uneven white spots

[Jayrian]

Hi Guys,

I have made a soap of 75% Palm Olein and 25% Palm Kernel Oil and mold it in a 2inch pipe.

After 48 hours I unmold and start cutting.

On the top part of the soap the colour and texture is fine.

However on the bottom half of the soap there are white spots but the texture is the same as the top half (the soap at the bottom right of the picture).

I did a zap test and my tounge is fine, didn't feel any zap.

Will the white spots disappear after a few days or it will be as it is?

Thanks in advance

 

[Jstar]

Did you melt and mix your palm really well? It could be stearic or palmitic acid that hasn't melted completely and has settled at the bottom of the mold. If there is no zap it should be fine to use..but it will stay that way.

 

[Jayrian]

My Palm Olein came in liquid form. I heated them up to 50 deg C same temp as the lye and hand blend both for about 10 mins.

 

[Jstar]

Maybe try soaping at a slightly higher temp and see if that helps..it really looks to me to be unmelted or that has cooled quicker than the other oil. {which would make it settle to the bottom}

Is 50C what you normally soap at?

 

[Jayrian]

yes i normally soap at 50 deg

 

[topofmurrayhill]

Lol, don't be surprised if everyone blames the palm oil as usual. However, 50 C is quite warm enough and you used fractionated palm olein so there's no stearin at room temperature -- and certainly not at your soaping temperature. I don't believe there is anything to blame in the oils or temperature.

You describe the problem as being with the soap at the bottom of the mold, but I think I see discoloration on almost every piece, no? More on the bottom piece but really all through the soap. This does not look like top/bottom separation and I will guess that you did not use too much water.

My main question about this mystery then is whether maybe your soap traced quickly and you had to get it into the mold fast? If that happened, the uneven color would not be so surprising.

 

[Jstar]

It really doesn't look like it was glopped into the mold, and we're talking about what Im assuming is PVC pipe..which can cool down fairly quickly, and in spots.

It could be the palm 'kernel' oil that has cooled and not the other.. palm kernel needs 24C/75F to melt, and given that it was only hand stirred {no mention of SB?}..that's why Im thinking that may be what has happened.

To the OP:

Did you use a SB? What did the oils look like at pouring..clear or cloudy? Did you insulate?

 

[navigator9]

Uneven color and lighter streaks are problems that I used to have. I could never figure out exactly what caused them, but I wondered if it had anything to do with uneven mixing. So I started to stir with my spatula after mixing, making sure to scrape the sides and bottom of the container, and stirring thoroughly before pouring. This stopped the problem for me. I think we assume that the stick blender does a really good job of mixing, and it does, to an extent, but I think there are a lot of variables, including the recipe, how powerful the SB is, the size of the batch, shape of the container, how much you move the SB around, etc. I don't think it always gets everything mixed as evenly as we hope it does. So I make sure to scrape and stir every batch after stick blending, and since I've been doing this, I haven't had the problem. I can't say for sure that's your issue, but it can't hurt to try the scrape and stir. Good luck!

 

[LBussy]

Looks like these:

These were a high-stearic HP soap. The soap gradually lost some translucency as it cured and the spots went away. In use I don't see any of the spots as the soap is consumed. So, yes, I expect the spots go away.

As to why they are there ... in my case the assumption is bits that were scraped from the sides were dryer than the rest so were less translucent. In your case at 50C the stearin was not above its melting point (66C)of (even though it was "in solution" in the melted oil) so it is entirely possible that it "micro-seized" and created those spots. Either way I don't see them staying visible as it cures, nor do I think it's really an issue other than cosmetic.

 

[Jayrian]

Hello yes, i use a stick blender, the oils are clear when being used.

The mold is a pvc mold.

I did not insulate, the bottom part of the pvc is sealed with plastic and the top part is covered with a towel.

The water amount I used is according to the soap calc.

Thanks