CP Soap help needed

[MaryJeanUK]

Hi, I've been making my soap for over 5 years now, and just in the last year I've been getting little white lumps throught the soap after it's out of the mould.

These lumps don't go away in the curing process, I've triple checked the sap values and I've racked my brains trying to figure out what I've done wrong. :crazy:

Does anyone know how I can get rid of these white lumps? It's not just one formula, and I've got 11, it happens in about 6 of them.

Any help would be very much appreciated.

 

[Meganmischke]

Are you using palm?

 

[Susie]

My question exactly. Sounds like stearic spots.

 

[seven]

what kind of white lumps are we talking about here? care to share a pic?

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

And also some recipe examples with any other differences - at least 2 with the issue, 2 with out it - that way we can see if it is the old Palm issue

 

[MaryJeanUK]

Here is three pics of the latest attempt...

The last attempt I used Palm Kernel, this time I used Coconut and there is no change in appearance. I was wondering if the length of time the mould is covered makes a difference, and how it's covered too? As for the recipe, the oils/percentage is as follows:

40% Coconut/Palm
30% Soyabean
10% Sunflower
10% Avocado
10% Cocoa Butter

 

[DWinMadison]

What does coconut/Palm mean? How much of each? Also, if you are pouring all natural colors, you may want to advance your trace a bit more before pouring. Using a stick blender? You may also think about adding some castor oil at about 5%. Hope this helps.

 

[shunt2011]

I'm not sure what your Coconut/Palm means either. It looks like maybe your CO/Palm/PKO what ever it is your using may have solidified. What temperature are you soaping at? Might be too cool.

I would lower the CO/PKO to not more than 25% and not use soy but olive if you have access to it. As CO at that percentage would be extremely drying to a lot of folks. I too would use castor oil if you have access to it.

 

[MaryJeanUK]

We don't use any colours in our soaps, and we tried it with palm oil which was the original formula which did not work so we made another batch up using coconut oil but it has turned out to be the same.

We mixed the soap for about 2 hour and it was quite thick, had a good trace just can't understand it.

We are not doing anything different than we always do, we leave out soap overnight then take it out of the mould next day.

 

[shunt2011]

Coconut and Palm are two different things unless you are talking about PKO. Palm can cause stearic spots if not mixed well before adding to your soap. Soap shouldn't take 2 hours to mix. That may be why as well. Your soap is getting too cool and you CO, Palm, PKO whatever it is you are using are re-solidifying possibly. Are you using a stick blender to mix your soap? 2 hours is way too long.

 

[MaryJeanUK]

We are using a paddle which is fixed onto a bench drill. The speed is quite fast, so far it has worked well with our soap. Our lavender,babysoap and our kitchen soap are turning out fine using coconut oil and the bench drill, which is why this has got us stumped

 

[Obsidian]

Any chance you use a wire cutter? They almost look the bumps made from wire cutters.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

As I said before, if you list all of the recipes that have this issue and then the ones that don't, maybe people will have more to go on.

Can your safety assessor shed any light on this or are they not overly helpful when it comes to development, just rubber-stamping the recipes?

 

[DWinMadison]

We don't use any colours in our soaps, and we tried it with palm oil which was the original formula which did not work so we made another batch up using coconut oil but it has turned out to be the same.

We mixed the soap for about 2 hour and it was quite thick, had a good trace just can't understand it.

We are not doing anything different than we always do, we leave out soap overnight then take it out of the mould next day.

Palm and coconut are like the yin and yang of soap making...almost polar opposites except they both make for hard bars. According to soapcalc.net, coconut is great for cleansing, while palm is high in conditioning. Olive and/or other soft oils help soften the bars while castor promotes creamy lather. IMHO you need a good balance of each of these, then you can round out the remainder of a good recipe with other oils/tallows and additives (e.g. salt, sugar, honey, pine tar) based how the soap is to be used.

 

[MaryJeanUK]

RE Wire Cutters and Mixers

We have been using the same formulas for our soap since May 2008 and these spots have only started appearing in the last 18 months...it's a little strange as we can't work out why these spots are appearing.

We use wire cutters but have been since June 2009 with not trouble at all. We started off mixing our soaps in a industrial food mixer (which holds around 3kg of soap) but wore the motor out which is why we changed onto the bench drill. However this doesn't seem to have made much difference in the soap itself.

 

[Obsidian]

Try tightening your wires a bit, sometimes that will help. Next time you are cutting and see the bumps, try switching to a knife just to see if that makes a difference.

 

[navigator9]

If the problem started when you switched from the industrial food mixer to the paddle and bench drill, I would suspect those might be tiny air bubbles. It's hard to tell from the pic. But if the problem started after the switch, it may be that the new method of mixing introduces air into the batter.

 

[blondiegirl23]

I made red and white soap and was very proud of myself until I cut it into bars. I found that the red had separated to the edges of the designs in the soap leaving the interior of the design naked soap color (off white). The red color was just the liquid squeeze bottle you buy at hobby lobby or Michael's. I've never had that prob before. But I'm having trouble finding mica's around Bloomimgton, IN. Any suggestions?

 

[DWinMadison]

If the problem started when you switched from the industrial food mixer to the paddle and bench drill, I would suspect those might be tiny air bubbles. It's hard to tell from the pic. But if the problem started after the switch, it may be that the new method of mixing introduces air into the batter.

Common sense would dictate a switch back to the old method to see if the problem resolves. If so, it's in your new production process, and you can decide how to address it from there. Maybe the power drill is taking your trace too far...just think about the acceleration between hand mixing and a stick blender...then imagine that on steroids.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

I made red and white soap and was very proud of myself until I cut it into bars. I found that the red had separated to the edges of the designs in the soap leaving the interior of the design naked soap color (off white). The red color was just the liquid squeeze bottle you buy at hobby lobby or Michael's. I've never had that prob before. But I'm having trouble finding mica's around Bloomimgton, IN. Any suggestions?

Could you start a new thread for this one as it is a but removed from the issue that the op is having.