What causes this white crumbly stuff?

[MsBien]

Do you know what causes this, and even more importantly what can prevent this from happening? I have had several batches ruined in the past 3-4 months with this, and I don't know what I'm doing wrong.




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The corners and bottom are mostly affected, but sometimes it goes throughout the log. It is a crumbly, white-ish mass. Not zappy. These batches also get excessive ash, or maybe the same substance, on the top.

The stuff in the interior looks feathery - like crystals.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Stacie

 

[cwarren]

I think they will want recipe and temps ...

 

[xraygrl]

I was thinking excessive ash, but if it's in the middle of the bar I dunno. What kind of water are you using? Rain, Tap, filtered, unfiltered, distilled?

I was once upon a time using tap water, but our (filtered) craptastic city water seemed to do strange things to my soap so I went back to Di water.

has anything changed like recipe, supplier etc?

 

[MsBien]

Could this be temps? The recipe is the same that I have been using on hundreds of batches, so I'm not convinced it could be related to that. It's just OO, PO, CO, Shea & Castor - nothing too fancy or complicated.

I'm using distilled water, and using the same supplier. Plus, last week I made 13 batches and it didn't show up. Now, it rears it's ugly head again!

 

[lovetosoap]

It may be high stearic acid in the oils. I get that when I use cocoa butter or shea butter along with palm oil

 

[MsBien]

It may be high stearic acid in the oils. I get that when I use cocoa butter or shea butter along with palm oil

Hmmm...

Here are the %, does this sound too high?

OO - 31%
PO - 29%
CO - 28%
Shea - 7%
Castor - 5%

 

[Soaplady22]

Hmmm .... I was going to sugest your FO. Now I'm not sure -

 

[honor435]

the recipe looks good, kinda what I do, what kind of fo, what supplier?

 

[MsBien]

the recipe looks good, kinda what I do, what kind of fo, what supplier?

I am using EOs. One batch that has been victim 3 or 4 times is a lemongrass & litsea batch. This one was Frankincense & Myrrh, and yet another batch this happened to was unscented. So???? I bought these EOs from MMS and WSP.

Keep your ideas coming, please. I am desperate to find a solution to this mess.

Thanks,
Stacie

 

[honor435]

maybe they are getting too hot? do you wrap your mold with towels? what temps are you soaping at?

 

[mariflo]

I got the same thing twice so far, once with a powdered cream soap (it was an experiment with cofee creamer 1 tbs ppo :roll: ) and second time with a cocoa swirl ... never happened second time with the cocoa so ... have no idea. I blame it on the gremlins

 

[LadyM]

I'm so glad you asked this question, I have this problem every so often as well and it's so maddening!!
I recently experimented with soaping on the very high end of my suggested temperature limit, and then used the stick blender a longer time to get it thicker than usual.
It came out better than ever and no stinkin' crumbly/white!!

I'd suggest experimenting with your temperatures maybe.
But I hope someone really knows what the deal is with this!!

 

[dubnica]

I had that happening too and I have no clue why. Gremlins it is......

 

[MsBien]

I hate to even say this, but I have been really lazy lately and not measuring the temperature. I just touch the side of the container and gauge it by how long it has been. I wonder if that's it...

I hate to blame it on the Gremlins because if I can figure out what it is, I WILL PREVAIL AGAINST THEM!

Stacie

 

[ToniD]

I don't know either, but have had it happen to me. I have wondered if it might have had anything to do with impurities in my lye. I only wonder that cuz I had it happen like 5 times, in bunches of 2 or 3. Upon thinking about it, the thing that may have changed is the lye. But not having thought about it at the time, I did not take note if the affected batches came out of the same container. So it might be an entirely inaccurate guess. No evidence for or against at this point, just something I will make note of next time it happens.

 

[Sunny]

I hate to even say this, but I have been really lazy lately and not measuring the temperature. I just touch the side of the container and gauge it by how long it has been. I wonder if that's it...

I hate to blame it on the Gremlins because if I can figure out what it is, I WILL PREVAIL AGAINST THEM!

Stacie

I don't know about temperature? I soap everywhere from room temp to very hot and have never had this happen to me before. I honestly don't pay that much attention to temp either.

 

[tespring]

I noticed something like this too and it seems to coincide with me getting to the bottom of the lye can and when my lye started coagulating in my can. Could it be the impurities in the lye that we are using? Are you all buying it from the same supplier as I am?

I got mine from Essential Depot.

 

[MsBien]

I noticed something like this too and it seems to coincide with me getting to the bottom of the lye can and when my lye started coagulating in my can. Could it be the impurities in the lye that we are using? Are you all buying it from the same supplier as I am?

I got mine from Essential Depot.

That's where I get mine too, hmmmm. Anybody know if that's possible?

 

[Bubbly Buddha]

I was wondering about the lye, too. Could that be it?

 

[glenolam]

Just chiming in...I use essential depot as well (the 2lb containers) and up until these past few batches I rarely had an ash problem.

I've used up 3 of the 5 bottles, the 4th bottle that I'm on has only been opened 2 times and the 2nd batch made from this bottle is covered with ash....

I wonder if their lye looses its shelf life sooner than expected?