Need Expert Eyes on Soap

[Luckyone80]

I'm pretty happy with this batch, just want some insight.
I made it yesterday morning using a recipe I have used several times before. I used Peppermint FO (which I've used before with no problems) and colored half the batter with cocoa powder and the other half natural. I soaped at around 90 degrees. I added the FO to the oils before the lye water and then mixed until light trace then I divided the batter so I could add the cocoa powder to half of it. While I was working with the cocoa powder half the other half was setting up fast, I've never had it accelerate that fast before so I quickly got part of it in the mold, had to scoop it in there and flatten, poured a layer of the brown, another layer of the natural and topped with the rest of the brown. Had to bang the mold on the counter pretty hard in order to get the bubbles out, which you can tel my the pics that I still had a few. So I sprayed with alcohol and covered with plastic wrap and put it on a towel in my linen closet, lightly wrapped a towel around it and left the top uncovered. It went through full gel hours later, today I cut and despite the few bubbles I'm pretty happy with it.

Question - the white color running through the brown I'm guessing is glycerin rivers? I get them at least 50% of the time, which is ok but just wondering what to do to prevent if I would actually want a solid color without white running through it.

 

[IrishLass]

They look like they could be either glycerin rivers, or maybe the chocolate wasn't as fully incorporated as it could've been? For what it's worth, whatever the white swirlies may be, I think your soap looks pretty darn awesome!


IrishLass

 

[fuzz-juzz]

Yes, they do look like glycerin rivers. I think they are really random, some soapers say it's because og gel, some for other reasons. have no experience with cocoa, but TD was giving me headaches with glycerin rivers. Now I use one dispersable in oil and less water when mixing lye. I still, ge, but get no glycerin rivers. Maybe the key is in reaching that level of gel when the soap is just still gelling not overheating, I always keep an eye on my soaps and as soon as the gel is spread to all the corners I take all the insulation off and let it cool of slowly.

 

[Luckyone80]

Maybe the key is in reaching that level of gel when the soap is just still gelling not overheating, I always keep an eye on my soaps and as soon as the gel is spread to all the corners I take all the insulation off and let it cool of slowly.

Thats what I did this time, I watched it like a hawk and as soon as I saw the whole top was gelled I took all insulation off.

 

[Luckyone80]

They look like they could be either glycerin rivers, or maybe the chocolate wasn't as fully incorporated as it could've been? For what it's worth, whatever the white swirlies may be, I think your soap looks pretty darn awesome!

Thank you, you are too kind

 

[Seawolfe]

The light outline reminds me of Aunty Clara's soap crop circles.
Was there a different amount of liquids in the two halves?
In any case it looks very nice!

 

[Susie]

Gosh, I was wondering how you got those awesome tiny swirlies in the brown part!

 

[JustBeachy]

I said this in your other post, but these pics show it so much better. I love the definition line between the cocoa and the natural. Looks like a picture that you colored and stayed inside the lines perfectly.

I'd say the lines in the brown are probably glycerin rivers, but Irish has a good point on the cocoa not being as mixed as your thought. I soap pretty hot most of the time and don't really see a lot of rivers like those. But it could be a combination of things, recipes, temperatures, etc. Maybe you can try doing two identical batches. Insulate one like you normally do, slide the other directly into the freezer to stop the gel completely. See if there's any difference.

 

[Luckyone80]

I said this in your other post, but these pics show it so much better. I love the definition line between the cocoa and the natural. Looks like a picture that you colored and stayed inside the lines perfectly.

I'd say the lines in the brown are probably glycerin rivers, but Irish has a good point on the cocoa not being as mixed as your thought. I soap pretty hot most of the time and don't really see a lot of rivers like those. But it could be a combination of things, recipes, temperatures, etc. Maybe you can try doing two identical batches. Insulate one like you normally do, slide the other directly into the freezer to stop the gel completely. See if there's any difference.

Good idea, I might try that to see what the difference is. The cocoa *might* not have been completely mixed considering I knew the other bowl of batter was setting up already and I was hurrying.

 

[Luckyone80]

The light outline reminds me of Aunty Clara's soap crop circles.
Was there a different amount of liquids in the two halves?
In any case it looks very nice!

I did a water discount of 36% and I did mix the cocoa in a few ounces of the water used for the lye and only added that water back into the cocoa batter part.

 

[HorseCreek]

Was it the actual lye water you kept back or just the same type of water you used to mix up the lye?

 

[DWinMadison]

Beautiful soap. Based on my extensive cocoa making experience, you might try dispersing the cocoa in some warm oil. Personally, I wouldn't change a thing about it.

 

[newbie]

I second the great look of the outlines you got between the natural and the brown. I love that.

Another possibility is that you used more cocoa than you could have gotten away with. I sometimes think I'm more likely to get crackle if I use a lot of colorant, but I can't say that is a 100% true.

I recently had a run of stearic streaks/glycerine rivers/crackle. I discovered that the problems was that I was at the bottom of a box of tallow and there were some stearic crystals/chunks that had settled out during shipping. I will still get crackles if gel is too hot or colorants aren't mixed in well enough and also for no apparent reason, but it's worth looking at all the options.

 

[Luckyone80]

Was it the actual lye water you kept back or just the same type of water you used to mix up the lye?

Just Part of the same water I used to mix with the lye. Not the water with the lye in it.

 

[dwolanin]

What a lovely soap, that's a winner!