Weird orange-yellow spots on soap (pics)

[AtropaTea]

Hi everybody, I'm new here.

I made a batch of soap yesterday, and it went through at least partial gelling (in the middle of the batch) . The top looked fine but I had my doubts when I saw that the left-over soap in the soap pot, which I hadn't washed yet, had tiny dots that looked like trapped bubbles all over.

So I unmolded the soap and cut it into bars. At first I thought it was ok, but then I saw the spots. They are orangeish.

Pictures:

The method was Room-Temp. (hot lye on solid fats) recipe I used was:

210g Coconut Oil
210g Palm Oil
280g Olive Oil

approx. 200ml Water
97.8g Lye

I added 2 tsps of Honey and 2 tsps of Fragrance oil (Gracefruits 'Green Tea') at medium trace. I also separated a bit of the soap and used Chromium Oxide Green pigment to colour it green, then tried to marble the batch in mold, not very successfully.

My first thought was that it might be honey that's not incorporated properly (it wasn't liquid honey, a bit thicker), but since I'm new at this, I don't want to take any chances. I'm afraid of lye pockets :shock:
I've handled it and haven't burned myself, and the scraps I've tried lathered nicely.

Any idea what they might be?


Thank you for taking the time to read this!

 

[MagiaDellaLuna]

I would not worry about it. You have discounted some water and honey also tends to heat a batch up. I often get sweaty beads on my soap when I have used honey.

Leave the bars to cure for a few days, then wipe the surface down with a damp sponge. If you have not had any zap from the bars you have handled chances are that there are not any lye pockets, specially if you SB'ed to medium trace. All the lye should have been pretty well incorporated.

If you are feeling brave enough, zap test one of the spots. I bet it is honey.

 

[carebear]

It's either honey or FO sweating out. Or perhaps you had some ricing when making the soap. If it's not zappy it's ok - just not nice. Blot and see what happens during the cure.

Your soap may have overheated, or maybe not mixed completely.

Or that damned technique of solid oils + hot lye - never works for me and every time I tried I got something odd, including what you have now.

 

[AtropaTea]

Thank you MagiaDellaLuna and Carebear!

I'm so relieved that you think it's honey or FO. I haven't tried the zap test yet. I'll try the blotting/ sponge thing, but from what I can tell, the little spots aren't really wet, they're more sticky.

You really think it might be the RT method causing this? I did have some difficulty melting all the coconut and palm oil with just lyewater. It takes forever even if I shred them first, which really surprised me since the lye is so hot. The first batch of soap I did using this method came out really nice, and I don't see any separation in it.
Hmm. I'm going to have to give CP a try next time and see what happens. I don't own any thermometers so I can't tell what the temps are, but I suppose if neither the oils or the lye are significantly hotter than the other, it should work, right?

You think I should rebatch this? It IS ugly even if it's not harmful. Smells good though

Thanks again, I really appreciate your input!

 

[opalgirl]

Looks like honey to me too. I seem to have that happen a lot when I use honey. Although my honey pockets are bigger and more spread out. So yeah, could be the FO.

 

[AtropaTea]

Update: I did the zap-test and didn't get zapped, so I assume it's safe. I probably won't rebatch because I'm lazy and it's a small batch anyways. I'd rather make more!

Thanks for all your help.