Lye Pockets or Stearic Acid?

[blessasoaps]

Hi. My recent batch of soap came out with white very small spots on them (circled in photo). And the edges seem to have a white ash forming. Not sure what the cause is or if it’s stearic spots or if the soap is lye heavy. I mix at high temps. 95-100 degrees Fahrenheit


My recipe is:

28oz olive oil

13oz coconut oil

11oz shea butter

6oz castor oil

6oz sunflower oil

8.73oz lye

16.3oz distilled water

1oz of eucalyptus and spearmint EOs

 

[KiwiMoose]

Sorry that no-one answered your post. I don't know how it got 'lost' on here. If your lye was fully dissolved i don't see that it could be lye pockets. Did you use any clay or colorant? Or yes, maybe little stearic spots from the shea?

 

[Catscankim]

For the life of me I don't know why if somebody thinks their bar is lye-heavy or has lye pockets, that they think it is ok to dig out a spot with their fingernail, especially on a new/young soap.

I have had a lot of soaps that I have dug something out with my nails..a piece of dirt etc. But never once did I think "oh, I wonder if this is a chunk of lye"...

It's not just this original poster, I just saw another similar post that had the same question but wearing gloves, which is more reasonable.

Besides all that, I don't think its lye. I could be wrong because it has never happened to me so I don't have something to reference, but it might be clay or td or something. That was my first thought when I looked at the soap pictures.

I like the colors and hope that you have a lovely soap there because they are very pretty. I'm leaning toward to them being just fine.

 

[AliOop]

I agree, those look like unmixed clay or TD spots to me - those are super common and totally harmless. Many soaps develop ash, which is also harmless.

FWIW, soaping at 95-100F is considered low temp, not high temp.