First batch ready for family

[Gal Magen]

Hi there!

First batch of 2 soap types
100% olive oil and 70% olive 30% coconut oil

I didn't believe how satisfying is to see the end result


The coconut soap cured for 1 month
It started to show some white spots like poder

What is it?
Can I use the soap?
I have used for myself one of them, it feels grate

Thank you

 

[Kari Howie]

Your soap and packaging are beautiful! As far as the white stuff goes, it looks like a combination of stearic spots and soda ash, both of which are harmless, just maybe not the look you intended. Soda ash is seen more often in recipes with a high water content or if you don’t gel your soaps. You can plane the bottoms off if you want or you can steam it off or even wash it off under the tap. As for the white speckles, those may be palmitic or stearic spots which can be caused by using oils with a high stearic or palmitic acid content and not melting the oils to a high enough temp. Here’s a good article:

https://lovinsoap.com/2017/01/white-spots-in-soap/

 

[Gal Magen]

Your soap and packaging are beautiful! As far as the white stuff goes, it looks like a combination of stearic spots and soda ash, both of which are harmless, just maybe not the look you intended. Soda ash is seen more often in recipes with a high water content or if you don’t gel your soaps. You can plane the bottoms off if you want or you can steam it off or even wash it off under the tap. As for the white speckles, those may be palmitic or stearic spots which can be caused by using oils with a high stearic or palmitic acid content and not melting the oils to a high enough temp. Here’s a good article:

https://lovinsoap.com/2017/01/white-spots-in-soap/

I appreciate your detailed information
The oils that used on the soap are olive 70% and coconut 30%

I will go thru the article and learn for the next time

I actually like the soda ash look, gives an old look to it

 

[Ekuzo]

Those look nice! Can't say about stearic/palmitic spots, since I don't think I've ever had them, but there's definitely soda ash on the surface.

Edit: if you have any doubt, you can also zap test to make sure there are no undissolved lye crystals in the soap. And always strain your lye solution

 

[dmcgee5034]

Lovely! Great job!

 

[Zing]

Really incredible soap and fantastic packaging. Where the heck have you been? I especially like the first one and want to see all of it out of the package. How did you do that?

I also think you have soda ash and it actually looks nice on white/beige/uncolored soap. It's purely cosmetic.

I can give advice but it depends on your mold. Are you using single cavity molds or a tube/pipe? For my loaf molds. After pouring the batter in the mold, I spray with alcohol, cover with plastic, then cardboard. I also gel so the loaf gets buried under towels. Since I started the alcohol spray, I have avoided soda ash.

When I use single cavity molds, I used to get a lot of soda ash. My soap using single cavity molds are not able to gel. I pour the batter, and spray with alcohol , cover with plastic, then cardboard. For my loaf molds, I unmold and cut after 24 hours. However, if I unmold my single cavity mold soaps after 24 hours, they get ash. I've learned to unmold after 5-7 days. It's hard to wait, but welcome to soaping.

Glad you posted!