Mystery small white marks in soap...

[jonquille]

Hi all,

Good to meet you! I'm new to this forum and reasonably new to soap making too, hence my need (and hope) for your expert advice.
I've been making bars of soap of varying colours and i'm noticing that most of them seem to have mysterious small white marks throughout the bar.
These are (obviously) more noticable in the darker bars and i'm assuming are present in all of the bars to a greater or lesser degree.
I've read up on this and I understand that they could either be stearic spots or air bubbles trapped in the batter, that when cut, form the white marks.
I've used my detective skills on this (including a magnifying glass and scalpel) but i'm still none the wiser. They don't look like air bubbles as the edges seem rough and not round.
Enclosed is a close up of one of the soaps that have been cut with a wire. I also cut with a blade and it resulted in the same marks.
Any advice would be much appreciated as the bars are really nice (smell and lather) but these marks detract from their looks a little.
Hoping to hear back from you.

Jonquille

 

[jcandleattic]

do you have oils high in stearic? Because, yep, those look like stearic spots to me. Just aesthetic. If it bothers you, warm your oils a little higher and if you use palm, stir well before measuring out, and that should help lessen or eliminate them.

 

[Todd Ziegler]

Ditto @jcandleattic said. If you give us your ingredients and amounts we can better help you with the problem.

 

[jonquille]

Great, thanks for the quick feedback!

Oils are:
Coconut oil 30%
Oil Oil 35%
Sunflower Oil 15%
Castor Oil 15%
Sweet Almond Oil 5%

Thanks!

 

[jcandleattic]

Oil Oil 35%

Which oil is this actually? This might be the culprit.

 

[jonquille]

Ah, sorry.

It’s Olive Oil

 

[Megan]

Did you zap test it? Any additives?

 

[earlene]

I wonder if you soaped too cool and your CO started solidifying before it had a chance to saponify. If you had a high SF and soaped cool, I would suspect that. Or perhaps you used frozen milk in making your lye solution? Or did you add a citrus essential oil for fragrance to a milk soap? A complete recipe might really help troubleshoot.

What was your complete recipe? How much water (&/or other liquid), how much NaOH, weights of each of your oils? Any & all additives with weights; and your process (hand stirring, whisk, stick blender, how you mixed the lye, etc.) Also specific fragrances added including amount, etc.

 

[mtinetti61]

Occasionally I'll have a CP batch that will accelerate to the point where it's almost seizing and I have to get it in the mold quickly and smash it down. That's when I seem to get these white spots. I think think it's the rapid acceleration that hardens some of the oils prematurely... ?? They don't bother me, but I don't sell soap, just give it for gifts. Nobody's complained about them. The soap is fine to use.