Anyone knows what *this* is?

[josianeg]

Hi! Last Wednesday I made this CP soap with M+P embedded balls. The recipe is the same I used without issues for my indigo ombré soap, but this time I added activated charcoal to it in a (failed) attempt to make the soaps black.

I‘m not sure the soap went through gel phase, even though I tried to force it with a heating blanket.

It was left in the mold until today because I was hoping it might prevent soda ash from forming...

When I cut this morning, I don’t remember seeing these white patches between the balls.
Anyone knows what they are? They kinda look like what I thought was soda ash on some of my previous soaps. I did a zap rest on one of these so I’d think I would have gotten zapped if it was lye?

Half of the balls were made with Nurture soap non sweat clear M+P base and the other half with COOP COCO clear M+P base. While the former are perfect, the last keep seating and develop “crystals” which I’ve been told could be glycerin dew.

 

[TheGecko]

I added activated charcoal to it in a (failed) attempt to make the soaps black.

Try Black Oxide.

Can't help you with the rest. Sorry

 

[KiwiMoose]

I think it's maybe just soda ash if it wasn't there before but has appeared recently.

 

[jcandleattic]

To me it looks like stearic spots.

 

[DeeAnna]

I'm voting on the white flecks being stearic spots too.

I also suspect the mottling in the gray portions of this soap is caused by variations in the water content. You can see how the color is darkest next to the colored embeds and fades further away from the embeds. This is akin to "glycerin" rivers, if you're familiar with those, or Auntie Clara's ghost swirls.

 

[josianeg]

Are stearic spots bad? Can I still use my soap?

Last time I made a soap with a lot of activated charcoal the white spots appeared gradually (over days), first on top of the soap and then on the sides too.

I forgot to mention the spots weren’t there when I cut the soap, they took a few hours to develop.

Also, I just remembered something!

I usually melt my butters completely in the microwave, mix them with the oils and then add the lye water in it.

This time, I added the lye water not long after preparing it to the butters, which made them melt, and then added the oils to that. Maybe the butters didn’t melt enough (I read somewhere on the forum that this can cause stearic spots).

I'm voting on the white flecks being stearic spots too.

I also suspect the mottling in the gray portions of this soap is caused by variations in the water content. You can see how the color is darkest next to the colored embeds and fades further away from the embeds. This is akin to "glycerin" rivers, if you're familiar with those, or Auntie Clara's ghost swirls.

Is it possible the fact that the balls were already sweating (ugh, I’ll never buy that base again) when I added them to the CP soap made the area immediately surrounding them higher in water?

2 more pictures:

In the first you can see that there are some white spots on the 2 soaps made in individual molds.

In the second the difference between the “non sweat” and the non “non sweat” is definitely visible. It’s cold here and not very humid with the heating.

[

 

[GemstonePony]

Stearic spots are just a cosmetic thing, the soap is fine. They're generally caused by your oils/butters not melting fully or getting too cool and re-solidifying.