Behenic (C22) and arachidic (C20) fatty acids in soap?

Soapmaking Forum

Help Support Soapmaking Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
I did cut the soap just now, because I was afraid to wait any longer because it might be rock hard from the vinegar, or the rapeseed wax. It was not hard at all to cut.

I tried to get a photo where the drops of oil inside could show, but it would not show on the photo anyway. The mica line have disappeared completely. It is only some pink at the sides.

I did get exactly the same texture inside as you did on the picture you attached on the rapeseed wax thread. Stearic acid spots or what it is, tons of them. Maybe it is something else, from overheating perhaps, I don't know. I do know I soaped so cool that stearic spots can or will easily happen. But I did not bother about that, I wanted to try to get the soap as fluid as I could.

It does not look fabulous inside, but not too bad either, I think. But it is what it is, and I find it okey. I thought it might be worse inside with lots of oil coming out. It does come out, but not lots of it. I just hope it dries up and becomes allright after a while. I have put it away for curing now. The positive thing was that it oiled the cutting string, so I did not have to wipe it off even once, just cut one bar after the other.

I zap tested the oil that was weeping, and it did not zap. I think it might be fragrance oil, but I have no idea other than I have seen here that it is normal when soap overheats.

Here it is, anyway, one with flash and one without:

IMG_0090.JPG IMG_0093.JPG
 
@Rune I think the colors of you soap are absolutely beautiful. It’s an unusual palette of jewel tones that I would never think to combine, especially the pink. The base soap seems to have a translucency that gives a stained glass effect. Is that usual for your base? I’m sorry for you that it got overheated.
 
Posted and then it jumped me to the end of the thread. I hadn’t realized that I wasn’t quite there, so the pics that look so translucent are the previous set. Are those of the top of the soap? Or the side? I like the colors of the cut soap, but it was that raspberry pink that really caught my eye. If those are bubbles in the soap, it’s curious that they are lining up along the bottom edges of a swirl. It makes me want to look at them under a microscope. Do you have a magnifying glass/hand lens?
 
@Penelope, I will write you an email, have just not come so far yet. I had visitors the day after I got the email, and last night I smelled all my fragrance oil. Can you believe that I had not opened many bottles? I though I had, but I had not. So I did it yesterday, and took some notes. I do have some recommendations for you, but I will do another test first, since it is not accurate at all to smell from the bottle/cork.
All scents smell wonderful to me OOB (out of the bottle) but when the lye hits!!!!!!!
 
@Mobjack Bay Now I understand what you mean. Yes, the translucency looking is a close up from the side of the soap, where the oil (or what it is) comes oozing out because of overheating. But, it is very pink at the sides, and that is because the mica line that were supposed to stay in the soap got for the most pushed out to the sides. So I guess the shine comes from that shiny mica and the oil oozing out. The third thing is that I don't want bleeding soap anymore, so I was too careful with the colors. The soap batter is just barely colored, that makes it more translucent, I guess.

No, my base usually is very dense and solid. But this was the first time I tried high water and rapeseed wax. I guess the high water did make it more translucent.

Unusual colors, yes, it was not supposed to be like that. The blue was supposed to be blue-green, the green was supposed to be more vibrant, as well as the yellow, and the burlesque pink was supposed to be a mica line and not like it is now.

I don't have a magnifying glass somewhere I can find it easily, at least. I think it is stearic acid spots and not air bubbles. But I don't know exactly where you mean the bubbles or what it is are. I see it all over the bar of soap. When the oils was cooled down to room temperature, it became grainy. So it is solidified hard oils swimming in softer oils, or something like that. I probably have air bubbles as well.

If you see bubbles on the sides, it must be where the oil comes oozing out. As I understand overheating creates pockets like that where oil (or glycerin or fragrance oil or what it is) comes out. And it is visible on the close up from the side of the soap.
 
I am curious what the Cargill fellow means by unusual behavior after saponification of partially hydrogenated oils. There are several soaping oils used that are partially hydrogenated. I have used: Soy Wax, Crisco, Palm Shortening, Vegetable shortening, all of which are partially hydrogenated. There are others that have been mentioned here at SMF that are also different shortenings that I have not personally used, but from all I have read and in my experience, I don't have a clue what 'behavior' after saponification could possibly be categorized as 'unusual'.
 
Back
Top