Weird blue spots in M&P im making from scratch

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Thirteen

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Hey friends,
Been lurking for a while, but never posted. My name is Nick. I've been using store bought melt and pour for a few years now and decided to try my hand at making it. Also done some CP a while back, but wanted to try M&P instead as its suits what i need.

Anyway having some great success made around 15 batches that worked great. Exactly how i wanted. I've been tweaking my recipe along the way. My standard recipe is basically coconut, castor oil. stearic acid, glycerine, sodium hydroxide, propylene glycol, sorbitol, sugar, TD, quite a simple recipe However i started to encounter a really odd problem, the last few batches started to get these odd blue spots forming at random. I thought perhaps my stick mixer was having some issues and perhaps it was reacting in a strange way with the soap maybe some sort of grease or plastic. I adjusted my recipe at one point and added sorbitol and i wanted to cut down on the PG i was using. The soap base has a pH of 8-9 when tested with strips.

I keep going back to thinking its some form of Mold but given the level of pH it shouldn't be this. But it is soft, it doesnt really spread or creep like mold does, but it just sort of appears. I usually make up a 6kg batch and then pour it into "brick" shaped moulds, once they have cooled they are immediately wrapped in cling film tightly to keep them stored and give them some time to rest. The last few batches haven't shown as much of the spots, but they are there.

Absolutely everything is squeaky cleaned before a cook is done, so there is no left over residues. Things are mixed in separate clean containers before mixing.

Any suggestions or ideas on how to fix this issues or what might be causing the problem? Im wondering if its the mixing of certain ingredients (which i doubt as my first batches had no issues) its obviously something has interfered along the way. I am stumped and would really appreciate any help i can get!

Thanks for your help!
 

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Do you use distilled or tap water? The closest I came to blue spots was when I put a salt-heavy sunflower oil soap in contact with copper; I got a cobalt blue liquid that got soaked back into the soap and turned brown with time.
So maybe one of your ingredients is reacting with some stray elements from somewhere 🤷‍♀️
 
Could it be the soap mold you are using?
Definitely considered this, I am using Silicone "brick" style molds. I will give them a triple clean and alco spritz on the next batch just to be sure

Do you use distilled or tap water? The closest I came to blue spots was when I put a salt-heavy sunflower oil soap in contact with copper; I got a cobalt blue liquid that got soaked back into the soap and turned brown with time.
So maybe one of your ingredients is reacting with some stray elements from somewhere 🤷‍♀️
I am using tap water, Sydney tap water is pretty good, the thing also is the water hasn't changed across batches, so my first 15 bricks used the same water as this whole set. That said, im going to create a batch using bottled demin water to also see if that helps.

I will say also, the very last 2 batches i made had notable less blue spots, to the point where a few have none and the others have maybe 1 or 2 pin head sized spots. Effectively not really much has changed, maybe something in the air? The weather has gone really cold here (0c at night - 15c day time)

Everything is leading me to think there is something tainted in the ingredients though.
What ive decided to do today with my recipe, ive drawn up a spread sheet and im going to match batches and have 1 or more ingredients removed from the list. Each batch will only be 250g in size and labelled and then once they sit i can compare and hopefully find the culprit.
 
I am using tap water, Sydney tap water is pretty good, the thing also is the water hasn't changed across batches, so my first 15 bricks used the same water as this whole set. That said, im going to create a batch using bottled demin water to also see if that helps.

I will say also, the very last 2 batches i made had notable less blue spots, to the point where a few have none and the others have maybe 1 or 2 pin head sized spots. Effectively not really much has changed, maybe something in the air? The weather has gone really cold here (0c at night - 15c day time)

Everything is leading me to think there is something tainted in the ingredients though.
What ive decided to do today with my recipe, ive drawn up a spread sheet and im going to match batches and have 1 or more ingredients removed from the list. Each batch will only be 250g in size and labelled and then once they sit i can compare and hopefully find the culprit.
It really might be the tap water. The change of weather might have affected whether water comes more from the boilers or the cold water source. Even if you always use cold water from the tap for soap, if you use warm water otherwise it might drag more metals and minerals into the faucet. Or maybe there’s something that helps avoid cold water freezing?

I know some bottled water is “mineral”, so that also might be problem. I get distilled water from the supermarket, it comes in big containers, I think meant mostly for ironing clothes. Super cheap, great for soap.

You said you wrap up your soaps, and from the picture, the blue spot was in direct contact with the mold? I would find it odd if it’s the air…
 
I soap with Sydney tap water and haven't had any problems at all, you don't need distilled water.I check the weather temps on the news, they have been 9 nightly and 18 during the day lately, so not that cold, unless you are further west. Nightly temps drop to 1 at Katoomba. Our weather here is not that cold we have to worry about water freezing so that's not an issue. We have had a lot of rain up until recently, it could be an issue with mould.
 
It really might be the tap water. The change of weather might have affected whether water comes more from the boilers or the cold water source. Even if you always use cold water from the tap for soap, if you use warm water otherwise it might drag more metals and minerals into the faucet. Or maybe there’s something that helps avoid cold water freezing?

I know some bottled water is “mineral”, so that also might be problem. I get distilled water from the supermarket, it comes in big containers, I think meant mostly for ironing clothes. Super cheap, great for soap.

You said you wrap up your soaps, and from the picture, the blue spot was in direct contact with the mold? I would find it odd if it’s the air…
The blue spots tends to be appearing at all random spots. I don't think it's the molds at all.

I suspect it's either the water, or something tainted in the ingredients.

The bits that's got me completely stumped is heaps of the first batches are completely fine and then they aren't. Nothing dramatically changed either, so makes it really difficult to narrow down.

I soap with Sydney tap water and haven't had any problems at all, you don't need distilled water.I check the weather temps on the news, they have been 9 nightly and 18 during the day lately, so not that cold, unless you are further west. Nightly temps drop to 1 at Katoomba. Our weather here is not that cold we have to worry about water freezing so that's not an issue. We have had a lot of rain up until recently, it could be an issue with mould.
I'm outside of Sydney where temps are dropping lower.

I've done litmus test and starts at 13 pHand after trace its 8 pH. Quite high alkali for mould to live in.

If it is mould what could be done about it?

I made 3 more test batches today and omitted different components from each and marked them on a sheet and 2/3 still are still showing these dark blue spots. the third batch hasnt harden enough yet to check, however its looking promising. The difference is the other 2 have a lower amount of Propelyene Glycol. the 3rd sample has a higher quantity and not showing any.

All the other original 15 bricks that didnt turn either had a high amount of PG in them. Perhaps thats causing it to not turn.
On a really close inspection, the best wat to describe these dots are like tiny little blobs of blue ink. A few specs showed up on the melamine bench and they leave a bright blue stain, which can be easily wiped away, in the soaps which are white from TD it can sort of stain the soap, until u wipe or cut it out.

So puzzling.
 
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