Scratchy soap help

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Alfa_Lazcares

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Okay, so I honestly dont know what it is but my last few batches of soap have all ended up beign scratchy when i didnt mean them to. Is not too bad to be unusable but i wanted some smooth soaps and for some reason they all end up scratchy. When tou see them they look fine, if you tilt them you can kinda see the bumps that kinda sorta look like salt but finer. I dont know if you can see it on the pictures. Anyway there is really nothing consistent about those soaps excep
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t for maybe the NAOH

The recipe I use the most is 30% coconut, 30% olive, 30% lard or palm, 5% castor and 5% almond or avocado. It also happened with 80% coconut 20% avocado. They all have different brands of oils.

For my water I either used 100% aloe vera (from the leaves) or 50% water and 50% coconut cream or coconut milk.

I mix the lye solution with the aloe or the water and let it cool down.

I melt my coconut and lard or palm then add the olive and finally the castor and almond or avocado. I dump the coconut cream or milk in the oils and then the TD or mica. Stick blend those until well combined. Then mix the lye solution.

At this point i add the FO or EO and mold. Salt bars do not gell but the other recipe does. It fully gells but never overheats.

When i cut the soap it feels fine and smooth but after i start using them is when you can feel the granules? I let them cure for 3 weeks minimum before testing but older bars are scratchy but only dtarted happening 2 months ago, in agust. I first thought it was the TD but it happens with or without it. Then I thought of the FO but it happened when I used EO, then i thought of the palm but it started happening when i wasnt using palm. The olive oil or coconut brand but nope, they are at least 2 brands. The aloe but no because also happenes with plain water or coconut milk/cream.

Help?
 
Are you grinding up the outside of the aloe leaf? I do see you are leaving the aloe pretty chunky which can also be a bit scratchy, but if any of the outside leaf is in the soap it will be very scratchy. I filet off the aloe and run it through my bullet to puree it, a food processor will also work well. You want it as pureed as you can get it to where you see just little specks of aloe
 
Are you grinding up the outside of the aloe leaf? I do see you are leaving the aloe pretty chunky which can also be a bit scratchy, but if any of the outside leaf is in the soap it will be very scratchy. I filet off the aloe and run it through my bullet to puree it, a food processor will also work well. You want it as pureed as you can get it to where you see just little specks of aloe

No. Just the gell part and it also happens with the soaps that do not contain aloe, but coconut milk. The aloe ended up more chunky than expected but i do puree it.


Edit: the yellow chinks are another soap. This is a conffeti soap.
 
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What are your temperatures? How do you let the soap set up? Do you insulate at all? What have your ambient temps been? Have your batch sizes changed in recent months.

There could be a chance that your soap is cooling unevenly and some of the fatty acids are solidifying in chunks. I’ve had it happen before (but less noticeable) when I’ve gotten a new/larger mold and not insulated correctly. I’ve since started to CPOP all my batches and don’t seem to have the same issue. If the weather has started to change by you there is a chance you may need to adjust with the seasons for consistent soaps.
 
What are your temperatures? How do you let the soap set up? Do you insulate at all? What have your ambient temps been? Have your batch sizes changed in recent months.

There could be a chance that your soap is cooling unevenly and some of the fatty acids are solidifying in chunks. I’ve had it happen before (but less noticeable) when I’ve gotten a new/larger mold and not insulated correctly. I’ve since started to CPOP all my batches and don’t seem to have the same issue. If the weather has started to change by you there is a chance you may need to adjust with the seasons for consistent soaps.

Thanks, but i can not tell you temperatures since i dont own a thermometer. Its just room temperataure, between 20 to 25 C. The soap goes in to a silicone mold that goes in to a carboad box with a lid so it gells evenly which always does. After it does its thing i remove the lid and let it cool at its own pace. I usually unmold by the next day, i have unmolded after just a few hours because it cooled down enough and its solid enough. The weather has changed, slightly cooler and its been raining more offen but it started before the rains.

The batch size has changed but not the mold, its just that i used to do 500 grams of oils (it didnt happened to those but it was way back in may when i started) and i kept upping the size by 100 grams until i could fill the mold to the rim, it was a change of 300 grams more of oils. It started happening the second time i made the 800 grams. But the soap I made that size just a 4 days prior came out perfect.

A few days ago i made another soap and after i cut it i kinda can see its gonna happen to it too. I mention this because that one is a batch on a different mold (plastic) on a wooden box. It didnt gell at all. Took it more hours to be ready to unmold and was still kinda sticky when i cut it so i couldnt really tell, but its been a couple of days and they are firmer so i can kinda see the bumps.

I honestly am starting to believe is the lye, although i dont know how, but that is the thing that is being consistent in all the gritty batches and it didnt happen with my supplier before that. The soaps all come out as they should (no zap, bubbly, creamy etc). Just gritty ans its driving me nuts cause i dont use luffas or anything, just the soap and while i dont mind exfoliating action sometimes i just dont want it.
 
I think @BattleGnome may have hit it. If you don't know your temps and add cool to hot oils that may be an issue. One of those soaps looks like a Rebatch, that could also be it.
Either something is solidifying too fast or there are bits in something that maybe you don't see at first.

Run your fingers, pointer and thumb, with everything (but lye) to see if there are any gritty things.
 
I think @BattleGnome may have hit it. If you don't know your temps and add cool to hot oils that may be an issue. One of those soaps looks like a Rebatch, that could also be it.
Either something is solidifying too fast or there are bits in something that maybe you don't see at first.
Run your fingers, pointer and thumb, with everything (but lye) to see if there are any gritty things.

No, i dont add cool to hot oils, all of them are room temperature. I melt the solids (palm, lard and coconut) just at barely melted, (there are still chunks not fully melted so i still it until they are) never hot (save the first few times i did it but those batches were fine) and then add my liquid oils at room temperature. Then i add the lye that by this point is cool to room temperature but not out of the fridge cold. I always touch the outside of the containers to make sure nothing is hot.

I dont wear globes to meassure the oils since i find them uncomfortable and the soaps are just for me and my parents, so i have touched all the oils and they all feel fine. Besides it happened with nore than one brand of oils. Same for the aloe, i have touched that stuff and its fine. And soaps that contain aloe before august feel fine too.

It is not a rebatch per se, its a confetti soap. The soap that is in confetti form is a store bought soap. Palmolive. The white soap ia the one i made fresh.

And in a twist of events i just tried a soap i made 3 weeks ago. Its a coffee soap. The brown part has coffe grounds so i can not really say if the grittiness? Is from that or from the same as the others BUT the top part is as smooth as it can be. It is obviously the same batch of oils the only dofference is that the top part has TD and the bottom part doest, but its the same oils that i just split to color with td after the lye was mixed in. The recipe was the same (coconut, palm, olive, castor and almond) the water was coffee. It gelled.
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Finally this are other soaps with the same issue. They are end cuts thats why they are tiny, both have the same oils but different proportions (less palm in one). Both gelled, the purple top one was with a fragrance that accelerates like crazy and i had to plop the batter in the mold hence the holes.
The white confeti one is using a zest soap as confetti.

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stearic spots? Honestly, I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be looking at. It looks like soap to me.
 
stearic spots? Honestly, I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be looking at. It looks like soap to me.

This bumps that you can see in all of them
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Can stearic spots cause texture on the soap? I dont soap super cold, so i sont know how they wouls form. But as far as i can tell stearic spots look whitish and this ones are clear, like grains of salt sticking out of the surface of the soaps. Its hard to tell on the picture but thats how they look on real life.
 
That looks like something didn't totally melt and stay melted. Either stearic that re solidified as not kept warm enough. The one you did with shreds is probably from the store bought soap as it's likely not really soap. I heat my solid oils like you do and add my room temperature liquid oils to that. I also add coldish milk to the oils before blending. I don't have any problems with it. I've never had chunky stuff showing up.

Coffee soap is going to be scratchy.
 
That looks like something didn't totally melt and stay melted. Either stearic that re solidified as not kept warm enough. The one you did with shreds is probably from the store bought soap as it's likely not really soap. I heat my solid oils like you do and add my room temperature liquid oils to that. I also add coldish milk to the oils before blending. I don't have any problems with it. I've never had chunky stuff showing up.

Coffee soap is going to be scratchy.

But can stearic spots be scratchy? And look like salts?

The store bought one says is sodium palmitate, sodium olivate, sodium laurate, aqua, talc, glycerin, parfum, citric acid, td, hydroxypropil methylcelluse, yougurt. And the other brand one i dont know since i dont have the packaging anymore but i read it and its similar. Either way that would only rule out both of those soaps.

Yes, the coffee soap is supposed to be scratchy, however the point of that one was that the top does not have the scratchy things and that makes zero sence since its made the exact same way as the bottom and the other soaps that ended up scratchy.

That also leaves out the salt soaps (the scratchiness is NOT from the salt, you cant feel the salt cristals, just the other scratcy things. Here i was able to remove some. Feel like tiny seeds but there were no seeds on the soap.

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They can be a bit scratchy but not crystals. Sorry, I don’t know. It’s strange. What are you mixing your soap in, is something chipping or coming off? Utensils? Wish I could be more help. Are you adding salt to the batter instead of dissolving in water first. Kinda shooting i. The dark. Sorry
 
They can be a bit scratchy but not crystals. Sorry, I don’t know. It’s strange. What are you mixing your soap in, is something chipping or coming off? Utensils? Wish I could be more help. Are you adding salt to the batter instead of dissolving in water first. Kinda shooting i. The dark. Sorry

Yeah, i cant figure it out either. I’ve been trying to let the soaps i am making now cool slowly (pop them in the microwave but without turning the microwave on) and let then be till the next day. I use a stainless steel jar for the lye and plastic ones for the oils/batter but they look and feel fine. The spatulas are silicone and relatively new so they also feel fine, one has a wooden handle but the handle is smooth as always, nothing chipping or coming off. And the mold is also silicone. Thats pretty much all i use.micas and td look and feel super powdery. I use cheap plastic cups to measure the dry lye and the FO but the plastic on those also look and feel fibe. I can try and use something else for a couple tries see what happens. Other than that I am at a loss.


Yes i add the salt to the batter since they are salt bars and i use half the weight of the oils on them. But again, you can feel the rock like smoothness of the soap where the cratcht things are not present so i am pretty confident is not rhe salt crustals themselves and i dont use salt for the other soaps.


Thanks for playing my soap’s guessing game anyway ha!
 
Have you ever been able to resolve this scratchy soap issue. After years of soaping I am starting to get this. One batch will have it then the next one, maybe a day later with same supplies, won’t. I don’t gel. I add sodium lactate. I soap at about 110 degrees.
 
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