spotty soap

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likowa

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hello to all and would like to thank everyone for creating this forum! this is my first post so here it goes:
i made this soap recently, but i might have over done it a bit, as i added:
beeswax (2%)
honey (1,5tbsp -yep i now, way too much) which i mixed with titanium dioxide (4 tsp) and yogurt with some oil and added to the oil (1kg) before adding the lye ,
the result: a bar that is very spotty, has light small spots, but also white streaks which i assume are there because of the titanium.

so does anyone know what could have caused the light small spots? is it the honey? combination of the additives?

also what can i do to better dissolve the titanium. should i blend it in a a coffee grinder first? dissolve it in water?

one photo was taken about 20h after pouring into a pipe, when i cut it (the outside which didnt go through gel phase, so its a lighter colour), the spots were starting to form.
other was taken a few days later.

thank you, Anna
 

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I would think the speckles are honey. You need to thin honey with water first, same goes for TD. Anything powder or thick should always be thinned down and mixed until smooth.

I prefe to blend additives into the oils before the lye. That way you can make sure to get them really well mixed.

It's also possible the specks are beeswax. I would dig out a bigger one and check if it's hard or soft. Soft would be honey, hard would be wax.
 
ok great, thanks,
i mixed the honey and TD with the yogurt and then some oil and then stick blended it with the rest. but i just realised i was supposed to add 1 tsp not tbsp to 1 pound of soap, so maybe thats the problem?

i cant dig it out, its just discoloured soap. so probably honey?

ps. and just used it first time, and i must say its very smooth and pleasent to use;) will try the recipe again with less honey and blend it in water first.

thank you
 
We generally think of additives in terms of per pound oils (PPO) vs per pound of soap. I've used 1 TBSP PPO, but I think your 1 TBSP per pound of soap is closer to 1.33 TBSP. A little much, but not disastrous, I think.

I add my honey to my oils, and then I stick blend as pour the lye water into the oils.

Regarding the titanium dioxide (TD), some kinds are water soluble, and some oil soluble, and some both. Check where you got it, or just experiment.
 
i used 1,5 tbsp of honey per 1 kg of oil.so actually its 0,7 tbsp per 1 pound of oil. so must have not been mixed enouth. ok, will try again. thanks!
 
The streaks look to me like your cutter hit a little lump of titanium dioxide and dragged it down the face of the bar. I bet a wet finger would wipe them away. If so, then the TD wasn't Incorporated well enough.
 
I was going to say, that the white streaks look like undisolved titanium dioxide. Artemis makes a good point about the cutter dragging out the TD.
 
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