Coconut Milk soap fail

[OHello]

I unmolded this a few days ago - my second batch, and first failure. So ugly! The soap smells quite nice and has no zap, so I suppose it should be useable but I really am not a fan of how it turned out in the looks department.

Can anyone shed some light on what may have happened to cause this icky grey ring?

I used this recipe, which I ran through soap calc to get my water/lye etc.

40% Olive Oil
40% Palm Oil
20% Coconut Oil 76 degree

1 tbs of dessicated coconut per 500g of oil added at trace.
No colour, no fragrance.

I replaced most of the water with frozen canned coconut milk. The can didn't make up quite enough to replace all the liquid so I made up the rest with cooled boiled water that I allowed to sit for 24 hours.

Everything seemed to be going well, the mix stayed nice and light coloured and went to trace in a few minutes of stick blending. Both the oils and the lye/coconut water mix were cool when I blended them. I used a wooden loaf mold and put it straight in the freezer for 24 hours, then the fridge for 24 hours, then allowed it to completely come to room temp before I cut it.

I was so excited to cut it because it looked and smelled so nice....but all but the very end pieces have the grey ring. I put the left overs in some silicone muffin molds that I left on the counter and did not refrigerate and oddly, they do not have the ring.

Do you think that if I rebatched it and added some colour it might hide the grey tinge? Do I need to do this before it is cured or does it not matter.

 

[pamielynn]

The round ring of death No, it just didn't gel all the way through. If you don't want to gel, you could cool your mold before pouring, then stick it in the freezer and don't cover it. Personally, I find it harder to NOT gel - so I stick to gelling.

 

[OHello]

If I dare to try it again, I will definitely remember to cool the mold first -thanks for that!

Just curious though, if I had insulated and left it out to get it to gel, do you think the whole thing would have turned grey?

 

[Rachelmf]

I agree that it looks like partial gel. I kind of like the look. You can just tell people that it's a design feature.

 

[Shannon_m]

My coconut soap did the same thing, but my ring is white and the rest of the soap is cream color lol. It's just partial gel, no big deal. Next time I'll put my soap in the freezer to avoid this.

 

[OHello]

If it were tan or cream or yellow or pink I probably wouldn't care at all, but I really was not expecting grey.

Soap is un-pre-dictable!

 

[Relle]

Your soap should lighten as it cures, I wouldn't rebatch there's nothing wrong with it.

 

[OHello]

That is great news! Fingers crossed that it becomes less noticable. I was hoping to gift it and the only bits that don't have the ring are the scruffy end pieces that I cut rather thinly.

 

[lsg]

If you want to prevent gel, put your soap in the refrigerator or freezer for several hours after pouring. If you want to insure that your soap gels, cover it and insulate it with old towels or a blanket.

 

[pamielynn]

If I dare to try it again, I will definitely remember to cool the mold first -thanks for that!

Just curious though, if I had insulated and left it out to get it to gel, do you think the whole thing would have turned grey?

I don't think it would be gray - probably would have gone white, if the whole thing had gelled. The ring usually looks worse than a full gel.

This just happened to me with a new mold in a cold house. The recipe usually looks nice and dark tan; this batch has a ring in it that looks completely disgusting.

Do you normally try to avoid gel?