Popsicle stick contamination?!?

[Jess_]

Hello soaping friends,
I took a two week soap making break to regroup after a terrible case of soda ash.
Yesterday I made ‘Black Raspberry & Vanilla’ soap. It’s the second time I’ve used the fragrance and it had turned out wonderfully the first time (quite popular too!)
I decided to use the same oils & ratios, split the batch in three and make a layered batch. Everything was going fantastically! I poured everything into the mould and before I covered it, I ran a popsicle stick through the top. Scraping the edges and flattening the top.
About 30hrs passed and I saw a patchy layer of soda ash on the soap, but was not discouraged and continued to unmould. I cut the soap and was disheartened to see the purple layer was full of soda ash. Interestingly the white and pink layers had no issues. (Photos above)
I used a popsicle stick in the last batch that also had bad soda ashing. Is it possible the raw soap batter has reacted with the wood of the popsicle stick and caused this some how?
I’ve made another batch since, no popsicle stick involved at all, will keep you updated at to how it turns out!

 

[Cellador]

The popsicle stick would not cause the soda ash. Soda ash is a reaction of unsaponified lye mixing with the carbon dioxide in the air.
For me, when I get ash that deep, it usually means I've poured my soap at too thin of trace.
Also, have you tried spritzing the top of your soap with rubbing alcohol before covering it?

 

[DeeAnna]

I agree with @Cellador that soda ash doesn't develop within a soap because there's no carbon dioxide gas to react with unreacted lye within the soap. Soda ash can develop on the sides of a soap, however, but that will appear some time after the bars are cut when unreacted lye has had time to react with CO2 in the open air.

If the "ash" was visible on the purple sides of the bars immediately after cutting, it's not soda ash. It could be a type of streaking/mottling (aka "glycerin" rivers) created by insufficient mixing of the purple batter and/or by variations in the water content in this layer.

The "ash" could be an unusual case of stearic spots. This happens when stearic soap solidifies first, creating the white parts, leaving the colorant behind in the still-liquid soap. Stearic spots are usually small white specks throughout the soap, but not always.

I get a type of "ash" on the top of my soap loaves that's I've figured out is a variation on stearic spots. Stearic soap solidifies in a thin layer on the top of the loaf while the soap is still in the mold. This creates a thin "frosting" of lighter colored soap that often tracks the pattern I swirl into the top, just as you see on yours. "Ash" that isn't really ash does not wash away with alcohol or water or steam.

 

[Cellador]

I agree with
The "ash" could be an unusual case of stearic spots. This happens when stearic soap solidifies first, creating the white parts, leaving the colorant behind in the still-liquid soap. Stearic spots are usually small white specks throughout the soap, but not always.

I get a type of "ash" on the top of my soap loaves that's I've figured out is a variation on stearic spots. Stearic soap solidifies in a thin layer on the top of the loaf while the soap is still in the mold. This creates a thin "frosting" of lighter colored soap that often tracks the pattern I swirl into the top, just as you see on yours. "Ash" that isn't really ash does not wash away with alcohol or water or steam.

This is so interesting! I hadn't heard this before. I get this every so often when I pour at light trace. I always figured that air somehow entered the soap during saponification.

 

[Jess_]

@Cellador thank you very much for your reply. I don’t think my purple layer was too thin when I poured, I actually think the pink was more fluid and that turned out ok. And yes I do spritz with alcohol before covering the mould.
@DeeAnna thank you so very much for this information! The white spots were present before I cut the soap and it hasn’t gotten worse since I’ve left them to sit (8hrs).
As I was cleaning up I noticed my container of coconut oil that I’d premeasured for another batch, was solidifying in weird patterns.

it lead me to think that perhaps because I’d worked with the layers, by the time I got to the purple, perhaps the batter had cooled too much causing the coconut to start solidifying?
But at the same time, having read what you wrote about glycerin rivers, it could definitely be that. I used a whisk to mix the lye & oils and stick blended each layer as I added colour & fragrance. However I may not have hand whisked long enough.
If this is stearic spots or glycerin rivers is the soap still safe to use?

 

[Arimara]

I actually like what's going on in the purple layer. It looks like purple clouds in a purple sky.

 

[Mobjack Bay]

I agree with @Cellador

I get a type of "ash" on the top of my soap loaves that's I've figured out is a variation on stearic spots. Stearic soap solidifies in a thin layer on the top of the loaf while the soap is still in the mold. This creates a thin "frosting" of lighter colored soap that often tracks the pattern I swirl into the top, just as you see on yours. "Ash" that isn't really ash does not wash away with alcohol or water or steam.

I just had this happen with a soy wax based soap and I actually like the way it looks. I was thinking it may have happened because the batter I poured to add color contrast for the swirl had cooled off quite a bit. The one place it didn’t happen was in the middle of the loaf. Maybe that part got hotter? Interestingly, the cooled batter that I put into individual molds doesn’t seem to have much, if any, frosting.

ETA: the soap has green clay for color and the speckles are from ground green tea.

 

[Jess_]

@Arimara thank you for your kind words. I don’t mind how it looks either, just hoping it doesn’t cause any skin irritation
@Mobjack Bay I like how your soap turned out! Very interesting that that one spot didn’t have the swirling.

 

[DeeAnna]

"...If this is stearic spots or glycerin rivers is the soap still safe to use?..."

@Jess... Yes, definitely it's safe. This is something soap does normally, just most of the time it's not visible.

"...I just had this happen with a soy wax based soap..."

@Mobjack Bay -- Oh, that is so pretty! I wish all my unexpected "oopses" looked as nice as this.

 

[KiwiMoose]

I get this on my soaps all the time. I think it's the stearic thing, as DeeAnna says. I use SW so I have a high stearic content in my soap. I just roll with it now. Soap will do what it will do. If i wanted to change my recipe (which I don't) and my method (which I do sometimes depending on the soap I'm making) I could minimise or eliminate this effect - but changing things always has other consequences and I'd rather 'know my beast'.

 

[Jess_]

@DeeAnna & @KiwiMoose thank you both so very much! I’ll be going into my next batch with a little more confidence now.