Salt-like crystals on day 4 of curing

[Annieywang]

Hi all!
My first attempt at cold process soap with my old breast milk! Left in fridge for 24 hours then unmolded.

Problems:
- right when I unmolded, the center was still dark
- I’m onto day 4 after making the soap and now there are salt-like crystals forming! Is this soap a Failure??
See picture. help!!

followed this recipe:

• 10 ounces milk (try 9 oz if you want your soap to set up faster, or if using silicone molds) —> I used about 9.3oz
• 4.3 ounces lye (sodium hydroxide)

Oils Portion (31 ounces total):

• 22 ounces olive oil (71%)
• 8 ounces coconut oil (26%)
• 1 ounce castor oil (3%)
• About 0.7oz of essential oils

 

[CaraBou]

Hi Annieywang. Your breast milk soap is beautiful -- and likely fine to use. Your recipe seems good, and the bars appear solid and smooth despite those few spots.

I'd guess the spots are from stearic or palmitic fatty acids that weren't fully mixed, and/or that cooled more quickly than other FAs. Palmitic and stearic FAs may be high in breast milk, based on what we know from cow's milk. Refrigeration could have promoted the spots as well as the dark rings (partial gel) in some of your bars. Next time, try letting the batter cool more gradually (outside the refrigerator), and take special care to mix the batter thoroughly before molding (e.g., slower, longer speed).

To be sure, perform a zap test on the spots. Wet a finger, glide it across the dots, and apply your finger to the tip of your tongue. If your tongue vibrates rather than just tasting soap, the spots would be live lye. If not, cure your soaps and then use joyously!

 

[cmzaha]

First off, Welcome to the forum.
Second, read about making soap in the beginner's forum here and learn to use a soap calculator. Never trust a written recipe without running it through a lye calculator. If you find a recipe and cannot figure out how to use the calculator we can help you. You can learn all you need to know from the folks here.

I am afraid I would be very suspicious of those crystals if the milk was very cold when the lye was mixed in. I only say this because I have made soap with breast milk, which, I swore I would never do and it soaps easier than any milk I have ever used. It stays perfectly smooth even when the lye is mixed. It was the easiest prettiest milk I ever soaped with. But it was certainly not magic soap, although I really never used it but to try a sample piece. It was made for my niece.

I really have never seen stearic spots form as crystals but suppose they could. Although I have seen unmixed lye form crystals. Even though I have soaped a long time, last year I made a batch when I was out of masterbatch and mixed some lye before making the batch ending up not getting it mixed thoroughly, I think I remember mixing it in something besides water. Well, guess what, crystals ended up that looked just like the above soap and were very zappy so I would say they were unmixed lye crystals. I let the batch cure for 4 months cut one and it still zapped, let it sit another 6 months cut one still not go. So bye-bye soap. The outside did quit being zappy after the air finally neutralized the lye but I was suspicious of the inside. I did happen to keep one bar just to see what would happen and recently cut it, it did stop zapping but was still not a good bar of soap and finally got tossed.

So the bottom line to the story I still would not use the soap even if the outside quits zapping without cutting the soap to check the inside. This is why it can be difficult for new soapers to make milk soaps times because you cannot always tell if the lye is fully dissolved. Especially when this can happen to someone that makes hundreds of batches of soap.

 

[CaraBou]

^^cmzaha has great points. The crystals do look bigger and more irregularly shaped than normal stearic spots. If the spots don't zap on the surface, plane (or slice) a bar so that you can get to spots embedded further inside where air hasn't reached. Then zap test again. If those spots don't zap, keep planing to test deeper inside. If that bar doesn't have any crystals inside, plane a different bar. If any spots zap, you have active lye crystals which likely can't be fixed.

If none zap, it's harmless, and you can use the bars.

Please post your findings so we all can learn. Soaping is an incredible journey; there's no shame in mistakes unless they aren't shared with others.

 

[Mobjack Bay]

I ran your recipe through the SMF calculator and it's fine, with a lye concentration of just under 32% and a superfat of 5%. The dark spot in the middle of the soap looks like what we call "partial gel." It happens because the interior of the soap gets hotter than the exterior due to the heat being released during saponification. To gel or not to gel? That is the question! Many have a personal preference. The sugars in the milk help the soap to heat up to a point where gel can happen more easily. You can stop a soap from gelling by keeping it cool - for example, by popping it into a freezer or refrigerator for a few hours or longer. If you prefer the gelled look, you can insulate the loaf with a towel or blanket to help hold the heat in, CPOP it, or put it on a heating pad. If you're going to encourage gel in a milk soap should keep an eye on it so it doesn't overheat.

 

[Annieywang]

Thanks for all your expert advice! Glad I joined.

1- I put in fridge right away to avoid gel phase. I read it makes whiter Bars? I took it out 24 hours later... should I have left it in fridge longer to prevent that dark center? Or not at all?

2- I have to admit, the lye I used was purchased a few years ago. But I read as long as it’s still white, it’s ok to use. Was that a mistake? It was still sealed. It is in crystal form not powder.

3- @cmzaha interesting thought about the milk being too cold. You may be right. I read it was supposed to be cold otherwise it burns the milk and then has other chemical reactions that sound bad. But..I froze the milk into ice cubes then put over ice bath when I mixed the lye in. At NO point did I feel any heat. So this does support the idea that it was too cold and didn’t fully mix The lye in.

4- I’m not going to lie, I’m afraid of doing the zap test..

5- I have a crazy amount of old breast milk and my husband threatened to throw it all out if I don’t find something to make with it, so I must master this soap! IF I try again, what changes would you all suggest?

6- I might be paranoid, but I feel like more crystals are forming. It looks diseased!!

thanks for reading!

 

[Jersey Girl]

Thanks for all your expert advice! Glad I joined.

1- I put in fridge right away to avoid gel phase. I read it makes whiter Bars? I took it out 24 hours later... should I have left it in fridge longer to prevent that dark center? Or not at all?

2- I have to admit, the lye I used was purchased a few years ago. But I read as long as it’s still white, it’s ok to use. Was that a mistake? It was still sealed. It is in crystal form not powder.

3- @cmzaha interesting thought about the milk being too cold. You may be right. I read it was supposed to be cold otherwise it burns the milk and then has other chemical reactions that sound bad. But..I froze the milk into ice cubes then put over ice bath when I mixed the lye in. At NO point did I feel any heat. So this does support the idea that it was too cold and didn’t fully mix The lye in.

4- I’m not going to lie, I’m afraid of doing the zap test..

5- I have a crazy amount of old breast milk and my husband threatened to throw it all out if I don’t find something to make with it, so I must master this soap! IF I try again, what changes would you all suggest?

6- I might be paranoid, but I feel like more crystals are forming. It looks diseased!!

thanks for reading!

Make your husband do the zap test for threatening to throw out your liquid gold. Lol

 

[atiz]

The zap test sounds worse than it really is. At most what you get is the kind of zap you would get with a 9V battery -- wouldn't say it's pleasant, but not a big deal either.

 

[Annieywang]

Hm I tried zap test. At first, got nothing. Then... accidentally did it with one of the salt crystals and it sort of burned. I
Wouldn’t say zap.. but a burn. What’s that mean?

 

[atiz]

Hm I tried zap test. At first, got nothing. Then... accidentally did it with one of the salt crystals and it sort of burned. I
Wouldn’t say zap.. but a burn. What’s that mean?

That sounds like a zap to me. So they may be lye crystals