Stearic Streaks & Lye Heavy Soap

[CaliChan]

This is Lye heavy soap 6 months into cure. You can see that the soap is slowly turning a red color and they are covered in soda ash.


These are stearic streaks






**Note, I know this isnt soap porn. I thought I would share the Lye Heavy soap because I wasnt sure if anyone knew what it looked like. It was my first attempt at CP soap and I got a bad recipe off the internet *oops* this was before I found this forum.
And i posted the stearic streaks for one of the members here for her to see what they looked like (Ive googled it up and down and never knew what it looked like until it happened to me) I guess Lard (im sure other oils have this to) has a high stearic acid level and can cause strange lines to show up sometime after cutting the soap. Ive used the soap and it seems to be strictly aesthetic. didnt hurt me and came off the soap after I used it a couple times.
So I guess this is an informative post

 

[AlchemyandAshes]

Whoa! What the heck is going on there? It looks like it is rusting...

 

[CaliChan]

lol! wich one?

 

[terminatortoo]

No what is on my soap doesn't look like that. You say it's the lard that causes this?
It looks more like the first pic.

 

[CaliChan]

The top ones are covered in soda ash, that's what happens when lye comes in-contact with air, I think its strange that it happened after you cut up your soaps.
and Lard can cause stearic streaks, not always, Ive herd of other oils causing it to.

 

[terminatortoo]

I do use lard in my soap, the next time I have that problem I will post a pic. Thanks for your help.

 

[melstan775]

Whoa! What the heck is going on there? It looks like it is rusting...

We should change DOS and lye heavy to "rusting." It sounds more fun.

 

[terminatortoo]

Ok what is DOS?

 

[chicklet]

DOS = dreaded orange spots. It means that some of the oil in the soap has gone bad (rancid). I've only seen it in person once - a soap I made with a fairly high percentage of sunflower oil.

 

[CaliChan]

yep, ive only seen it in soaps with canola oil

 

[Lynnz]

Wowser thanks for sharing it is sooooooo scary to think that there are recipes like that out there that people will try and know no better

 

[CaliChan]

>.< yeah... you can thank wikihow for that one...

 

[deg195]

My soaps usually get soda ash on them. I'm embracing it now. I don't cover with saran wrap or spray alcohol on them and I leave them in a pretty cool room to cure. I check ph and so far they are not lye heavy. Is there really a correlation between ash and lye heaviness?

 

[CaliChan]

My soaps usually get soda ash on them. I'm embracing it now. I don't cover with saran wrap or spray alcohol on them and I leave them in a pretty cool room to cure. I check ph and so far they are not lye heavy. Is there really a correlation between ash and lye heaviness?

there is if the ash continues to pile up on the soaps, the bars that i posted in the first picture are already re-covered with soda ash. there's no reason to be alarmed about the ash that shows up in the first 48 hours tho.

 

[hoegarden]

I get DOS when I made soap with high OO content.. not sure when this is so.. n the other thing that give my soaps DOS is orange EO..