Newbie Troubleshooting (with pictures)

[TheOneWhoSoaps]

Hi all!
After a quick search on the site, I wasn't able to find some answers on the questions I have so I thought I'd ask them here.

I have about 10 batches under my belt, and have come across the usual problems one might encounter - slight seizing and soda ash (quite annoying when I want the soaps to look pretty too!).

Anyway, the first picture is a soap that came out nice, except for the bottom - is this just some form of soda ash too?

The picture of the pink soap has some sort of mottled top - should I have just bounced the mold up and down a little to try to remove any air bubbles, or was this something else causing it?

A little info about the process - it is CP, 50% Olive oil, 25% sustainable palm oil and 25% coconut oil. Mixing temperature is at 50 degrees C. Brambleberry fragrant oils were used and clays for the colour. The molds are silicon. I insulate in a plastic tub lined with towels so there is only a little bit of air space in there. The plastic tub is put on an electric blanket and covered with blankets (winter here and poor heating in the house). The burgundy soap is about 4 days old, and the pink one was unmolded today.

Any help or advice would be great!

 

[Lion Of Judah]

yes, the whitish look is soda ash , and the last pic shows that the mold should have been tapped to get out air pockets . overall nice looking soap.

 

[Susie]

My silicon molds always have those tiny bubbles, regardless of repeatedly tapping them. It is why I rarely use them.

 

[cmzaha]

With the soap on the top right, is it firm where the whitish area is or soft? Overheating can also cause something like that to happen when a soap is on the verge of a volcano. If not soft or oil seeping when you apply some pressure to the area I would agree with it beng ash

 

[TheOneWhoSoaps]

Thanks for the replies everyone.

It must be soda ash then, it's not soft or seeping oil or anything. I will try steaming or scraping it off later, only some of the batches have these on them.

I used to lift up the silicon soap mold and lightly tap it back off the bench, but for two batches I didn't do this, and lo and behold, it just so happened to be these two batches that got these little bubbles. The last batch I did I only filled the mold up halfway, tapped it, then filled to the top and the soap came out beautifully.

 

[amal]

My silicon molds always have those tiny bubbles, regardless of repeatedly tapping them. It is why I rarely use them.

so what types of molds you use, if not the silicone one ????

 

[shunt2011]

so what types of molds you use, if not the silicone one ????

This post is 4 years old. Start a new thread and you will get more responses. [emoji3]

 

[amal]

This post is 4 years old. Start a new thread and you will get more responses. [emoji3]

OK loliii