I made two batches of cold process soap one day a month ago in loaf molds, cut them and left to cure covered under a light cotton towel. Uncovered them yesterday, and one batch looked fine, the other had white powdery eruptions on the cut sides of the bars. The tops, sides and bottoms of the bars look fine. The only difference in the batches was the colorant and essential oils. I'm convinced the white powder is soda ash - it tastes bitter, not like lye, and dissolves in water quickly. I wish I had taken pictures before I scraped and washed all the ash off! I had this happen once several years ago with a couple of soaps that I CPOPed and thought the oven temperature was too hot. Now I'm wondering if this batch got too hot even though I didn't CPOP it.
What are your thoughts? Here's the recipe. The salt and citric acid were thoroughly dissolved in the water before adding lye, and then the lye was thoroughly dissolved. The soaping temperature was lye 102 F / oils 110 F , which are pretty typical temperatures for my batches. The loaf was gelled by wrapping a few towels around it, and the bars were cut a day later. The ingredients are ones I use all the time, except the vetiver which was hidden in the back of my essential oil cabinet and hasn't been used for a couple of years.
What are your thoughts? Here's the recipe. The salt and citric acid were thoroughly dissolved in the water before adding lye, and then the lye was thoroughly dissolved. The soaping temperature was lye 102 F / oils 110 F , which are pretty typical temperatures for my batches. The loaf was gelled by wrapping a few towels around it, and the bars were cut a day later. The ingredients are ones I use all the time, except the vetiver which was hidden in the back of my essential oil cabinet and hasn't been used for a couple of years.
NaOH lye | 150 g |
water | 209 g |
salt | 7 g |
citric acid | 21 g |
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olive oil | 526 g |
coconut oil | 177 g |
shea butter | 296 g |
castor oil | 52 g |
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lemongrass EO | 14 g |
vetiver EO | 14 g |
patchouli EO | 14 g |
cocoa powder | 2 tsp |