Oil Slick on Top of Slab Mold Soap

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Elysium

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Hello folks,

Another question from someone who has been soaping for a while, but have had burning questions that I've never known the answer to:
Whenever I use my slab mold (it's acrylic), there is a thin puddle of oil on top. Now, if I leave the soap in the mold for a few days, it reabsorbs, and the soap ends up turning out perfectly as long as I'm patient.
But why does this happen??!!
It's the same recipe that I use in my silicon/wood log mold, and I never have this type of problem.
Does anyone have any ideas? I'm glad the soap turns out, but I'd rather not deal with this!
Thanks,
Andi/Elysium
 
If we go with the theory that you're getting some separation of the oil and lye, it could be because you're doing a lighter trace to swirl the slab, or because the temp ends up being lower and there's more time to separate. These things would be exacerbated by softer recipes and/or higher water amounts. If this is minor separation, the soap could come out okay but the top and bottom of the bars would be somewhat different if tested.
 
Honestly, it could be either.

I don't do CPOP exactly, but I do warm my oven for a few minutes, then turn the oven off, and keep it in there to cool rather than wrapping it up.
I remembered, in talking to my husband, that we made homemade pizza that night, so, for the first time ever I took the soap out and put it on a heating pad. I bet it overheated at that point.
But since I was swirling, I did swirl at a lower temp, lighter trace, without a water discount. So, maybe it was the perfect storm.
Sadly, this is the first time this happened that I ended up throwing the batch out. It just did not seem to want to re-absorb the oil. Oh, well... :(
Thank you folks for helping me think this through. It helps. A lot. :)
 
When I say it can cause an oil slick for a few days, I truly mean it. I had one take a whole week to get to where I could cut it. That soap was HARD when it got cut. But worth it. I learned a lot on that batch.
 
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