Glycerin puddle in middle of soap?

[Skratchie]

Hi, I'm new to the forum, and normally I wouldn't ask a question right out of the gate, but I'm hoping someone here has an idea what might be going on with a batch of my soap. I've been making soap for more than 15 years, and I've never had this happen before, so I'm a little stumped.

This morning, I am cutting two loaves of soap from the same batch that I made on Wednesday. They are still soft, but not so soft I would leave them in the molds, but when I cut the bars on the first one, there seems to be a ... I don't know, a glycerin puddle? that I cut through.

The second loaf has a couple of smaller "wet spots" but nothing as dramatic as the photo above.

I'm not sure what I did to cause this; this is a tried & true recipe, the fragrance oil is one I've used for ages. As I was hoping to avoid the soap turning brown, I mixed a 50% lye/water solution, let everything cool to room temp, then added the remaining liquid needed in the form of goat's milk to the oils. Then I combined everything, brought it to trace, split off a small portion for color and added the scent to both pots of soap. The one thing I did differently this time was that I got busy while waiting on everything to cool and it was hours before I got back to it, so everything was about 80 degrees before I added the milk.

Could the milk have cooled down the oils so much it caused this issue, or is something else at play here? And, is this batch ruined, or will it cure and be ok to use? It's not caustic, it's just got these rivers/puddles in it.

Thanks!

 

[Navaria]

To me it looks like maybe a very mild case of monster teeth. I say this because of the white "chunks" in the middle of the soft spot. But I can't for the life of me remember what causes monster teeth. You said it's not caustic, I'm hoping you didn't zap test it already?? If so, you've got guts lol.
Hopefully someone will be along soon who can say "Oh yeah, that's ... and here's what caused it"

 

[Susie]

Overheating typically causes alien brains, AKA monster teeth. That soap does not look overheated to me. Hopefully someone more experienced with this type of problem will chime in soon.

 

[cmzaha]

I would say it did overheat during gel, at least it looks like it gelled. I can happen if soaping to hot, using a fo that heats up, what is considered full water in soap calc, which is around a 25- 27% Lye Concentration, milks especially Goat's Milks, high coconut oil, and honey are some common heater uppers. It can happen in a small spot or run all across the soap as a big leaking caravan aka alligator teeth. The area where it is leaking will stay soft and mushy. A very small area of overheating will usually harden up after several months. If this is the only bar in the batch I would cut the bar at the edge of the cavity, and throw away the leaking area. If it has gone through the entire batch I would consider rebatching trying to catch all the leaking oil.

 

[Skratchie]

Thanks; it is just in two bars, not the entire batch, fortunately. It didn't seem to get overly hot when I last checked it last night, though it's obviously gelled. And I use goat's milk for about 50% of my soaps, and never had this happen before. Maybe it's just "one of those things" where all the factors came together to make this happen. At least the entire batch isn't ruined!

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

To help people zero in on issues better, posting recipes and so on really speeds things up - sometimes it's not just one thing that might cause an issue, but something combined with what would normally be a perfectly well behaved ingredient causes havoc

 

[Skratchie]

Understood, and normally I would agree, but I use this same recipe for about five different soaps, and it's been in my arsenal for well over 10 years. I've never had this problem before, so it has to be something to do with the way I combined everything. I have it narrowed down to a couple of things, the most likely being an errant piece of "lye crust" getting through the straining process and making it in to the soap batter. A concentrated bit of lye would certainly cause some localized overheating, and based on my research, that's what I'm thinking is the must likely culprit. Fortunately, it doesn't seem to be a problem throughout the soap and within a couple of hours of cutting, it was firming up and losing the wet look very nicely. :mrgreen:

Thanks to everyone for your help!