WTH is this lol

[whitewitchbeauty]

I took a class on CP Soap Making but it was not so great. I decided to join this forum because I see so many experienced soap crafters sharing info and tips, debates, etc...
I tried my first go at making cp soap. One looks fine but the other has weird white stuff in it ??? I hope it goes away after 4 weeks of curing here it is...


And the second one that seems ok at the time, i accidently put M&p color so it has gold spots lol

 

[snappyllama]

Congratulations on your first CP!

That white stuff looks like ash to me. Zap test it to be sure. Ash is harmless and nothing to worry about. If you don;t like the looks of it, you can:

1. Dip the soap in water and let dry
2. Try spritzing it with rubbing alcohol
3. Plane it off
4. Steam it off (my personal favorite method - seems to make colors deepen on ungelled soap)

 

[Obsidian]

That is called soda ash and it won't go away. Its normal on handmade soaps, if you really hate the look, you can wash it off. Its a harmless cosmetic issue.

 

[IrishLass]

Yep- looks like classic soda ash (sodium carbonate) to me, too. Like the others said, it may aesthetically unsightly, but is harmless.

The cause is incompletely saponified sodium hydroxide being carried to the surface of the soap via water evaporation. It mainly happens when newly-made soap that hasn't quite finished completely saponifying yet is exposed to air too soon. When the sodium hydroxide on the surface of the soap hits the carbon dioxide in the air, a chemical reaction takes place which converts it to harmless sodium carbonate.

Some preventative measures that help cut down it's formation are:

1) If gelling the soap: make sure the soap goes through the gel stage (covered), and then make sure it cools completely back down from gel slowly and gradually on it's own while still covered before you unmold and cut.
2) If not gelling the soap: Keep the soap covered until saponification is complete, which for un-gelled soap, can be long as 72 hours or so after pour.



IrishLass

 

[whitewitchbeauty]

Thanks! I got mad and called my soap loaf a little ash-hole

 

[whitewitchbeauty]

I dipped the ash soap in water and let it dry a bit before i sprayed alcohol on it. Now a few hours later it looks fine! Thanks for the advice!