DOS Disaster

[JuliaNegusuk]

I am about to sell my first batch of soaps in a couple of weeks time (having got them certified etc) and was just putting the label on one of my basic formula (no colours or perfumes) soap to find a Dreaded Orange Spot! Checking the batch nearly all have these and the soap is only about 5 weeks old. I am gutted. The other varieties don't seem to have it yet, but this was the first one I made. I am really annoyed because I have been making soap for about 3 or 4 years and almost only ever encountered DOS in other people's tales of woe on-line. Even some of my most ancient soaps don't seem to have it - why this batch?!? The recipe uses standard oils I have used time and time again - olive, coconut, shea, cocoa butter and castor oils and a little bit of sugar. It is high olive oil (50%), but so are many other soaps I've made. It is pomace olive oil, but I have used this loads of times in the past without problems. Aaargh! I feel like tearing my hair out I'm so cross. I don't like offering a range of soaps without a non perfumed one but I haven't got time to make a new batch. I only hope the others won't be affected. I guess I must have just used a naff ingredient this time.:cry: Oh woe!

 

[Millie]

I'm sorry to hear that! Can you list all the changes you have made going from small batches to large batches (I assume) for selling? It could be a problem with your ingredients, but maybe it's something like changing your curing racks. The more detailed you are, the easier it will be for others to help. Good luck!

 

[JuliaNegusuk]

Large batches!?! Ha! I am making 8 or 9 soaps at a time in a multi cell silicon mould. This isn't business, it is tiny amounts for a charity. Really nothing has changed from the way I have always made soap for years. The recipe is 50% olive oil, 35% coconut oil and 5% each shea and cocoa butters and caster oil with 1% oil weight sugar. The sugar, possibly is the only "new" ingredient I don't usually use. And also I haven't often used cocoa butter in the past I suppose, but I thought this was one of the more long lived oils with some anti oxidant properties of its own (so I have read). I don't use a preservative, but never have done and it's never been a problem in the past. I have always made small batches in small moulds, I always soap cool and refrigerate rather than gel. I've stored them for curing in wooden drawers which are not airtight and I can't resist opening several times a day to see how the little babies are getting on chat to them! So they get regular blasts of fresh air. I really don't know what I have done wrong. The others so far are fine (fingers crossed). Ironically my favourite soap is the unperfumed one. I love its snowy white purity. Which makes it even more annoying to see orange blobs starting to appear all over it. However, I suppose we have had a few days of very hot weather during August - unusual for England. Perhaps it is just that?

 

[penelopejane]

Do you mean curing drawers like this or a closed up chest of drawers?

 

[JuliaNegusuk]

No, a wooden chest of drawers. But the drawers are quite large and very far from airtight and opened regularly and the soap is stored on end (ie not lying down) and well spaced out with about an inch between them and at least an inch or two between rows and a couple of inches headspace above them. In fact I usually store in open plastic boxes in the drawers with the soaps much closer together so this should be better than how I have done it in the past. And I store similar scents in the same drawer so a citrus drawer, a herbal drawer and a spice drawer, so each drawer is very far from being full. Again, this is what I usually do and it has never been a problem in the past. That open drawer box thingy does look a very good idea though, I might see if I can get one.

Also forgot to mention super fat (or strictly speaking lye discount) at 5%. Again this is the minimum I super fat at and many of my soaps in the past have been 7 or 8% because I tend to round the lye figure down if it is not a whole figure. So again nothing new.

 

[Millie]

Have you been using different mixing bowls or utensils? Anything different at all about that one batch? Do you clean the drawers after each batch cures? You don't have to answer, just trying to toss out anything I can think of in case it helps.

If nothing has changed in your process it is probably one of your ingredients. But... if you are using the same recipe and -same bottles of oils?- for all those batches, why haven't they all gone dossy? Hmm.... let us know if you figure it out. Wishing the best for you and your charitable enterprise!

 

[penelopejane]

No, a wooden chest of drawers. But the drawers are quite large and very far from airtight and opened regularly and the soap is stored on end (ie not lying down) and well spaced out with about an inch between them and at least an inch or two between rows and a couple of inches headspace above them. In fact I usually store in open plastic boxes in the drawers with the soaps much closer together so this should be better than how I have done it in the past. And I store similar scents in the same drawer so a citrus drawer, a herbal drawer and a spice drawer, so each drawer is very far from being full. Again, this is what I usually do and it has never been a problem in the past. That open drawer box thingy does look a very good idea though, I might see if I can get one.

Also forgot to mention super fat (or strictly speaking lye discount) at 5%. Again this is the minimum I super fat at and many of my soaps in the past have been 7 or 8% because I tend to round the lye figure down if it is not a whole figure. So again nothing new.

You would never get away with curing soap in a chest or drawers in Australia. I wouldn't do it in the UK even though your "heatwaves" are 25*C! :mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen:

I think you've probably been lucky so far. If you have no alternative I'd leave the drawers open always and see if things improve. Otherwise other soaps may follow this one.

 

[JuliaNegusuk]

I think we reached the dizzy heights of about 30 degrees c! But fear not, its now freezing again. Unfortunately I can't keep the drawers open or I'll never get in my dining room again! What I'll do is make a fresh mini batch and see what happens over time. Some of the oils will be new batches so that might make a difference. Thanks all for your thoughts, especially that curing tower thingy which I'll have to try and get hold of if I can.

Cheers.

 

[BlackDog]

I once used some shea butter I took off a friend who said he wasn't using it and made 5 or 6 batches with it. They all got DOS in like 6 months (I had never had a batch get it either) and since I had been done using the butter for a while, it took me a while to make the connection. So a bad fat could be causing your problems!

 

[Susie]

I think we reached the dizzy heights of about 30 degrees c! But fear not, its now freezing again. Unfortunately I can't keep the drawers open or I'll never get in my dining room again! What I'll do is make a fresh mini batch and see what happens over time. Some of the oils will be new batches so that might make a difference. Thanks all for your thoughts, especially that curing tower thingy which I'll have to try and get hold of if I can.

Cheers.

Your soap needs more air flow than a closed drawer than provide. I am surprised you have not had DOS before now.

 

[CaraBou]

It seems unlikely to me that 5 week old soap got DOS just because it was stored in a wooden chest drawer. I routinely store in plastic bins with the lids propped open, but honestly, they often close on their own and I have never had DOS in the bins. I'd suspect old oil, hard water, contact with metal, or some other villain before the chest.

 

[JuliaNegusuk]

Thanks all for your thoughts. The really odd thing is the speed with which it has happened, within about 5 weeks, and the fact that another soap, my cinnamon, honey and oatmeal soap, which was made a day later, with exactly the same oils from the same batches, the same utensils and stored alongside the plain soap in the same drawer (and so was also subject to the same heatwave) has not shown any sign of dos (yet). It will be interesting to see what happens after a couple of months. Perhaps the essential oil has acted as a bit of a preservative in this case? I do just find it very odd that it is the simplest and most basic of all of my recipes that has caused me problems.