White Grainy texture to finished soap

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Hello Austria this is Toni from Sussex in England. Thank you for your help with my question.

My recipe is:

Lye 162g
Water 370g
Cocoa Butter 150g
Coconut Oil (92 degrees) 442g
Extra Virgin Olive Oil 380g
Shea Butter (refined) 150g
Aloe Gel from my plant 66g
Colours: UM Green, Ch Oxide Green, Titanium Oxide,
EO: Patchouli 3g, Lavender 3g, Rosemary 3g Sweet Orange (5 fold)

Soaping Temperature approximately 120 degrees F

I look forward to hearing from you
With best wishes
Toni
 
Have you only had this recently? Any of the butters (I'm looking at you, shea butter!) new for you? That one can be quite grainy in lipbalms etc, so it might be something.

Does it look grainy, if that makes sense? If so, can you post a picture?
 
I have had this problem before, and to help you I will ask Hubby when he gets home to help me post a picture.

With best wishes
Toni
 
Did you mix your titanium dioxide in oil or water, (depending on the type you have-oil dispersible or water dispersible), before adding it to the soap?
 
Photos uploaded as promised.
Have you only had this recently? Any of the butters (I'm looking at you, shea butter!) new for you? That one can be quite grainy in lipbalms etc, so it might be something.

Does it look grainy, if that makes sense? If so, can you post a picture?
I have posted the photos now and think it may too be the Shea Butter, as it appears in the part of the soap that is without colouring.
Hmm, I'm going with the Titanium Dioxide. Did you crush it first? (Some say coffee grinder, but have found regular mortar and pestle work best for me.)

Photos posted. The titanium dioxide comes in a very fine powder, but do you think I still need to crush it further?
Did you mix your titanium dioxide in oil or water, (depending on the type you have-oil dispersible or water dispersible), before adding it to the soap?

Photos posted. I mix my titanium dioxide with water, as the Soap Kitchen who supplies it says it suspends in water. Do you think there may be a better way to do it?

1.jpg


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3.jpg
 
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If this were my soap, I'd say the spots are stearic spots that can form naturally when soap cools slowly from a liquidy state. Two things that seem to minimize the problem for me --

I make sure my fats are just hot enough so the solid fats are fully melted and clear before adding the lye. Maybe this one is a bit of wishful thinking, but my impression is that this helps a bit to minimize these spots. I soap with a high % of solid fats, so just adding hot lye is not enough to fully melt my solid fats.

I also don't use the default "38% water as % of fats" as you appear to be doing. Instead, I set the calculator to "lye concentration" rather than "water as % of fats" and I use 30% to 33% lye concentration. By using to a higher lye concentration than the default settings, my soap does not gel as easily, even if it gets very warm. If the soap doesn't doesn't go into gel, the soap is less able to form different layers and spots of different kinds of soap molecules as it cools. I'd say this is the best solution for reducing these spots.
 
^^^^I agree 100% with everything DeeAnna said. I often get stearic spots but soaping at about 105 degrees has really helped reduce them. When I use an accelerating FO (floral, water, etc) it'll happen almost every time.
 
If this were my soap, I'd say the spots are stearic spots that can form naturally when soap cools slowly from a liquidy state. Two things that seem to minimize the problem for me --

I make sure my fats are just hot enough so the solid fats are fully melted and clear before adding the lye. Maybe this one is a bit of wishful thinking, but my impression is that this helps a bit to minimize these spots. I soap with a high % of solid fats, so just adding hot lye is not enough to fully melt my solid fats.

I also don't use the default "38% water as % of fats" as you appear to be doing. Instead, I set the calculator to "lye concentration" rather than "water as % of fats" and I use 30% to 33% lye concentration. By using to a higher lye concentration than the default settings, my soap does not gel as easily, even if it gets very warm. If the soap doesn't doesn't go into gel, the soap is less able to form different layers and spots of different kinds of soap molecules as it cools. I'd say this is the best solution for reducing these spots.

Thanks DeeAnna - I am certainly going to give your suggestions a try.
With best wishes
Toni
 
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