remained out were weeping liquid. Shortly after cutting the log, it was too. I initially thought it might be EOs and hoped they'd be reabsorbed, but once the liquid evaporated, I was left with zapping crystals.

My question is two-fold - is there anything I can do to save this batch and how do I prevent this in the future?

Sorry for the novel, but I'd really appreciate some advice on this one.

 

[cmzaha]

I would say it is ash not lye crystals, which is sodium carbonte or better known as washing soda. Soap can zap for 72 hrs

 

[ariella42]

The crystals zap, but they soap itself doesn't. Could that still be soda ash? I'd really like for that to be the case.

 

[DeeAnna]

Yes it is most likely soda ash. Ash is alkaline so will give a slight metallic bitter zap if tasted directly. A 100 years ago, soap was made with sodium carbonate aka ash. Honestly you would have to try pretty hard to actually get lye particles in finished soap. Not to say it hasn't been done, but it's far far more likely to be ash.

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[ariella42]

That's great to hear. Thank you both for your help.

Any ideas about the white rings? They're just cosmetic, I think, but I would like to know what caused them.

 

[DeeAnna]

Your soap partially gelled. This means the darkest center of the bullseye got hot enough to turn into a soft jelly while the soap outside the bullseye got hot but not enough to gel. The rings are probably layers of different soaps that solidified at different temperatures when the center of the log was doing its gel thing. Stearic-palmitic soaps are more opaque and oleic-linoleic soaps are more translucent. Kind of like "glycerin rivers" if you've heard about or seen soaps like this. Gelled soap is a little darker than soap that doesn't gel. Most people either want full gel or no gel to avoid this look, but it's just cosmetic. The soap is fine.

I don't see that you did anything wrong really. I'm not a fan of putting soap into the freezer, but that's just my preference. I gather there are many who do it with good results, but as you can see, it is not a surefire solution to preventing gel. I'm not surprised to hear the soap remained soft for longer than you were expecting. I would have left the soap out at room temperature to finish saponifying, rather than put it back in the freezer. But again, others may have done exactly what you did with good results, so there was no real harm done either way. It's just a choice.

Try reducing the amount of water in your recipe to reduce the chance of gel. If you are using the "water as % of oils" setting, you need to switch to using the "lye concentration" setting instead to make this change simpler. The default "full water" is a lye concentration of 27%-28%, and I'm assuming that's what you have been using. Try a lye concentration of 30% instead -- a little less water. Don't make a big change at once -- just 1-2% is plenty good if your main goal is to minimize the chance of gelling. Be aware that less water may make the recipe come to trace faster. It's possible you may see less ash by using slightly less water, but no guarantees.

Not sure why your mica misbehaved -- I'm a newbie with micas, so maybe someone else can give good advice about that.

 

[Deodito Fazon]

I trieda ratio of 2.19:1 12hrs ican unmold but more soda ash ,but when i used 38% water to lye ratio no trace of soda ash but it takes time to unmold, anyway try to spray alcohol on the mold

 

[shunt2011]

I trieda ratio of 2.19:1 12hrs ican unmold but more soda ash ,but when i used 38% water to lye ratio no trace of soda ash but it takes time to unmold, anyway try to spray alcohol on the mold

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