Lye-milk solution too cold?

[abiegarena]

Hi everyone, I made my first batch of goat's milk soap. It smells great but has these spots? What are they?

The recipe use 100% goat milk. I froze the GM first and slowly added lye to it and kept my lye pitcher in an ice bath. I managed to keep lye-milk solution below 45. After a while, I keep stirred slowly to ensure all lye is fully dissolved. Then, the solution started to become thick and I strain lye-milk solution into oil. My lye-milk solution was at about 55 and my oils right around 87 when I combined them.

Once I strain the lye solution into the oils and began stick blending and stirring. Then i added EO,french clay and poppy seed at trace. Everything seemed fine like a normal batch of soap. Then I freeze it for 24 hours then the fridge another 24.

I set my superfat at 5% and lye concentration at 33%.

Recipe:Olive(40%), Palm(30%) I stirred well before using, Coconut(15%), Castor(5%), Mango butter(5%), Avocado(5%), Lye(123g), GM(250g)

I hope the soap will be fine but I'd like to avoid this again in the future

Thanks for any insights.

 

[shunt2011]

It looks like maybe it was too cold and some of your oils solidified. Likely palm or mango were not warm enough to stay melted. I don't take temperature when soaping, my lye is room temp and my oils/butters are warm enough to remain clear.

You said you strained the milk/lye mixture otherwise I would think it's saponified fats from he milk.

Also, you should always add the lye to the liquid/frozen milk. Adding it the other way could potentially cause a problem which is easy to avoid.

 

[abiegarena]

sorry for my mistake. i mean i added lye slowly to GM cube

so it is better to ensure the lye-milk mixture reach into room temperature to avoid white spots.

I'm afraid the mixture became too thick like pudding if I wait any longer.

 

[cmzaha]

If I decide to use full gm I also use frozen milk cubes in an ice batch with no problems. When I add in my lye/milk solution I stir it into my oils, when have been heated until they are very clear, and wait a little bit until the lye solution starts reacting and starts heating up. I agree with Shari that it looks like your palm and butter started solidifying. My first thought was bits of saponified gm but your straining it changed that scenario. If you have trouble mixing gm into lye you can use the split method by mixing you lye solution with distilled water at 50/50 and use gm added into your oils for the other 50%. If you want your gm stronger if going with the 50/50 method you can sb in some powdered gm into your oils before adding in the lye solution. You can also use canned gm which is double strength. If you go with the 50/50 melt your oils to just clear, you do not want them to warm as the batter will heat up quickly. I actually let my oils cool until they become cloudy before adding in the lye mixture, but many would not advise doing such. My main recipe for gm soap is 45/25 tallow/lard as the base oils

 

[abiegarena]

My first thought was bits of saponified gm but your straining it changed that scenario.

sorry. can u elaborate more on this scenario

For next batch I think I will exclude french clay to 'hide' the white spot

 

[mommycarlson]

Did you leave the plastic wrap on it as it sat in the mold? Was there perhaps condensation that got onto the soap and left it a little wet in those spots? That should dry I think, if that's indeed what it is.

 

[abiegarena]

Did you leave the plastic wrap on it as it sat in the mold? Was there perhaps condensation that got onto the soap and left it a little wet in those spots? That should dry I think, if that's indeed what it is.

yup i wrap the mold with plastic in the freezer. i can see some of the white spot still wet though

I hope it should dry soon

 

[Spice]

If I decide to use full gm I also use frozen milk cubes in an ice batch with no problems. When I add in my lye/milk solution I stir it into my oils, when have been heated until they are very clear, and wait a little bit until the lye solution starts reacting and starts heating up. I agree with Shari that it looks like your palm and butter started solidifying. My first thought was bits of saponified gm but your straining it changed that scenario. If you have trouble mixing gm into lye you can use the split method by mixing you lye solution with distilled water at 50/50 and use gm added into your oils for the other 50%. If you want your gm stronger if going with the 50/50 method you can sb in some powdered gm into your oils before adding in the lye solution. You can also use canned gm which is double strength. If you go with the 50/50 melt your oils to just clear, you do not want them to warm as the batter will heat up quickly. I actually let my oils cool until they become cloudy before adding in the lye mixture, but many would not advise doing such. My main recipe for gm soap is 45/25 tallow/lard as the base oils

why would others not advise using cloudy oils?

 

[cmzaha]

why would others not advise using cloudy oils?

Because when using lard, tallow or hard butters they are afraid the batter will not heat up enough to keep the oils melted. It does for me especially when using gm