Cracking along swirls

[la-rene]

Hey all, interesting thing happened to my soap today. It's a layered cp soap that I refrigerate to prevent gel. Anyway, today, the soap cracked along the swirl decoration on the top in a few spots. Not deep. Maybe 1/8in so far....

I have assumed that the top perhaps dried out and started to split, so I have covered it with some plastic wrap to hopefully prevent more.

Has anyone else experienced this? I don't believe that it has ruined it, but it is different.

Thanks for your thoughts!
LA

 

[npc]

You don't have to refrigerate to prevent gel unless your lye solution is milk. That's why your soap cracked.

 

[kazmi]

LA, the soap demons must have gone from your house to mine cuz I got the same cracks in my swirls/decorative top. The only difference is that I put mine in the freezer for about an hour. Then put saran wrap on it before I put it in the fridge for a couple of hours. My cracks are near the edges of my silicone mold. Discouraging too because I finally was able to do decorative swirls that didn't go flat on me for the first time :sad:

 

[Lotus]

You don't have to refrigerate to prevent gel unless your lye solution is milk. That's why your soap cracked.

Please explain. If I don't do anything to my soap it gels. How can one possibly expect to avoid gelling without cooling it?

 

[la-rene]

NPC: It's a floral f/o that previously heated up on me in testing and caused glycerine rivers in my oxide, 6lbs in a wood mold and i didn't want gel. Some serious reasons for putting it in the fridge and soaping real cool. This is the first time it cracked on me like this but not the first time I've done this particular recipe or put it in the fridge. I'd link some threads and websites with examples of overheating in cp soap with out milk for you but I'm typing on my phone.



Update: no new cracks. So that's good.

 

[npc]

Please explain. If I don't do anything to my soap it gels. How can one possibly expect to avoid gelling without cooling it?

Since I didn't heat up my oil (except the solid oil) and solution (in ice cube type), all done in room temperature. Keep low in soap mixture. Gelling means it's too hot in soap.

 

[npc]

NPC: It's a floral f/o that previously heated up on me in testing and caused glycerine rivers in my oxide, 6lbs in a wood mold and i didn't want gel. Some serious reasons for putting it in the fridge and soaping real cool. This is the first time it cracked on me like this but not the first time I've done this particular recipe or put it in the fridge. I'd link some threads and websites with examples of overheating in cp soap with out milk for you but I'm typing on my phone.



Update: no new cracks. So that's good.

According to my experience, if you don't get enough stir for the soap mixture, the soap might be cracked. Does your floral f/o accelerate? if yes, that would mislead you the soap has traced.

As previous post, I use oil and lye solution in regular temperature to make soap, less gelling happened to all my soaps.

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[la-rene]

It wasn't a false trace. It'd be a pool of goo if it was, instead of the solid log with a few cracks that it is now. After several hundred batches. I think i get the whole trace thing by now. My lye is made with about a third of the distilled water as ice cubes to help reach my temps faster. Soaped with oils at 100 degrees or less. So, NPC, it's really not anything like you are saying I did. I do soap cool. Though in my log molds, all I have to do to gel is leave them on the shelf with cardboard covering the soap. I've even elevated the molds to keep them from overheating after soaping cool. That wood is a good insulator. So If you have any other ideas about cooling soap cracking sometimes that would be great. I honestly don't think it's anything else. I've just never had it happen before except when I did a mica swirl on top. You must have thin molds. I don't.

 

[kazmi]

NPC you said "...less gelling happened to all of my soaps". Since I didn't want any gelling I put mine in the freezer. I soap at room temps too.

LA - I've avoided gelling before using a similar method and didn't get any cracking then. So the only thing that I can think of is the little dots of mica I added to my decorative top before swirling. I didn't know that mica could cause cracking so I'll have to check it out to see if there is any amounts of mica around them. Did you use any td in your soap? I only used a little amount to whiten the soap I added for the top of my soap and I was thinking it was the td that caused it.

 

[la-rene]

No, no mica. It is burgandy oxide but totally dispersed throughout not just swirled. I had it happen with mica once, when I used mica in oil swirled onto the top only, soap also put into the fridge for that one. It may not happen when not in the fridge, but since I wasn't happy with that decoration, I didn't do it again for that particular soap recipe. So, I don't know if it's endemic of mica/oil swirl on the top. I have done this particular soap before, in the fridge, with no cracking. I was just wondering if others have had this happen, too.

 

[la-rene]

NPC: now that I'm not typing on my phone anymore, I will try to help you to understand what I'm talking about.

So, 1. all soap will heat up to a point. It's caused by the chemical reaction of lye and fatty acids. Some people will even measure the amount of heat gained while mixing to know when to pour into the mold. What you want to do, depending upon how you want your soap to look in the finished product is either embrace this process or limit it. I happen to use both techniques depending upon what I want my final bar to look like. Now with testing, I have found that my soaps, with any sort of oxide in them, tend to get glycerine rivers during a gel phase, so, when I want a solid oxide color, I prefer not to gel. (I won't go into the fact that I have gotten glycerine rivers with natural colorants as well, that is a whole other convo) I take pains to limit how much my soap mixture will heat during saponification. So, I soap cool, use a cold wood mold, place it in the fridge and elevate the mold off the surface to allow the bottom to cool quickly or stay cool.

2. Soap molded in a log form or slab mold or of a large size will tend to heat up more, hence having to do the above process. In the past, doing these soaps in smaller form, either in my test 1 lb plastic mold or my thinner 3lb wood mold, it is easier to keep from gelling or if I want gel, I needed to insulate. In my 6lb wood molds, all I need to do is leave them right there on the shelf. In fact, I have some fragrance blends that if I don't babysit, will over heat in the mold, with no effort at all, causing glycerine rivers, brains and sometimes weeping fragrance oil.

3. none of this is happeneing because of too much heat in either my oil or my lye solutions at time of mixing.