What are these white spots?

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Fiona Robertson

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I've just cut this activated charcoal soap made with soy wax. I know its not going to win any beauty contests but can someone tell me what the white spots are top right and bottom middle/left? They are appearing in all the bars. The batter thickened up really quickly probably because I used a 37% lye concentration. I didn't get time to stick blend so I'm really hoping these aren't lye spots if the lye didn't have time to fully interact with the oils. I've rubbed water over the spots and zap tested and nothing happened. I poured the soap at 120f and CPOP'ed.
Could they be stearic spots even though my batter temp was relatively high?

upload_2019-10-23_13-32-56.jpeg
 
I’ve occasionally had something similar in soaps that have high palm, but mine have been bigger :eek:. They’re not lye heavy and not crystalline like stearic. It seems more like a glob of base oil that came together into an amorphous mass. And it only happens when my batter moves fast and I can’t stick blend. Will add some pics tonight.

Nice soap!
 
If your lye solution is properly made -- meaning the NaOH is completely dissolved -- then there simply can't be "lye spots." The white bits are either fats that solidified or lumps of soap that formed before your colorant was fully incorporated. It's hard to say which, but what I can say is the spots aren't lye.

I wouldn't assume your batter got thick just because of the lye concentration. You also soaped pretty warm and that could easily cause this problem too.
 

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