Are these Glycerin Rivers ?

[mimeowmoo]

Hi everyone! I just cut my soap and found out there are some curvy lines and spots at the white layer part, are these glycerin rivers? And my soap also smells weird, a pretty strong chemical smells. I actually added more than 2 teaspoons of titanium dioxide to these 2lbs of soap. Does the weird chemical smells actually from the titanium dioxide? Do you think this batch is still safe to use?
Thank you so much for the advices in advance.

 

[KiwiMoose]

Did you add it to the entire batch or just to the white parts? Over 2 teaspoons in 2 pounds of soap would be fine. Did you use any FOs? The chemical smell is more likely to come from that. Or I find that whenever I use coconut milk I get that smell ( like the old 'perm' solution from the 80s) but after a couple of weeks it goes away and the FO shines though again.
And to answer your question - yes they are glycerine rivers and I get them in pretty much every batch I make.

 

[mimeowmoo]

Did you add it to the entire batch or just to the white parts? Over 2 teaspoons in 2 pounds of soap would be fine. Did you use any FOs? The chemical smell is more likely to come from that. Or I find that whenever I use coconut milk I get that smell ( like the old 'perm' solution from the 80s) but after a couple of weeks it goes away and the FO shines though again.
And to answer your question - yes they are glycerine rivers and I get them in pretty much every batch I make.

I added about 3 teaspoons of TD into the entire batch, and actually even a little more in the white part. I use hempseed oil in my recipe, the color of hempseed oil is in dark green, it really gives me a hard time whiten my soap every time, is there any other ways to make the soap whiter beside using TD? For the FO, I blended two FO into this batch, I’m also wonder does the weird smell actually comes from the blending.

 

[earlene]

I have never tried to whiten hemp oil soap, so I don't know if you can get it whiter. I cannot even whiten Rice Bran oil soap with TD and it is a lighter oil than hemp. So I don't try to make white soap when using darker oils.

As far as 'is your soap safe to use?' - glycerine rivers have no effect on safety. Lye does have an effect, so you can do a Zap test to determine if it's safe to use. I cannot address the odor, as I don't know what else is in your soap.

 

[Zing]

Welcome to the forum! I stumbled onto this forum when a batch had glycerin rivers -- I didn't even know what to call it and was googling 'tunnels' and 'ridges'. It's just a cosmetic issue -- just own it and say you planned it that way. I really do like your colors.

I have had good luck preventing glycerin rivers when I use TD as a colorant. I set my ratio of lye to lye/liquid at 32.5 to 33%. I combine oils to lye/liquid when they have cooled to below 100 degrees F. I still gel all my soaps but only got glycerin rivers that one time.

Again, welcome aboard, I love this community.

 

[TheGecko]

Yes, those are “glycerin rivers” and it’s just a cosmetic issue, the soap is safe to use. I think they are cool looking myself.

I have a few FOs that smell great OOB (out of the bottle), but then gave off an unpleasant ‘chemical smell’. The first time it happened, I was really bummed since I had purchased a 16 oz bottle. But after about three to four weeks, it went away and the soap smelled great. I’ve since had a couple more to the same…they end up being just fine.

 

[Cat&Oak]

Welcome to the forum!

 

[bumbleklutz]

Welcome to the forum. yes, those are classic "glycerin rivers". I get them all the time. It's worse when I use TD. I blame the heat and humidity here in Florida.

 

[Peachy Clean Soap]

Hello & Welcome

 

[Angie Gail]

I notice a lot of the times right after I cut a batch of soap it can have a weird smell (like a raw soap batter funky smell). It usually fades within a few hours or a day and then it just smells like the fragrance oil.

 

[Rune]

@mimeowmoo That is a very beautiful soap! The glycerin rivers looks absolutely wonderful. Usually people are not that lucky with glycerin rivers. But in your soap they look cool, stylish or how to say it.

If you want to avoid glycerin rivers in the future, you must reduce the water amount in your lye solution. The standard 38% water as a percentage of oils is generally too much water.