Embeds all furry

[Candice]

Hi everyone,

I'm new to soap making in general and would love some help. I've been having difficulties with M & P soap for a while. From what I've read on this forum, my problems stem from the climate I live in (Queensland, Australia) which is humid in spring and summer. It rains quite often, plus I didn't use a low sweat base. At the time, I had no idea you could get a low sweat MP base.

Anyway, I attempted strawberry M & P embeds to decorate a strawberry scented CP soap. But the embeds are just weird. They have a half a centimetre thick coating of white fur. They stick to and dampen the paper towel beneath them.

I bought the clear soap base from Aussie Soap Supplies.

First off, I'm wondering how to repurpose the strawberry embeds.

Secondly, I'm wondering how on earth I can pull off M & P strawberry embeds without them getting furry.

Caveat: I don't have a huge amount of control over the temperature where I soap (my garage) as even a fan wouldn't make a marked difference. We can have stifling heat, then thunderstorms for days, then wind and dryness. Then it's cold. My CP soap responds like a trooper, as most of the time my kids go inside my soap room, smelling everything and inadvertently turning the soaps over when they pick them up. There's just no room inside my house for the soaps.

I have made CP embeds successfully, but I really like the look of MP embeds. Plus, when I make cupcake soaps, I like the look of a chocolaty drizzle, but I'm hesitant in case that too grows crystals that look like fur.

As a side note: I poured some extra bars from the same mix as the strawberry embeds, but into a Christmas themed bar mould. These bars didn't have fur at all. I didn't keep a soap diary at the time--I do now-- but I can't pinpoint what would have been different other than the mould--one was milky way, the other silicone.

Can anyone please help? Thanks in advance

 

[dixiedragon]

Picture?
Not an MPer, but I am wondering if your FO is at fault? I had that happen once with a cp batch - it wasn't soda ash, but like you described it was a crystal growth.

 

[shunt2011]

I've used MP for cupcake soaps and just gave a bunch away that were a year old and nothing furry has ever appeared. Thast's strange. I have also use MP for imbeds with no issue though I don't do it often.

A picture would be great as that's really strange. Unless I've just been lucky

 

[Candice]

The fragrance oil I used was Strawberry from Escentials of Australia. In CP, this fragrance accelerates like crazy. You have a five second pour time. It wouldn't surprise me if the problem was the fragrance oil. Yesterday, I got a shipment of two other strawberry fragrances to try, both from other suppliers, so I could give them a go.

 

[galaxyMLP]

Thats from the humidity. That is what people call "sweat" on MP soap. If you live in a climate that has changing humidity, the soap will get slick and feel wet at first but then, as the humidity goes down, you'll leave behind that "fuzzy" look.

You need to wrap your MP soaps tightly with plastic wrap right after being made. This will prevent moisture from getting to them in the first place so that they don't get "sweaty".

I wouldn't think its related to the fragrance oil at all. This happened to all of my MP soaps if I did not wrap them. Even indoors. The humidity was just too high in florida. I even had to wrap "low sweat" bases.

When I'm at my markets, on rainy days, my CP soaps even get slick and "sweaty". Thankfully they dont get that awful bumpy surface.

 

[Candice]

Thanks for that information, galaxyMLP.

To clarify - If I wanted to use M & P embeds on top of a CP soap loaf, I'd have to wrap the embeds with cling film after putting them into the top of the soap, but leave the rest of the CP soap loaf bare to cure for 6 weeks?

How do you wrap MP soap when it's used as a decoration for CP soap? And the CP soap must cure?

 

[IrishLass]

Ditto what Galaxy said. WSP has a Q&A section on their site for M&P soaps, and one of the questions was in regard to M&P soap that came down with white crystals on it that looked like mold. Click on the link below and take a look at the eighth question/answer down. It will confirm what Galaxy just said:

https://www.wholesalesuppliesplus.com/FAQ/Soap-Making.aspx



Edited to answer this question:

To clarify - If I wanted to use M & P embeds on top of a CP soap loaf, I'd have to wrap the embeds with cling film after putting them into the top of the soap, but leave the rest of the CP soap loaf bare to cure for 6 weeks?

I've never had to do that (I live in a really dry climate), but it sounds like it would work. At least it's something I would try if I lived in a wet climate.

How do you wrap MP soap when it's used as a decoration for CP soap? And the CP soap must cure?

This is something I've never had to deal with since my climate is bone dry most of the year. Hopefully someone with more experience in humidity will chime in on that.


IrishLass

 

[Candice]

Thanks, IrishLass. Great information, especially on the link. I put the MP base in the microwave, but I can't remember if I overheated it. The Q&A says boiling can cause the crystals.

Does this mean that a MP drizzle on my cupcake soaps will get furry, too?

If so, are there any tips on a CP drizzle over cupcake frosting? lol. Also, it makes me wonder what soapers do who sell their products to other countries with high humidity . . . if they have MP embeds and such.

 

[snappyllama]

You might consider a switch to low sweat M&P for your embeds. It really makes a difference.

 

[galaxyMLP]

Here is what I would do for cp soap with embeds on top. I would let the soaps cure normally but try to keep their environment as consistent as possible. You can get a container dehumidifier and place that in a bigger container with the soaps. After your desired cure time has passed, wrap the soaps up in plastic wrap.

If the soaps have sweat on them, just rub it off with a towel. Some of the fine detail will go away but for the most part it will look the same as you started. If you want that shine that mp soap has, spray it with 99% isopropyl alcohol. After it is completely dry, wrap them. Try to wrap them in a less humid area than your garage. Anywhere that your soap is not in 100% contact with the cling wrap will get those bubbles/sweat again so you have to be sure to wrap it as best you can with 100% coverage.

In the cases where that is not possible, heat the wrap when you are almost finished to evaporate some of the trapped moisture (with a hair dryer) then seal it.

It really would be best to use the low sweat bases. Although they are less clear, they are much less prone to these issues. One more tip, let your unused MP blocks sit out unwrapped in your workspace before you use them to make your soaps. I found this really helped. I'm thinking it may have something to do with the base already pulling some of the existing moisture out of the air and "conditioning" the soap for your environment. It really helped me.

 

[elmtree1748]

I have a question Galaxy mlp. Don't mean to hijack here but I too live in a super humid climate and constantly have an issue with sweating soap in the spring, summer, and fall, even cp. How hot is too hot to melt low sweat soaps to keep them low sweat? Does leaving your soaps out in humid climates dry them out or cause them to shrink? I know, silly question maybe, but I've noticed that if I leave out my mp in the winter here it shrinks and gets brittle. I'm assuming that's from the dryness but I just want to make sure.