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TBandCW

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I've made this soap many times and this is a first! White bumps that go throughout the soap. On the surface you can wipe it off and it is dry. I'm thinking it might be the lye.

IMG_1276.jpg
 
Have you tried doing a pH test on the soap? pH strips are not the most accurate, but they will give you an idea if the white specks are lye.
 
I don't use any TD for this recipe. I'll pick up some ph test strips tomorrow. This soap is 10 weeks old. Will it still zap? The only other thing that's white in this recipe is the gm, but I don't see it going dry like that. I use fresh/frozen gm.
Thanks all for the input! Much appreciated.
 
I don't use any TD for this recipe. I'll pick up some ph test strips tomorrow. This soap is 10 weeks old. Will it still zap? The only other thing that's white in this recipe is the gm, but I don't see it going dry like that. I use fresh/frozen gm.
Thanks all for the input! Much appreciated.

If that is lye (which I sincerely doubt), it will zap.

I will second Craig's request for the full recipe in weights to avoid shooting in the dark for troubleshooting.
 
For sure a full recipe in weights along with any additives will help estimate what these might be along with any other info on the procedure such as if the soap passed the gel phase or if you mold it at very light trace.

Just for your own information there are occasionally various whitish areas / spots on a soap surface and these might be:

  1. Powder additives that might not got mixed well (such as TD)
  2. NaOH that didn't got the change to react with triglycerides and was converted to sodium carbonate after its reaction with carbon dioxide in our atmosphere, also known as soda ash | --> read more here
  3. Crystallization of some salts of fatty acids |--> read more here.

These all I know for such phenomenons, and yours might be one or a mix of them.
 
I'm curious, how did you determine that? Zap? Some of those white spots are big - big enough that I think you would have noticed that undissolved lye in the water.
 
I've had lye come out of solution when mixed with only ice cubes made of milk (doesn't really matter what kind of milk) and then kept in an ice bath. Even when I was using SoapCalc's default 'full water' with a very low lye concentration, this has happened. What I discovered is that soaping too cold with milks is sort of dangerous in that respect. I got some really big lye chunks once as a result and the zap test confirmed it big time! I don't bother with pH strips; zap testing works perfectly.

Now I work with master-batched lye which is 50:50 lye and water. Depending on the lye concentration I want, I add the additional liquid as needed. Sometimes canned goats milk is the additional liquid. I find that I prefer to SB the canned goats milk into the oils before mixing in the lye solution. This way I don't need an ice bath or frozen goats milk in the lye solution or any of that. It's just easier. And no lye chunks in my soap.

If want to use fresh goats milk you could do the same with fresh goats milk, too.
 
Now I work with master-batched lye which is 50:50 lye and water. Depending on the lye concentration I want, I add the additional liquid as needed. Sometimes canned goats milk is the additional liquid. I find that I prefer to SB the canned goats milk into the oils before mixing in the lye solution. This way I don't need an ice bath or frozen goats milk in the lye solution or any of that. It's just easier. And no lye chunks in my soap.

If want to use fresh goats milk you could do the same with fresh goats milk, too.

In Cold Processed soaps I work mainly with coconut milk and this is the way I do it. It is very easy and no worries about chilling milk or working with cold temps. I work at room temperature, the lye goes with water, the milk in the oils just before I add the lye water and they whole process goes very smoothly.
 

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