Soap curdling up! Is this ricing?

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Anstarx

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I made this batch last week to try out the clamshell swirl. As you could imagine, it didn't work out as it accelerated fast and started curdling. It actually looked pretty decent but definitely not what I wanted. I CPOP it and it mostly gelled. The oils were room temp and lye slightly warm to touch.
The recipe was:
coconut 20
palm 20
sunflower 30
canola 30
I knew the problem definitely came from the FOs I used as I've used the recipe before without problem. The local fragrance suppliers don't usually test their fragrance on soaps so I had to guess and estimate how they behaved. Most of my "official" soaps are made from either EO or imported FO. Since this is a test batch, I wanted to keep the cost low and use local fragrance. I used bergamot and mint FO, both I have used before. I'm suspecting the mint FO is the culprit as I've used bergamot FO in large quantity before and didn't see anything out of the norm.

Sorry for the blathering. I mostly want to ask if this is ricing? As it look different than the ricing picture I've seen before. Why are there transparent bits in the soap? Will they be safe to use? I touched the surface and sniffed it. I didn't smell like lye or tingles.
 
1.jpg
2.jpg

I made this batch last week to try out the clamshell swirl. As you could imagine, it didn't work out as it accelerated fast and started curdling. It actually looked pretty decent but definitely not what I wanted. I CPOP it and it mostly gelled. The oils were room temp and lye slightly warm to touch.
The recipe was:
coconut 20
palm 20
sunflower 30
canola 30
I knew the problem definitely came from the FOs I used as I've used the recipe before without problem. The local fragrance suppliers don't usually test their fragrance on soaps so I had to guess and estimate how they behaved. Most of my "official" soaps are made from either EO or imported FO. Since this is a test batch, I wanted to keep the cost low and use local fragrance. I used bergamot and mint FO, both I have used before. I'm suspecting the mint FO is the culprit as I've used bergamot FO in large quantity before and didn't see anything out of the norm.

Sorry for the blathering. I mostly want to ask if this is ricing? As it look different than the ricing picture I've seen before. Why are there transparent bits in the soap? Will they be safe to use? I touched the surface and sniffed it. I didn't smell like lye or tingles.
Pretty soap
 
This happens to me sometimes - I have learned to soap a bit warmer because of the shea butter and soy wax starting to set up into little clumps akin to ricing, but more like 'macaroni cheese-ing' I'd say. Keeping it warmer seems to help - but of course with a naughty FO you never know what's gonna happen.
BTW: They look gorgeous and it's quite a nice design feature.
 
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This happens to me sometimes - I have learned to soap a bit warmer because of the shea butter and soy wax starting to set up into little clumps akin to ricing, but more like 'macaroni cheese-ing' I'd say. Keeping it warmer seems to help - but of course with a naughty FO you never know what's gonna happen.
BTW: They look gorgeous and it's quite a nice design feature.
Hmm I had stearic spots before when I soaped too cold but never ricing. I also didn't use any butter or wax, only coconut and palm which were pretty liquid-y under the room temp these days.
 
It' was most likely your fragrance. I've had fragrances rice. You generally can beat them into submission though sometimes it still has a slightly rice look to it. I had it happen recently with an FO I've used before with no issue. I beat it the best I could and dumped it in the mold. It turned out okay in the end.
 
I made some known to me accelerating FOs together—Ocean Breeze and Plumeria. Double trouble. But it’s a lovely scent. I expected it would a Drop ‘n Plop. But using Tamanu oil was stupid when trying to use blue colors. The oil is a lovely green, but I tried to lighten it with TD. Mistake. Then it took a lot of blue so I hurried to overcome green. Soap started to curdle. Stirred like crazy. Added blue. Color accidentally plopped I way too much in the dark blue container. Added some water to all and stirred. But used too much sodium lactate so it was a race. It soaked up the water. Plopped it together and tried some swirl. Drop kicked batter into molds. Looked riced. Next day soap came out great—just too much color in lather. Should I confetti this? Will the excess color cause a problem? Suggestions????
 
I made some known to me accelerating FOs together—Ocean Breeze and Plumeria. Double trouble. But it’s a lovely scent. I expected it would a Drop ‘n Plop. But using Tamanu oil was stupid when trying to use blue colors. The oil is a lovely green, but I tried to lighten it with TD. Mistake. Then it took a lot of blue so I hurried to overcome green. Soap started to curdle. Stirred like crazy. Added blue. Color accidentally plopped I way too much in the dark blue container. Added some water to all and stirred. But used too much sodium lactate so it was a race. It soaked up the water. Plopped it together and tried some swirl. Drop kicked batter into molds. Looked riced. Next day soap came out great—just too much color in lather. Should I confetti this? Will the excess color cause a problem? Suggestions????
I think you should open your own thread. This way people can see your problem and better help you with that. They may not see your ask here.
 

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