Why is the top of my soap wrinkly?

[peterswoj]

So, Im very new to this. The first 3 batches of soap i made came out perfect. They were nothing fancy, no colorants just EOs. I made a few more batches after that and I really crapped the bed with those. I know what happened with those. I was just to tired after working a few night shifts but still determined to make soap. Dumb idea. Anyway, this last loaf I made I made sure to follow the recipe to the T. It came to trace extremely fast before I added FO, then when cured it was all wrinkly on top. After 24 hours I cut the soap and it has been curing about a week. It feels nice, looks nice, and smells nice, I was just wondering why it traced so fast and wrinkled on top?
TIA
Pete
Rescipe: 30% Palm
35% Olive Oil
30% coconut oil
5% castor oil
.68 oz FO
water 38%
LYe concentration 27.454%
everything was just above room temp when mixed. Stick blender a couple 10 second bursts. when I realized it was coming to trace quickly I blended in the FO and poured.

 

[Obsidian]

That is what we call alien brains. Its when the soap gels and forms a skin on the surface.
I think its such a cool look but it can't be duplicated with any predictability.

Its perfectly harmless, just a cosmetic issue.

 

[earlene]

Why it traced fast? When you say above room temperature, about what would that be? Higher heat is reached in soap when more water is used, as was done in your recipe, but also other factors contribute, including temperature. Oil choices and percentages contribute to higher heat. Coconut oil is a fast heater. Was the Olive oil plain or pomace? Pomace olive oil speeds trace. So does Castor, but at only 5% it doesn't usually contribute a lot of speed, except when used in conjuction with other fast moving oils, so it adds to the percentage for the overall recipe. So, your recipe has 35% faster moving oils if your Olive oil was a non-pomace OO. But if it was pomace, then you had 70% fast moving oils. See what I mean?

Also, what FO did you use (name and vendor/manufacturer? Some fragrances speed trace, so that is another factor in a slow or fast moving soap recipe.

As far as alien brains, those aren't all that bad. I've seen more pronounced, so it didn't overheat too badly. The plus side, it surely fully gelled, so you don't have a partial gel ring in your cut soap. And as Obsidian says, it is purely cosmetic; it does not affect the soaps performance in any way. If you don't like the look of it, you can plane the top smooth. Or leave as is and consider it a 'feature'.

ETA: If you find that you love this soap and want to make it again, you can decrease over-heating in a number of ways. One effective way is to set the mold to cool on top of a baking cooling rack. The extra air flow under the mold helps the soap cool faster.

Another way is to alter your lye concentation something more along the lines of 33%. Another is to make sure you don't use a fragrance that contributes to over heating if that was part of the problem.

 

[SPowers]

I made a soap recently that behaved just fine but when I sprayed it with alcohol, the top went all crinkly. This is the first time that's every happened and I use alcohol on the top of most of my soaps without any issue.

 

[peterswoj]

Why it traced fast? When you say above room temperature, about what would that be? Higher heat is reached in soap when more water is used, as was done in your recipe, but also other factors contribute, including temperature. Oil choices and percentages contribute to higher heat. Coconut oil is a fast heater. Was the Olive oil plain or pomace? Pomace olive oil speeds trace. So does Castor, but at only 5% it doesn't usually contribute a lot of speed, except when used in conjuction with other fast moving oils, so it adds to the percentage for the overall recipe. So, your recipe has 35% faster moving oils if your Olive oil was a non-pomace OO. But if it was pomace, then you had 70% fast moving oils. See what I mean?

Also, what FO did you use (name and vendor/manufacturer? Some fragrances speed trace, so that is another factor in a slow or fast moving soap recipe.

As far as alien brains, those aren't all that bad. I've seen more pronounced, so it didn't overheat too badly. The plus side, it surely fully gelled, so you don't have a partial gel ring in your cut soap. And as Obsidian says, it is purely cosmetic; it does not affect the soaps performance in any way. If you don't like the look of it, you can plane the top smooth. Or leave as is and consider it a 'feature'.

ETA: If you find that you love this soap and want to make it again, you can decrease over-heating in a number of ways. One effective way is to set the mold to cool on top of a baking cooling rack. The extra air flow under the mold helps the soap cool faster.

Another way is to alter your lye concentation something more along the lines of 33%. Another is to make sure you don't use a fragrance that contributes to over heating if that was part of the problem.

The FO was patchouli and sandalwood fro NG. Also, I wrapped the the loaf in towels for 24 hours. I don’t mind the look so much as just knowing why and what to do in the future if I did do something wrong. When do you know wether you should wrap it or not? That probably just comes with experience.

 

[earlene]

The FO was patchouli and sandalwood fro NG. Also, I wrapped the the loaf in towels for 24 hours. I don’t mind the look so much as just knowing why and what to do in the future if I did do something wrong. When do you know wether you should wrap it or not? That probably just comes with experience.

Experience, sure, but there are some general guidelines you can follow. For example, if you soap with ingredients that accelerate or cause excessive heating, don't insulate. (Honey, Alcohol, Milks & other ingredients high in sugars, some fragrances) Any soap you want o avoid gel, don't insulate. If you soaped hot and it's hot in your house, don't insulate.

 

[ameliashawn]

The top of the soap loaf has a weird wrinkly look: (“Alien Brains”) Reason: This means the soap has overheated at some point. It's just a cosmetic issue & the cured bars will be perfectly fine to use.