Troubleshooting needed

[dillsandwitch]

Okay so its been a while (several months) since I've had a chance to make soap. I got a spare 2 hours to myself today and decided to make some loaves. I made 4 loaves with fragrances that I have used in the past and all behaved.

The trouble I'm having is in the loaves I made today I can see tiny brown spots all throughout the loaf. I haven't had this issue before so I'm wondering what caused it.

Recipe:
60% Tallow, 25% RBO, 10% CO, 5% Castor. 2% SF
Additives: SL, Salt, Sugar, Cow milk powder.

I did soap a little hotter than I usually do as I was limited with time and didn't let my oils cool down as much as I usually do. But they weren't so hit that I couldn't comfortably stick my finger in them and not get burned. I used my master-batched lye and ice cubes for the water so there was a pretty big temp difference between lye and oils.

I usually just had stir in the FO but today as I was only going for single coloured soaps I added colours to the batter and then FO and stick blended the crap out of it till it was at a mediumish trace. Again I usually only go to a very thin trace before separating out and colouring.

Any suggestions on what caused this would be great. I'll try to get a pick up in a couple hours once I take them out of the oven. I also got partial gel so I jammed them in the oven at 75 deg Celsius to try to force complete get.

TIA
Dill

 

[Obsidian]

Did you hydrate your powder milk with water? I tried using it dry once, it didn't dissolve and the bits burned/turned brown.

 

[dillsandwitch]

nope I just dumped it in the oils with my clay and stick blended it before adding the lye. You could be onto something here. My thinking is that because I just dumped it in maybe it didn't get as incorporated as I thought it had and then with the heating and partial get it has maybe scorched some and thats the little brown dots?

 

[Obsidian]

Yep, thats what I think happened. I have some salt bars with little brown scorched bits, its been fine to use. I recommend you always mix your dry milks with water in the future.

 

[dillsandwitch]

Just goes to show being impatient never gets you anywhere with soap. Oh well lesson learned. Thanks for the help Obsidian

 

[Susie]

While this was solved super fast by Obsidian, usually it is better to write the recipe in weights when asking for troubleshooting help. It saves everyone from trying to guess if this amount or that amount was correct.

 

[dillsandwitch]

I know its better for weights than %. I mainly put it there for reference as I've made that particular oil combo many many times and never had issues. I knew it HAD to be something in my method or additives which is why I added it the way I did. Being impatient and trying to cut corners to save time never works out. Like I said lesson learned.