What are these translucent spots in my CP Soap?

[remynesc]

Hello! I just cut this soap one day ago and I found these translucent spots in every cut. What are they and is the soap safe to use?

• This was a basic Olive/Palm/Coconut Recipe.
• The soap was out of the mold in <24 hours, and took some effort to cut through.
• I had poured the fragrance oil at emulsion, and it immediately accelerated and riced a little, so I just kept blending until it was a thick trace. Might not have gotten all the ricey bits though?
• I zap-tested the spots but didn't feel anything. The spots don't ooze either. I can dig them out with my nail and they're solid chunks that feel like the other parts of the soap.

If you know what this is, what can I do to prevent it next time? Would you say that this soap is still safe to use?
Is there anything else you'd like to suggest to me based on the picture?
Thanks!

 

[Tara_H]

I haven't a lot of experience with ricing, only tiny amounts from fragrance testing, but to me, yes those look like riced lumps that didn't get blended in.

 

[ResolvableOwl]

Welcome to SMF, @remynesc !

you've already anticipated all the suggestions that would have followed (recipe/protocol, leaking & clarity, zap test, and most importantly: pics. SMF loves pics!). If the spots are not zappy, and only translucent (not water-clear), I second @Tara_H that it's probably just the bits of soap batter, that you didn't atomise with the second round of stick blending. From this perspective, the soap is safe to use. Kind of an accidental confetti design, lol.

Probably, these lumps of batter went through gel phase undisturbed from late SBing, and now they look like rice grains (guess where the term “ricing” comes from ). Gelled and ungelled soap looks very different just after unmoulding, but much of the contrast is healing over the weeks of cure, so all is not lost yet!
Difficult to judge from the photo, but it might be that you blended in some air with your emergency SBing. If this is the case, then the rice grains won't disappear – you still have the opportunity to call them a “design feature”.

Not a ricing expert either, I only have second-hand recommendations for you: Don't add FOs pure, but dilute them ahead of time with at least their own weight of castor oil or batch oils (said to help with scent retention too). Be sure that you're really at stable emulsion (or even light trace) when you add the FOs. Try to keep temperatures as low as possible (without risking false trace) – stearic spots are not so much an issue when you CPOP. Search the forum for advice how to tame accelerating FOs, it's a true evergreen issue!
And, slightly unrelated, if you find your soap hard to cut 24 hours after unmoulding, just do it a bit earlier. You don't have to complicate things!


Beautiful swirl, btw!

 

[remynesc]

I haven't a lot of experience with ricing, only tiny amounts from fragrance testing, but to me, yes those look like riced lumps that didn't get blended in.

Thank you @Tara_H! That was what I was the confirmation I was hoping for

Welcome to SMF, @remynesc !

you've already anticipated all the suggestions that would have followed (recipe/protocol, leaking & clarity, zap test, and most importantly: pics. SMF loves pics!). If the spots are not zappy, and only translucent (not water-clear), I second @Tara_H that it's probably just the bits of soap batter, that you didn't atomise with the second round of stick blending. From this perspective, the soap is safe to use. Kind of an accidental confetti design, lol.

Probably, these lumps of batter went through gel phase undisturbed from late SBing, and now they look like rice grains (guess where the term “ricing” comes from ). Gelled and ungelled soap looks very different just after unmoulding, but much of the contrast is healing over the weeks of cure, so all is not lost yet!
Difficult to judge from the photo, but it might be that you blended in some air with your emergency SBing. If this is the case, then the rice grains won't disappear – you still have the opportunity to call them a “design feature”.

Not a ricing expert either, I only have second-hand recommendations for you: Don't add FOs pure, but dilute them ahead of time with at least their own weight of castor oil or batch oils (said to help with scent retention too). Be sure that you're really at stable emulsion (or even light trace) when you add the FOs. Try to keep temperatures as low as possible (without risking false trace) – stearic spots are not so much an issue when you CPOP. Search the forum for advice how to tame accelerating FOs, it's a true evergreen issue!
And, slightly unrelated, if you find your soap hard to cut 24 hours after unmoulding, just do it a bit earlier. You don't have to complicate things!


Beautiful swirl, btw!

Thank you so much and for the recommendations! I definitely got a bunch of air in with my second-time, panic-induced SBing, haha. I never thought to mix FOs with the oils before but that is something I'd definitely want to try next time! I've been mixing the FO with Kaolin clay so that probably doesn't help with the trace

 

[Zing]

You still have great looking soap! Great swirl action going on there.

 

[remynesc]

You still have great looking soap! Great swirl action going on there.

Haha, thank you! At least that came out pretty decent