I really need help... Anyone?

[katd]

I'm humbly asking for all the help I can get. I've spent so much money and
ruined so many soaps for this... I have no idea what's going on. I get these big
white waxy spots throughout my soap logs... Not little speckles, more like dime
size balls...

I've posted an album called "what is this??"

I've soaped at room temp AND higher temps of up to 120.
My oils are completely clear and melted
My lye solution is completely dissolved and clear
No impurities...

I am lost. No matter what essential oils I use, it happens. But not all the
time!! Some batches are great, others have these spots.

I use olive oil, coconut oil, stearic acid, and castor oil.

Can someone please help? It would so be appreciated...

Kat

 

[guiceman]

loose the stearic!

 

[Kansas Farm Girl]

They do look like stearic stops. I don't think that hurts anything, just a cosmetic issue. I like the polka dot soaps

 

[savonierre]

My best guess is that they are stearic spots. Try a small batch without the stearic in it.

 

[DeeAnna]

Having made lotions and shaving soaps formulated with stearic acid, I know 120 deg F is far too cool to fully melt stearic. A quick search using Google tells me that stearic acid melts about 157 deg F (70 C). If you are determined to use stearic acid in your soap, you'll need to melt it separately and blend into your soap batter. Don't use the microwave; you'll need a double boiler with a water-bath temperature of 190-200 deg F.

edit: I am as puzzled as the others about your use of stearic acid, Kat. It is a bit of an specialty ingredient in handcrafted soap, so it is unusual to see a soaper using it in all of her recipes. Is there a special reason you are adding it to your soaps? I really don't want this to sound like I'm picking on you -- if we were face to face I could make the words come across the way I want them to. I am just truly curious....

 

[katd]

They do look like stearic stops. I don't think that hurts anything, just a cosmetic issue. I like the polka dot soaps

When life gives you lemons lol...

 

[katd]

Having made lotions and shaving soaps formulated with stearic acid, I know 120 deg F is far too cool to fully melt stearic. A quick search using Google tells me that stearic acid melts about 157 deg F (70 C). If you are determined to use stearic acid in your soap, you'll need to melt it separately and blend into your soap batter. Don't use the microwave; you'll need a double boiler with a water-bath temperature of 190-200 deg F.

edit: I am as puzzled as the others about your use of stearic acid, Kat. It is a bit of an specialty ingredient in handcrafted soap, so it is unusual to see a soaper using it in all of her recipes. Is there a special reason you are adding it to your soaps? I really don't want this to sound like I'm picking on you -- if we were face to face I could make the words come across the way I want them to. I am just truly curious....

Lol.. no worries I'm tough.

I use it to harden my bars, at 5% and the lovely lather. If iremove it, my recipe is too soft. No??

Also, the spots are lye heavy... They zap, but are waxy not crystaly.

Thoughts??

 

[DeeAnna]

"...Thoughts?? ..."

The proof of the pudding will be to make soap using your preferred method, but without stearic, as others have advised. The circular, uncolored polka dot "look" is very different than than what I've seen of lye heavy regions in other people's soaps. I still think it is stearic, zap or no zap, but there's no way to tell for sure except to do a test.

As far as your soap being too soft, options include:

waiting longer to unmold
tweaking your oil proportions -- post a sample recipe if you want that kind of feedback
using a more concentrated NaOH solution if you are using "full water" (meaning a solution of 27-28% NaOH in water)
gelling your soap vs. not gelling
sodium lactate

 

[heartsong]

the melting point of steric acid is approx. 157* you'd have to soap at least that temp or a bit higher to get it to melt into the soap batter.

perhaps if you drop the steric & use maybe 10-15% hard butter like shea, cocoa butter, lard or tallow...also reduce you water/lye to 2:1 (33%) you'll have to be careful with touchy f/o's...also i'd soap at a high enuff temp to gel, or force gel in the oven or use heating pad...hth!

 

[Birdie Wife]

Not sure what % of each of your oils you're using but I too use olive, coconut and castor oils in my veggie bar and they do take more time to unmould cleanly, sometimes up to a week. I've been trying to use beeswax to harden them up but I'm ditching that in favour of 15% water discount instead. Don't do 2% beeswax AND 15% water discount. That's a step too far... ! You could also try upping the coconut to 50% with a higher superfat.