HELP! Brown Specks?

[lesliemarie]

Hello Soap Makers!

I whipped this cold process soap up two days ago and have found brown specks around the ball embeds I put in. (See Attachment) These were not there yesterday when I cut the soap. Does anyone know what it could be? Is it a major concern?

The recipe is as follows:

Water - 5.85 oz
Lye - 2.34 oz
Fragrance - 0.50 oz (Cotton Candy Fragrance Oil from WholeSaleSuppliesPlus)
Vanilla Stabilizer - 0.50 oz (WholeSaleSuppliesPlus)

Coconut Oil, 76 deg - 20%
Castor Oil - 3%
Crisco - 15%
Olive Oil - 25%
Sunflower Oil - 17%
Palm Oil - 20%

SF - 3% Shea Butter (added after emulsification)

Embed Recipe -

Water - 2.24 oz
Lye - 1.11 oz
Fragrance - 0.25 oz (Bubblegum Fragrance Oil from WholeSaleSuppliesPlus)
Vanilla Stabilizer - 0.25 oz (WholeSaleSuppliesPlus)

Coconut Oil, 76 deg - 22%
Castor Oil - 11%
Crisco - 5%
Olive Oil - 22%
Sunflower Oil - 17%
Palm Oil - 23%

SF - 5% (Calculated in SoapCalc)

White Sparkling Mica around embeds and on top of soap
Yellow Lip Safe Mica
Caribbean Blue Mica
Queen's Purple Mica (Added after I attempted to use Party Pink Mica which turned brown and disappeared soon after)
(All Micas from Bramble Berry)

I soaped at room temperature.


Any advice, suggestions, etc. would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you in advance!

-Leslie Marie

 

[Navaria]

Could you give the actual amounts of oils you used please? It makes it much easier to check your recipe and see if that's where the problem lies. What did you use for your mold? What about your embed mold? It almost looks like the start of DOS from the picture. Hopefully with a little more information, we can sort this out for you.

 

[cmzaha]

Sadly your soap is most likely going to turn brown over time. Stabilizer is really a waste of money and just adds in a chemical to your soap. The spots could be fragrance leakage from not being mixed in well. Or it could be some discoloring already happening if the fo was not mixed very well with the stabilizer. Your soap looks pretty and will still look pretty when it discolors. It is not a matter of if but when unless you get it used up before discoloration sets in. It would be gorgeous as a lavender eo soap, since lavender essential does not discolor or a non-discoloring Black Raspberry Vanilla such as available from Soapsupplies.net

ETA Too soon for Dos

 

[Navaria]

Sadly your soap is most likely going to turn brown over time. Stabilizer is really a waste of money and just adds in a chemical to your soap. The spots could be fragrance leakage from not being mixed in well. Or it could be some discoloring already happening if the fo was not mixed very well with the stabilizer. Your soap looks pretty and will still look pretty when it discolors. It is not a matter of if but when unless you get it used up before discoloration sets in. It would be gorgeous as a lavender eo soap, since lavender essential does not discolor or a non-discoloring Black Raspberry Vanilla such as available from Soapsupplies.net

ETA Too soon for Dos

My concern was the possibility of a non-compatible metal used on the embeds which (from what I understand) could accelerate dos because of the lye reacting with the metals

 

[lesliemarie]

Could you give the actual amounts of oils you used please? It makes it much easier to check your recipe and see if that's where the problem lies. What did you use for your mold? What about your embed mold? It almost looks like the start of DOS from the picture. Hopefully with a little more information, we can sort this out for you.

Here is the actual amounts of oils I used -

Coconut Oil, 76 Deg - 3.20 oz
Castor Oil - 0.48 oz
Crisco - 2.40 oz
Olive Oil - 4.00 oz
Sunflower Oil - 2.72 oz
Palm Oil - 3.20 oz

~0.3 oz Shea Butter

Embeds -

Coconut Oil, 76 Deg - 1.76 oz
Castor Oil - 0.88 oz
Crisco - 0.40 oz
Olive Oil - 1.76 oz
Sunflower Oil - 1.36 oz
Palm Oil - 1.84 oz


Concerning the Mold -

It was made out of corrugated plastic and I placed tape on the outside. (pencil marking were also on the outside of the mold)

The embeds were made in a silicone mold. It was a soap that traced too quickly and I ended up hand rolling it into balls & using a cheese grater to make the confetti.

Everyone - A BIG thank you for your input!

 

[shunt2011]

I think it's discoloring from the FO. Too soon for DOS. I've found VS doesn't work well at all and quit even trying long ago. I either embrace the discoloring or pick something else.

 

[CaraBou]

Gorgeous soap! I agree with cmzaha, that part won't change.

 

[Lynnz]

I recently had this very same problem and I had hand stirred the fragrance in afraid that it may accelerate. I made other batches all in the frame of the next few days and none of them contained the spots like shown and I have concluded that mine are from the fragrance as it is known for its discolouration. I love the colour mix in your embeds very much