ACK! DOS!

[Tiffiny Shea]

I'm pretty sure I have a terrific case of Dreaded Orange Spot, according to everything I have read on the interweb about this. I made it about three months ago, and it looked good last I looked at it about a month ago.

This was the first batch of soap I ever made, and I was about to go make my second one when I noticed this. So, being a very, very beginner at this I'm not sure what to do about the second batch.

Should I change something with my second try or should I just try, try again?

From what I can tell I there can only be a couple of reasons why this happened:

I live in Denver and it's very dry here and in my house, and the soap was in a dry dark place. It can't be humidity.

I've read that it could be from too high a percentage of superfatting, which is a very new term for me. Should I decrease some of the oils in this recipe? I would have no idea how much or which ones to decrease.

I read that adding Vitamin E can help? If so, I am assuming I'd just add a couple drops or something to my liquid oils?

The soap has been sitting in a cardboard box for the last couple of months... could this have contributed to this?

Here is the recipe:
20oz distilled water
lye 8.75oz
coconut oil 18 oz
crisco 28oz
olive oil 18oz
2 oz fragrance oil

Thanks, anyone who can help!

 

[dcornett]

Tiffiny, I can't see your pic...

 

[Tiffiny Shea]

Yeah, I'm having trouble posting the picture.

 

[judymoody]

Unfortunately that looks like DOS to me.

You can still use it as long as it doesn't smell bad. It won't hurt you. But I'd not give it away.

I ran your recipe through soapcalc and assuming you used the new Crisco with palm, your SF is at about 9%. That isn't necessarily a problem depending on your mix of oils. However the Crisco is mostly palm and soy. Soy oil can contribute to DOS.

The other possible culprit might be your fragrance oil. Some fragrance oils are more prone to DOS.

Is it possible that one or more of your oils was old? Sometimes stuff can sit on the grocery shelves longer than it should.

That's all I can think of right now. Don't get discouraged!

 

[LisaNY]

Don't be discouraged! Just get back in there and make more soap! )

If it were me, I'd ditch the Crisco. Where did you get your olive oil? Was it fresh? When I first started making soap, I just used what I had in the house, including Crisco. Then, I started reading up on the different soaping oil properties and how some were more prone to rancidity than others, and how it was important to use fresh oils, etc.

If you have a Costco near you, the Kirkland brand OO (regular, not EVOO) is used by lots of soapers with no problems.

Check out soapcalc - it lists the fatty acid profiles for all of your soaping oils. I would keep the combined linoleic/linolenic acid levels below 15%. (I keep mine at 8.5%)

Add Rosemary Oleoresin to all of your soft oils as soon as you get them. Lotioncrafters sells a very high-quality one. They recommend usage at 0.02%-0.05%. For me, that translates to 1/4 tsp per gallon of oils.

Dry/cure your soaps on a non-metal surface with good air flow. After a good 5 weeks of cure time, I store my soaps in boxes that are used to store baseball cards.

Stay away from metal spoons, unless you are positive they are made of SS. Even then, I err on the side of caution and use plastic or silicone utensils for all of my soaping.

Just a few tips to help avoid DOS. )

 

[lovethyscent]

Most likely the crisco. Every time I use it I get DOS & I think they changed something else with it not just the palm. I can use veg shortening (cottonseed & soy) from walmart and never get DOS so figure that one out lol

 

[dcornett]

I would guess the crisco too, especially since you have narrowed down other contributing factors. I can't speak from experience as others have since I've only used crisco once...but there are just certain oils that I don't trust (soy being one of those) so I avoid them. But I would definetly try again...you'll miss out on all the fun if you don't.

 

[CandleLaneCo]

Most of the time, impurities cause DOS. Scratch away at the DOS spot with your finger nail or knife. In the center of the spot, you might see a little black spec. If so, your DOS is caused by an impurities.

 

[Tiffiny Shea]

Wow, thank you so much everybody for the replies. I just ordered a couple of soap making books from amazon, because a lot of what everyone is talking about makes no sense to me. I need to increase my soaping vocabulary.

I used Grade A Olive Oil that I bought online from Columbus Foods. I'll try the Costco stuff.

What are linoleic acids? Does everybody do the rosemary oleoresin thing? That sounds like a good idea if it helps preserve the oils.

What would you replace the Crisco with?

Thanks guys!

 

[LisaNY]

Wow, thank you so much everybody for the replies. I just ordered a couple of soap making books from amazon, because a lot of what everyone is talking about makes no sense to me. I need to increase my soaping vocabulary.

I used Grade A Olive Oil that I bought online from Columbus Foods. I'll try the Costco stuff.

What are linoleic acids? Does everybody do the rosemary oleoresin thing? That sounds like a good idea if it helps preserve the oils.

What would you replace the Crisco with?

Thanks guys!

Columbus Foods has great quality oils - Refined A is fine. Their pomace is great, too, and it's less expensive. I'd replace the Crisco with Palm Oil.

Linoleic and Linolenic are fatty acids present in many of the soaping oils. If you run your recipe through soapcalc, an online calculator for soaping recipes, it will give you the fatty acid profiles of your recipe. You want to try to limit, or steer clear of, oils that have high levels of linoleic/linolenic, as they can lead to DOS in cp soap.

Rosemary Oleoresin, or ROE is an antioxidant. Many soapers do use this to help extend the life of their oils and avoid DOS.

Hope that helps!

 

[ToniD]

Yeah, for a while it is like people are talking an alien language

The Olive Oil from columbus foods will be fine.

Each oil is made up of certain fatty acids and each different fatty acid contributes different things to your soap. You can read about them at Miller Soap http://millersoap.com/soapdesign.html#Properties

I don't use rosemary oleoresin. I do keep my oils in the fridge and try to buy just what I will use fairly quickly.

Crisco can be replaced with palm, tallow, lard, or in part with any other butters or oils that you may wish to try. Just run any new recipes through a lye calculator to make sure that you are using the correct amount of lye for that particular oil. I usehttp://www.soapcalc.net/calc/soapcalcwp.asp

 

[BakingNana]

You can also add ROE to your soap batch as an antioxidant. Camden Grey says 1 tsp. to 1 tbsp. for each 10 Kg. or 22 lb. batch, so I use 2 ml per 5 lb. batch. Blend it into warm oils before adding lye solution. The ROE I have is 7% carnosic acid.

 

[Tiffiny Shea]

You guys are awesome! Thank you so much for the help. I'm starting to figure it out. I ordered the Soapmaker's Companion and another book on Amazon. I'll check out the soap calc site too. Thanks for answering all of my newbie questions!