First go at CP soap making

[Flo]

hello, I have had my first go at soap making and I have a bar of soap!! However it has some strange white swirls in it which I think may be glycerin rivers but I am not sure. Please can someone help me identify what they are and what I can do to prevent it.
The recipe I used was 50% olive oil 30% coconut oil and 20% Shea butter. I used soapcalc to work out the water and lye as I had made a very small batch to dip my toe in the water and I think by default that uses 38% water and I didnt change the default.
Thank you all in advance xxx

 

[Dawni]

Hi Flo! Did you take any temps while you were soaping? It helps our experts figure things out if they get the whole picture.

I'm asking because there is a tendency to get stearic spots with any amount of Shea if you don't soap warm enough. I came across this post too, just before seeing yours, where I learned that it presents in other forms aside from spots.

Glycerin rivers usually occur if there is a difference in water content, again because of the temps they get to. Here's one of my soaps where I purposely used different water amounts, and combined two different batters in one soap.

Not sure if that helped you much lol but I'm sure one of our experienced folks will come along soon

 

[Soulboy1973]

hello, I have had my first go at soap making and I have a bar of soap!! However it has some strange white swirls in it which I think may be glycerin rivers but I am not sure. Please can someone help me identify what they are and what I can do to prevent it.
The recipe I used was 50% olive oil 30% coconut oil and 20% Shea butter. I used soapcalc to work out the water and lye as I had made a very small batch to dip my toe in the water and I think by default that uses 38% water and I didnt change the default.
Thank you all in advance xxx

Well done @Flo, it's a nice feeling of achievement isn't it? I hope you enjoy using it, the hard part comes now, waiting for it to cure when you are dying to test it.

 

[Flo]

Hi, Dawni thank you for helping. I did take temps and both oil and lye were at 105f when I mixed them.....is that about right!!?? I will look at the links to the other threads, thank you for linking to them for me.

Hi soulboy1973 I was so excited when I had actually managed to make soap and yes, waiting 6 weeks for curing is going to be hard!! I now just need to learn where I have gone a bit wrong and get better with each batch!!

Xx

 

[Dawni]

Hi, Dawni thank you for helping. I did take temps and both oil and lye were at 105f when I mixed them.....is that about right!!?? I will look at the links to the other threads, thank you for linking to them for me.

You're welcome

Between 110-120 seems to be the sweet spot for most, from what I've read. I don't deal with this in HP btw hehehe so I have no first hand experience. Of course, the rest of the recipe is a factor too, and ambient temps to some extent, in determining ideal soaping temps.

Have you tried doing a search on "stearic spots" here on the forum?

 

[MadScientist]

It's always good to see other people taking on the art and science of soapmaking.

Just taking a stab here and I will always defer to the experts but at a glance:

Looks like the soap partially gelled in the center (the tale-tell center ring) which indicates that the temperature during saponification was fairly warm but not kept consistent. Depending on what you were going for, you can keep your soap warmer during the gel phase to complete that process, but it's mostly cosmetic. If gel phase is not preferrable, try swapping out your loaf mold for indivdual bar molds. This allows the heat of saponification to dissipate and halts gel phase.

Olive oil can be difficult to work with as it is slow to trace. Shea also has significant amount of unsaponifiables in it and can contribute to the formation of spots. It's possible that you may have soaped a touch below the melting point for Shea butter as it can have a melting point on the high end at 113F. It's possible you could have encountered "false trace" which happens when a hard oil solidifies in the oil during mixing. This can lead to oils not being fully emulsified which leads to incomplete saponification in isolated parts of the batter.

FYI: Soap Queen has amazing articles on the ins and outs of soaping mishaps and what to do about it. I learned a lot from this forum and Soap Queen, so you are definitely in the right place.
https://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/tips-and-tricks/spot-prevent-false-trace/

Other than that, great job! It's a rewarding process and I find myself enjoying it more each time I do it. Like for many members here it's a bit of an addiction.

 

[Soulboy1973]

Hi, Dawni thank you for helping. I did take temps and both oil and lye were at 105f when I mixed them.....is that about right!!?? I will look at the links to the other threads, thank you for linking to them for me.

Hi soulboy1973 I was so excited when I had actually managed to make soap and yes, waiting 6 weeks for curing is going to be hard!! I now just need to learn where I have gone a bit wrong and get better with each batch!!

Xx

You'll do it I'm certain. Good luck and enjoy the learning.

 

[Flo]

Hi Dawni,
Thank you so much for you help, now I know what I am looking for I have had a good look and I think you might be right. I will try my next batch at a slightly higher temperature and see how that goes, you have been very helpful, thank you xx

 

[lsg]

Were the white areas there when you cut the soap? If they appeared a couple of days after the cut, it could be soda ash.

 

[Flo]

Hi madscientist, thank you for your help. I think I need to mix for a bit longer as well as soap at a slightly higher temperature, I think I only just had a light trace and I would have done better to get to a medium trace. Also, My house is not terribly warm at the moment so maybe I should have put an extra towel over the soap while it was in the mould? Thank you for the link, I hadn't seen that particular article on soap queen, I will have a good look at that.

I'm so please I managed to make soap the first time I tried, now I just need to improve upon what I made. I love the fact that there are so many variations of soap and what you can do with it it is so interesting. I'm off work for a few days in a couple of weeks so I'm going to have another go then, I think I may be addicted already!!!!!

Were the white areas there when you cut the soap? If they appeared a couple of days after the cut, it could be soda ash.

Hello, and thank you for helping, yes the white bits were there when I cut the soap xxx

 

[MadScientist]

I think I need to mix for a bit longer as well as soap at a slightly higher temperature, I think I only just had a light trace and I would have done better to get to a medium trace...

Also, My house is not terribly warm at the moment so maybe I should have put an extra towel over the soap while it was in the mould?

I think you have a good grasp of what you can do to improve your craft. Please don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with light trace. It gives you more "open" time to pour and style. I just wanted you to be aware of "false trace" which can happen before light trace.

You are definitely headed in the right direction. Good luck!

 

[cmzaha]

hello, I have had my first go at soap making and I have a bar of soap!! However it has some strange white swirls in it which I think may be glycerin rivers but I am not sure. Please can someone help me identify what they are and what I can do to prevent it.
The recipe I used was 50% olive oil 30% coconut oil and 20% Shea butter. I used soapcalc to work out the water and lye as I had made a very small batch to dip my toe in the water and I think by default that uses 38% water and I didnt change the default.
Thank you all in advance xxx

This could be a little tricky to figure out, simply because your water and CO amounts should have helped upped the temp enough to keep your batter from cooling off and helping with full gel. To me, it looks like it could be streaks of stearic from the batter cooling of unevenly and the stearic from separating out if you had a very light trace.

OO traces very slowly and you used pretty high water in my opinion with 50% OO. Your lye Concentration, which is what most of us use, not Water as percent of oil, the default in soap, calc would have been around 26-27%. Most of find the sweet spot Lye Concentration to be 33-35% the sweet spot. 35% for the higher OO (50% or above). I really hope I did not make this too confusing.

While there is nothing wrong with a light trace, while using high water and high OO you do risk a failed emulsion, so until you have more experience you really want a stable trace, that does not disappear when you run a streak across your batter.

You did not mention your batch size only that it was very small. Depending on size this could lead to cooling off quickly. Higher water will usually lend to higher heat when gelling but if it is too small a batch that will not make a huge difference. I will note I do not see a partial gel so it might not have warded off the stearic from cooling off unevenly.

In closing soap has a learning curve that seems to be like the energizer bunny. It just keeps going. I really hope I did not make this to confusing. My answers are not always as refined as IL's or DeeAnna's

 

[Adobehead]

I think your formula sounds fabulous and what is wrong with the swirls? It looks good to me. It is handmade from natural ingredients, it isn't supposed to look like Dove (an American Brand). That much Shea Butter is expensive, I only use 5% and it is good and mild. Did you use a stick blender?

Good job! Keep going!

 

[Flo]

This could be a little tricky to figure out, simply because your water and CO amounts should have helped upped the temp enough to keep your batter from cooling off and helping with full gel. To me, it looks like it could be streaks of stearic from the batter cooling of unevenly and the stearic from separating out if you had a very light trace.

OO traces very slowly and you used pretty high water in my opinion with 50% OO. Your lye Concentration, which is what most of us use, not Water as percent of oil, the default in soap, calc would have been around 26-27%. Most of find the sweet spot Lye Concentration to be 33-35% the sweet spot. 35% for the higher OO (50% or above). I really hope I did not make this too confusing.

While there is nothing wrong with a light trace, while using high water and high OO you do risk a failed emulsion, so until you have more experience you really want a stable trace, that does not disappear when you run a streak across your batter.

You did not mention your batch size only that it was very small. Depending on size this could lead to cooling off quickly. Higher water will usually lend to higher heat when gelling but if it is too small a batch that will not make a huge difference. I will note I do not see a partial gel so it might not have warded off the stearic from cooling off unevenly.

In closing soap has a learning curve that seems to be like the energizer bunny. It just keeps going. I really hope I did not make this to confusing. My answers are not always as refined as IL's or DeeAnna's

No, I’m not too confused!!!!! I am going to try again next week and get to a medium trace if that doesn’t help I’m going to try changing the lye concentration. I only want to change one thing at a time so I can start to learn what has an effect on the outcome!!!! Thank you very much for your help xx

 

[Flo]

Thank you to everyone who helped. I have had another go this weekend and soaped at a slightly higher temperature and made sure i had reached a slightly thicker trace and this is what I made, so thank you all very much for your help xxx

 

[Dawni]

They look great @Flo! Congratulations