Not sure about my soap

[Sweetface81]

I made a CP coconut milk and turmeric soap(unscented). I didn’t CPOP it but I did cover it with a towel and small piece of cardboard to avoid the towel from falling in and hopes of not getting soda ash. I do believe it gelled and it started to get too hot so I moved it somewhere cooler(I don’t care if the soap gels or not). It didn’t crack. It turned out nice imo until I cut into it. It has white bumps and the texture isn’t smooth. And the inside is darker than the outside. I used 2 tbsp of turmeric ppo. #1 Did I use too much turmeric and how much should you use ppo?
#2 How do you achieve a smooth soap?
#3 How are you supposed to prevent soap from over heating and not get soaps ash?
soaped at lye solution (82F) Oils (92)

TYIA !
pics below

 

[AliOop]

Without knowing your full recipe, my guess is that those are either unmixed bits of the coconut milk, or they stearic spots. Did you use fresh or powdered CM? How did you add it? Did you heat the oils up to at least 150F and fully clear before you let them cool?

Also, what made you think that the soap was getting "too hot"?

 

[Sweetface81]

Without knowing your full recipe, my guess is that those are either unmixed bits of the coconut milk, or they stearic spots. Did you use fresh or powdered CM? How did you add it? Did you heat the oils up to at least 150F and fully clear before you let them cool?

Also, what made you think that the soap was getting "too hot"?

Thank you so very much for your response!
I used fresh frozen cubes of coconut milk. I replaced the water for “lye solution” for the frozen coconut milk cubes. And, no I don’t heat the oils up to 150F and fully cool. I do melt the coconut oil and add my other oils to that. That’s interesting in my research of soap making I’ve never come across that bit of info on heating the oils to 150F and let cool.
As far as what made me think me soap was overheating - I made a two other batches and kept watch of the temp lol and @ 115F my soap got really hot and cracked. So I just had in my mind that at 115F it was gonna crack. This is my 3rd time making soap so I’m very new to this. Would you care to elaborate more on that? Thank you

 

[KiwiMoose]

The colour difference will even out in a day or two - it often happens to my coconut milk soap. The little spots *could* also occur when you add the lye to coconut milk for your solution. Is this what you did? I always defrost the coconut milk in the micro - and then add it to the oils ( but still take the water reduction off the lye solution of course)

 

[AliOop]

@Sweetface81 thanks for the additional info. If you can post your full recipe, including the amount of lye, water, and all oils and all additives, that will help

Meanwhile, from what you described about your other soaps overheating, that makes sense to think the same would be happening with this soap.

The reason for heating the oils to 150F is to fully melt the high-stearic oils that tend to create those white stearic spots in soaps. It's ok if the oils cools off significantly after that, but heating to at least that temperature before letting the oils cool will help avoid those spots. I normally soap at 90-100F, but if you are using lots of butters, PKO, or beeswax, you will probably need to soap a little warmer than that.

This is an example of why it is important for us to know your recipe; if you are only using coconut oil plus soft oils, then those probably aren't stearic spots, and you probably don't need to heat up your oils that hot.

 

[Sweetface81]

The colour difference will even out in a day or two - it often happens to my coconut milk soap. The little spots *could* also occur when you add the lye to coconut milk for your solution. Is this what you did? I always defrost the coconut milk in the micro - and then add it to the oils ( but still take the water reduction off the lye solution of course)

Thank you for your response! Yes, I add the lye to the coconut milk cubes and that’s good to know!

 

[KiwiMoose]

Thank you for your response! Yes, I add the lye to the coconut milk cubes and that’s good to know!

Just remember that your water should always weigh more than your lye - otherwise it won't dissolve.