why did my soap turn out this way?

[beckylinley]

Hi there,
I just made a batch of soap with my normal recipe and used my new silicone loaf molds from brambleberry. I added dried lavender and alkanet root powder swirled in. The soap (especially the edges and corners) turned out weirdly chalky and inconsistent. Any ideas why this happened? The center of the loaf turned out normal. In the photo the bar on the left was from the middle of the mold and I trimmed the top off.
I did everything the same as usual except for two things:
1. The molds are pretty new.
2. I covered the molds with plastic wrap overnight, because I read somewhere that this was okay and would prevent the white dust on top...

Would the plastic wrap do this? Any other ideas? Is the soap okay to use?

Thank you for any suggestions!

Becky

 

[jenneelk]

Not seen this except with salt bars.. so...

 

[fuzz-juzz]

Partial gel? That didn't reach to the edges and corners?
I get partial gel in individual molds and egdes always crumble of or smoosh if I try to unmold them too early.
Did you try to do the zap test just to be on a safe side?

 

[Derpina Bubbles]

Wow, that's a lot of chalkiness. I haven't seen that before. I can't imagine it being your new mould or the cling wrap doing that. I use wrap all the time. Any chance your scales are out? That's the only thing I can think of. Thinking doesn't suit me. If it was me I'd check my scales though if everything else was the same and it had all worked before.

 

[EvilTOJ]

I've had that happen before once. The chalky parts are like the middle of Whopper candies, right? I'm not sure what I did to make that happen, but I'm guessing my lye ratio was off on that recipe. When I was mixing it up, it started to seize, but I'd also had the ingredients at a low-ish temperature, I think it was around 80ºF.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

Just to clarify - do you always add the lavender and alkanet root, so the only new thing was the mould? Or where there more deviations from what normally works? And what is the recipe you used, including lye and water?

 

[shunt2011]

Is it lye heavy and causing it to be brittle? I use the brambleberry 5lb silicone molds and always cover my soaps and have never had anyting like that happen. Really strange.

 

[clhigh29]

I think it might be your measurements were off. I had this happen to me for the first time on Friday night. I was making BB's sunshine soap (which I LOVE). When I unmolded the next day, I noticed the yellow color was quite milky was brittle when I cut it. It started to cut well around the center of the loaf and wasn't brittle anymore and cut fine. The only thing different that I did was use a 100% lye product instead of BB's. I was totally unconvinced that my measurement would be off and tried it again on Sunday, paying very close attention and double-checking. This batch produced more soap, so now I know I was wrong on Friday night. I just don't know what to do with all this unusable soap. Anyone have any suggestions?

 

[coffeetime]

Grate it for laundry?

 

[clhigh29]

Laundry soap was the only thing I could come up with as well. Thanks. Hopefully, beckylinley doesn't meet my fate. Good Luck!

 

[Candybee]

Something similar happened to me the first time I used my silicone mold from ED. Unmolding the edges stuck inside the mold so the soap corners were gone. It was also a bit chalky. I checked over my recipe and realised I used too much clay and I also used full water which is not normal for me. It needed to sit in the mold another day or two to firm up.

So now when I use my silicone mold I do a water discount and watch my additives.

 

[beckylinley]

Thanks for all the suggestions, everyone.
The recipe I used was:

Olive oil - 58 oz
Coconut oil - 37.8 oz
Palm oil - 27.75 oz
Shea butter - 2.52 oz
Water - 41.58 oz
Lye - 18.08 oz

I put it in 4 brambleberry silicone loaf molds. I've used this recipe a bunch of times and it's great. I use different fragrances and natural colorants and have never had this issue. I think I waited ~48 hrs before unmolding. Maybe I messed up the amounts when I was measuring them out...

 

[beckylinley]

Just to clarify - do you always add the lavender and alkanet root, so the only new thing was the mould? Or where there more deviations from what normally works? And what is the recipe you used, including lye and water?

The recipe I used was:

Olive oil - 58 oz
Coconut oil - 37.8 oz
Palm oil - 27.75 oz
Shea butter - 2.52 oz
Water - 41.58 oz
Lye - 18.08 oz

I put it in 4 brambleberry silicone loaf molds. I've used this recipe a bunch of times and it's great. I use different fragrances and natural colorants and have never had this issue. I think I waited ~48 hrs before unmolding. Maybe I messed up the amounts when I was measuring them out...

 

[maya]

Did you blend in everything really well? I've seen that happen when the bottom of the pot is scraped out into a mold or it isn't stirred well enough.