Soap mold center turning grey from a orange color

[Mango5]

I put my recipe in the bramble calculator. I have 7 oz palm oil, 7 oz coconut oil, 1.5 oz castor oil, 4 oz sunflower oil, and 10.5 oz olive oil. I used 4% super fat in calculator. The calculator said to use 4.22 oz lye and 9.90 oz water. Did all that. Kept oil and lye under 130 degrees. Put in orange oil and orange zest at end but did use mixer and it did get thicker quick. Put it in loaf pan mold was beautiful orange. An hour later big crack down middle so used a little alcohol spray closed back together. At the same time it was turning grey in crack area and more turning grey now. Does anyone have an idea why? Never had this do this before. I did cover it with plastic wrap after I put it in my mold. Which now I read about how if it’s to hot it can crack. But turning grey. I use to use 6-8 % super fat and had no problem. Could it be because I used 4% super fat?

 

[DeeAnna]

Have you cut the soap or are you just looking at the soap in the middle of the crack as it saponifies in the mold? If the former, post a photo, please. If the latter, wait until you cut it and then decide whether it's still gray in the middle.

 

[Mango5]

I’m looking at it when it’s still in the mold, haven’t cut it yet. Will try to get a picture posted.

 

[DeeAnna]

Yeah, I wouldn't make any decision about the color until the soap is actually cut. It might be gray ... who knows? ... but I'm betting it's probably not.

If you only used the orange oil as the scent, be aware that it's not likely to stay smelling orange for long. Citrus EOs don't survive saponification very well.

 

[Mango5]

It’s not grey! I made it at my moms house so I hadn’t seen it. I now have and have some pictures. Sorry for the confusion. It just looks a little lighter to me than it was. I guess I have some basic questions now. I have kept my oils and lye under 130 degrees when combining, is that ok or is there a better temperature I should go by? Also, I know usually you take your molds out after 24 hours, but is there circumstances when I should wait longer to take them out? I’ve only used essential oils in my soap, doesn’t the other scents that aren’t essential oils smell fake and perfume? For example the coconut and mango scents?

 

[Lin19687]

Your orange zest will turn color. It will not stay orange
And the crack is from over heating

 

[Susie]

There are no "perfect" temperatures. Anything that is warm enough to keep your solid oils melted and cool enough to keep it from becoming thick trace while in the bowl will work. Most of us don't use thermometers any more. Soap will heat up as it saponifies, so you crack was from overheating from saponification. Not all EOs will work in CP soap, not all FOs smell fake and perfumy. YMMV. We have great review threads on both.

 

[DeeAnna]

It looks like you lined your glass dish with waxed paper, and that's not a good idea. Next time, use plastic food wrap, parchment paper, or freezer paper (shiny side toward the soap). But not waxed paper.

Waxed paper isn't heavy-duty enough to let you peel it off the soap easily. It might work fine for a time or two, but eventually you will be faced with picking off bits of waxed paper that want to firmly stick to to the soap. It can be a real mess.