A picture of ricing, volcanos, separating, overheating

[soaperwoman]

Don't ask. I have no idea?

 

[SunRiseArts]

So ... what was your recipe, and what did you use? Is it coffee soap?

 

[Kittish]

Looking at the sides of the cavities shown, it looks like the soap puffed up then settled?

Seconding SRA's questions, please share what you were trying for?

 

[DunbarDesigned]

Just what I needed...

Yikes! I'm not looking forward to this happening while I'm getting my barrings straight. I appreciate the photos especially since I though I noticed separating (maybe even ricing) when I poured my VERY first test batch this past weekend. I was looking for examples to understand what went wrong. Thank you!!!

 

[Happy2018]

Hi this is my first post here, and reading to catch up on all newbie stuff, with stickies, and definitions.
Does anyone know why these things happen?
Edited to say:
As this post went through, I apologize, I didn't realize there were 7 pages of info, before I posted, I will back and read those pages.

 

[SunRiseArts]

Many things can make these things happen, but a major culprit if the fragrance IMO. Is always good to read reviews to check on people's experience of the fragrance causes ricing or discoloration.

Another thing is soap temperatures. There is a lot of information out there on these things.

 

[msunnerstood]

Re: Ricing: Speaking only for myself, if I see my batter beginning to rice, I beat it into submission with my stick blender, which (so far) has always worked well for me.

Re: Volcanoes: Thankfully, this has never happened to me in all the years I've been soaping, but if it did, I think I'd try to scoop up the volcano-ing mess into a pot and stir it into submission, maybe adding a little water and possibly applying low heat if needed in order to keep it fluid enough to re-pour.

Re: Separating in the mold: I've never had this happen either (so far), but if it did, I think I'd either try stick blending right in the mold or else just dump it out into a pot and stick blend it into submission that way.

Re: Cracking from overheating: If I catch it in the act, I remove my mold to a cooler place and smooth the crack over with a wet (gloved) finger and then babysit it until it cools back down from gel, which has worked well for me in my 100% CO soaps, which are notorious for cracking on me. If I don't catch it in the act, then I either just plane the crack off or try to repair it by rubbing over it with the back of my fingernail. By the way- I found a good trick to prevent cracks from forming in my 100% CO soaps- by placing bubble wrap on top of my soap batter in the mold. Works every time (so far).

Re: Soap-on-a-stick: Emergency HP on the spot....or else I grate it up and use it as confetti decorations in other batches.


IrishLass

I love using bubble wrap on top of my soap. I use it for anything that has honey because it resembles honey comb. At the moment though, I have a loaf cooling with the back side of silicon heart molds on top. Im glad to see someone else that does this because the ubby and the kids have been looking at me funny when I do it.

 

[cmzaha]

Thankfully not all these have happened to me. Well, everything but the volcanos have, unfortunately. I found a picture of ricing while I was browsing and thought new people might like to see it. Then I found pics of some other problems we encounter. I do better with visuals so I thought it might be helpful. It's hard to find a single picture that tells the whole soap on a stick story. That one would be best depicted in a video, I think.

Pictures of trace can be helpful too.

First is a picture of light trace. It can be detected before this but is difficult to photograph.

Second is what I would consider about a moderate trace. Kind of pudding-ish, mounds a bit, very workable, can swirl nicely with less risk of colors getting muddy.

Third is pretty heavy trace. This won't pour very well or at all and you'd most likely have to spoon it into the mold. Not completely set but getting there.

The last is a picture of a soap in gel stage. The middle is gelling but it hasn't reached the corners yet.

Different looks of stearic in soap. Spots, rivers, crackle.

Lye pockets in finished soap

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Where are the lye pockets. All I see is overheating and beginning of volcano in the last 2 or 3 pictures. I do see the alligator teeth in the bottom pic. I have had it happen with fo's that overheat, but the pockets have never been lye pockets, just the beginning of alligator teeth. If the pockets are big enough they can leak oil. A heater fragrance mixed with a gm soap can be a recipe for volcano, or alligator toothies. If I was not to lazy I would walk downstairs and pull a couple of old soaps that have the center that overheated and contain a few small pockets. They were Honeysuckle gm soaps.

 

[gemma]

thank you from a beginner. I had problems with soap ash with my CP soap but not with my HP soap. I am the master of volcanos!!! Problem is so busy trying to clean and calm it that there is no time for photos
Really useful information

 

[Veggiebin]

I was going to say that I generally don’t take photos either, as I’m generally in panic mode and just wanting to get it cleaned up.

But, I thought I’d cross post the pics of my cider soap that had a weird pocket of liquid in it - most likely overheated from the additional sugars as there are also brains on top. It would definitely go along with these photos.

 

[DeeAnna]

First photo: Bars are covered with tiny white speckles that could be mistaken for "stearic spots." (The rusty mottling in this experimental soap is discoloration from the very high percentage of neem seed oil in the recipe .)

Second photo: If you look closer at the upright soap in the first photo, you can see the white spots are actually small cavities. This was caused by air bubbles being beaten into the soap batter from my stick blender.

Third photo: Mouse damage.

Fourth photo: Brown discoloration caused by vanillin in fragrance oil. The darker wedge of soap (second from the top) contains more FO and thus has discolored more. I mistakenly added more FO to that portion of soap than to the others.

Fifth photo: Yellowish bands discoloration have bled out of the pinkish swirls (pink clay used as the colorant) into the surrounding white soap. You can also see the pink sections have changed texture. I am not quite sure why this happened. The discoloration took over a year to show up.

Sixth photo: Yet another soap with crackling (aka glycerin rivers). Often crackling looks like streaks or swirls, but the cracking in the pale yellow areas of this soap looks like fluffy clouds.

 

[Raevyn]

Why would the soap volcano in the mould like that? Was is still to hot when it was poured or something?

 

[DeeAnna]

Volcano-ing comes from something that causes a fast rate of heating in the soap. I'm not sure of all of the reasons for volcanoes, but one trigger would be if the soap temp rises close to the boiling point of water. Liquid water will turn to steam and the steam takes up a lot more room that liquid water. It's going to rise and whoosh out of the top of the soap, bringing hot soap batter with it. Voila -- volcano!

If the soap batter was very warm when poured into the mold, yes, that could encourage a volcano. If the recipe used a lot of coconut oil and a high lye concentration (not very much water, in other words) that would also make a volcano more likely to happen.

Probably the most common reason I've seen for volcano-ing is when people (usually unintentionally) add a chemical to the soap that accelerates the rate of saponification. An accelerant will cause the soap to get very hot very, very quickly, so even soap poured reasonably cool could still volcano. Chemicals that can accelerate saponification include some FOs and EOs -- that's the culprits people often name for the cause of their volcanoes.

 

[rjuconnfan]

Wow great pictures! I have made 4 soaps. 2 came out perfectly done in wood molds. The second set not so great: One gelled when it was in the mold so fast I could not get to the freezer..like in 5 min. it started. Too hot I guess. It came out ok but it lost all it's scent.

The last one I just made was in one of the white molds, plastic type from Michaels. First time I used it. Not sure if a plastic mold could do this. I put in fridge right away to avoid gel. It gelled. It was even in freezer for a while. I have no idea how that happened but I did find a small crack in it. It also has ash but not bad.

Thankfully referencing these photos helps me see that the crack is normal for overheating......( just no idea why it did that in fridge). I soaped the last 2 at 110 because the first 2 I did at 85 and was told it was too cold. I think the cold worked out better. The recipes all say around 100 or 115 f. but I am going back to doing it at room temp. The extra soap was put in little silicone guest size molds and did not gel and did not crack.. but it is softer as expected...but doesn't look the same as the same soap in the plastic mold.

Thoughts?

 

[Jamie Bell]

What is soap on a stick?

 

[Regina Saxton]

What is soap on a stick?

When the soap freezes in the pot. You put in a oil/product and in the pot instead of tracing anymore it becomes solid. Picture your blend stick in the pot and you add cinnamon, the soap then freezes. Thus the name soap on a stick.

 

[ryan emily]

i know this is kind off topic but can someone tell me how to ask a question/start a new thread? i have a question i cant find the answer to and would love answers and a conversation about it with mixed opinions & troubleshooting help.

 

[snappyllama]

i know this is kind off topic but can someone tell me how to ask a question/start a new thread? i have a question i cant find the answer to and would love answers and a conversation about it with mixed opinions & troubleshooting help.

Just go into the appropriate forum. On the upper, right you will see "Post new thread" button.

 

[JustAMommie]

I can't figure out for the life of me what happened here. It doesn't look like any of the examples above. as just playing. It's odd that some of the liquid separated out, but the soap is solidifying otherwise. Can I save this you think?

 

[Relle]

Looks like it's gelling, just leave it until it's set, then unmould.