Odd Cracks and Crystals

[Volossya]

I made my second batch of soap last night - Zany's No-Slime Castille - and a number of things went wrong. I ran out of olive oil (12.60 oz is a lot!) and had to use approximately 1oz of avocado. Then, I accidentally spilled water into my oils when topping up my water bath. I was able to pour most of the oils off of the water but had to replace another ounce with avocado oil. Then, when I went to pour my lye-pseudo-sea-salt water into my oils I found that a very hard crust that was half transparent and half opaque white had formed at the bottom of the lye water container. I was able to pry it off and dropped it into my oils, where I tried to blend it into smithereens. By the time I reached a medium trace and poured, it looked like I had succeeded.

However, when I demolded the soap today there were a number of cracks in the top of the soap that appear to be filled with some sort of clear crystal. Some small clear crystals have come out of them - I do not know if they are salt or lye. There are also larger crystals of some sort scattered throughout the batter. I do not think the cracks are from heat because they occurred even on the splatters and I prevented gel.

My attempted recipe was:

• 13.60 oz (85%) olive oil
• 1.60 oz (10%) coconut oil
• 0.80 oz (5%) castor oil

What actually ended up happening was (assuming probably inaccurately that the oils were completely mixed when I spilled the water):

• ~11.81 oz olive oil (73.8%)
• ~1.50 oz coconut oil (9.4%)
• ~0.75 oz castor oil (4.7%)
• ~1.94 oz avocado oil (12.1%)

I superfatted at 0%. I used a 1.7:1 lye:water ratio, using the 1 Tbsp sea salt (with iodine) and 1 Tbsp baking soda in 1 quart distilled water mixture as my water. This resulted in 2.23oz of lye and 3.78oz of "sea" water. I added no color or fragrances.

I heated the oils to 120 degrees before adding the lye, which had cooled down to a bit warmer than room temperature as I was dealing with the water-in-oils situation. I blended to medium trace, poured, and put the individual molds in my below-freezing garage for two and a half hours before taking them back into the house.

Does anyone know what these crystals are from? Is the soap safe? What's the best way to test this? And does anyone know what I did wrong (other than spilling water in my oils)?

 

[bookworm42]

I would zap test the crystals. It's very likely the hard crust in you water was undissolved lye. So the crystals you're seeing might be lye.
If so then your soap is not safe and will have to be rebatched.

 

[AliOop]

^^what @bookworm42 said. Any time you find chunky stuff in your lye solution, you should get it dissolved, or throw out the solution and start over. An easy way to help it dissolve is to add more water. That will cause the solution to heat up, and can often be enough to dissolve that chunk.

These "lye ice" chunks typically form because you've allowed your lye solution to get too cold. At 65F, a 50-50 lye solution will start to separate like that. Keep it at 70F or above, and hopefully you won't see this again.

 

[ScentimentallyYours]

At 65F, a 50-50 lye solution will start to separate like that. Keep it at 70F or above, and hopefully you won't see this again.

I master batch my lye 50:50 and store it in a polypropylene gallon jug in the basement, where temps in winter dive below 60°F. When making soap, the MB lye jug goes into a hot water bath to bring the temperature up until there is no “snow” at the bottom and the solution is clear. Despite still having extra work, I appreciate master batching because I’m not breathing fumes from freshly mixed lye solution with every soap batch.

@Volossya Make sure your lye solution is clear with no residue at the top or bottom. When adding to the oils, pour the lye solution through a superfine tea strainer to catch lye “lint” and any undissolved lye. If the strainer catches crystals, start over because your lye:water and oil ratios are problematic. If the lye solution is clear and strained, you may have an unusual crystal formation in your soap, but it is safe to use. Here is an unusual crystal formation

 

[Volossya]

Oh geez. Ok, I’ll rebatch tonight. Good to know about lye water temperatures - I’d been soaping with my window open for ventilation and the temperature outside was below freezing. I’d read in Zany’s thread that people using the salt water mixture had experienced precipitation so I hadn’t been particularly worried about the crust - my mistake.

Thanks for all your advice! I appreciate it.

 

[AliOop]

I master batch my lye 50:50 and store it in a polypropylene gallon jug in the basement, where temps in winter dive below 60°F. When making soap, the MB lye jug goes into a hot water bath to bring the temperature up until there is no “snow” at the bottom and the solution is clear. Despite still having extra work, I appreciate master batching because I’m not breathing fumes from freshly mixed lye solution with every soap batch.

@Volossya Make sure your lye solution is clear with no residue at the top or bottom. When adding to the oils, pour the lye solution through a superfine tea strainer to catch lye “lint” and any undissolved lye. If the strainer catches crystals, start over because your lye:water and oil ratios are problematic. If the lye solution is clear and strained, you may have an unusual crystal formation in your soap, but it is safe to use. Here is an unusual crystal formation
View attachment 80904

Wowsers, that's a fun one - a heat tunnel with a mohawk!

 

[ScentimentallyYours]

Wowsers, that's a fun one - a heat tunnel with a mohawk!

That was a boiled soap with the recipe from Ben Franklin’s sister, Jane Franklin Mecom. No extra lye in the finished product, but the texture was HARD and it grew unusual soap crystals. There’s a better picture of it in this thread, where I went down the rabbit hole.
Thread 'Crown Soap, Ben Franklin’s Family Recipe'
https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/crown-soap-ben-franklin’s-family-recipe.87241/

 

[Volossya]

Welp, I rebatched with 6tsp added water to hopefully dissolve the lye crystals and boy are they ugly now. I wanted to compare the texture of an (almost) castille to my lard-coconut-shea-avocado bars. If my family or I prefer the castille I will make new pretty bars.

Thanks for all the advice!