What are these tiny balls on top of my soap?

[Bree]

I made this batch of cold process soap tonight.

I did put it in a slightly preheated oven (200 degrees or lower) for a little bit to help with gel phase. But no cracking or expanding seemed to happen so idk if it’s an overheating issue.

Is this an indication of undissolved lye? The balls are small, smaller than a bb, and they are soft. Almost like little tiny balls of coconut oil or palm oil but I’m not sure what the balls actually are. It all seemed to blend well with the stick blender and didn’t show up until after being in the mold for a little bit.

Thank you!

 

[Lidiacgarcia]

Hi @Bree
Welcome to the forum!
In order to troubleshoot. Could you please share your recipe and the temperatures that you had your oils and lye when you made this soap

 

[Ford]

Hi, what does the inside look like? That looks grainy. Yes, more info please.

 

[Bree]

Hi @Bree
Welcome to the forum!
In order to troubleshoot. Could you please share your recipe and the temperatures that you had your oils and lye when you made this soap

Yes, thank you!

My recipe is

15 oz olive oil
11 oz palm oil
8 oz coconut oil

10.8 oz water
4.8 ounces lye

This batch was soaped a little bit higher than my normal. I can’t swear to precise temperature but I think it was around 150. Give or take.

Hi, what does the inside look like? That looks grainy. Yes, more info please.

Hi there. I will see if it’s ready to cut today and try to post pictures if so. I also shared my recipe and approximate temps. Thank you!

 

[DeeAnna]

The "balls" are liquid that is weeping out due to slight overheating. You say you soaped warmer than usual and then you CPOPed the soap at 200F. It's very likely all that warmth was a bit too much of a good thing.

The white crust that remains behind after the beads of liquid disappear will be soda ash (washing soda, sodium carbonate). That is created when NaOH in the liquid reacts with CO2 in the air.

 

[Bree]

Hi @Bree
Welcome to the forum!
In order to troubleshoot. Could you please share your recipe and the temperatures that you had your oils and lye when you made this soap

Hi, what does the inside look like? That looks grainy. Yes, more info please.

Here are some pictures of the soap cut. I’m super disappointed because I think the issue is lye pockets. What do y’all think? These little balls throughout the soap are wet. I think it’s too early to properly zap test because it hasn’t been 24 hours yet.

 

[Bree]

The "balls" are liquid that is weeping out due to slight overheating. You say you soaped warmer than usual and then you CPOPed the soap at 200F. It's very likely all that warmth was a bit too much of a good thing.

The white crust that remains behind after the beads of liquid disappear will be soda ash (washing soda, sodium carbonate). That is created when NaOH in the liquid reacts with CO2 in the air.

Thank you very much for your help! I appreciate it. Can you please view the photos I posted just now and see if you think these are lye pockets? I’m afraid they are but not 100% confident.

 

[ScentimentallyYours]

Why do you think they are lye pockets @Bree? Not sure what the whitish clusters are, but the round white balls throughout the soap and top look like one time I had bad air bubbles from a stick blender. Try steaming the top and one side of a bar to see if they “pop” and disappear.

If the bubbles are from liquid and ash, steaming will also erase them. I’m wondering if this is the flipside of the separation question from CPOP in another thread?

 

[Lidiacgarcia]

Here are some pictures of the soap cut. I’m super disappointed because I think the issue is lye pockets. What do y’all think? These little balls throughout the soap are wet. I think it’s too early to properly zap test because it hasn’t been 24 hours yet.

Your soap looks beautiful! @DeeAnna would have way more experience than me. I would trust what she said.
I experience a similar problem before and was so disappointed when I vi the soap to see the white spots. and in my case it seems like the little while spots disappeared as the soap cured, I even forgot about them.
You can do a zap test before using the soap.
I believe your soap will be perfectly fine

 

[Bree]

Hi @Bree
Welcome to the forum!
In order to troubleshoot. Could you please share your recipe and the temperatures that you had your oils and lye when you made this soap

Hi, what does the inside look like? That looks grainy. Yes, more info please.

Here are some pictures of the soap cut. I’m super disappointed because I think the issue is lye pockets. What do y’all think? These little balls throughout the soap are wet. I think it’s too early to properly zap test because it hasn’t been 24 hours yet.

Why do you think they are lye pockets @Bree? Not sure what the whitish clusters are, but the round white balls throughout the soap and top look like one time I had bad air bubbles from a stick blender. Try steaming the top and one side of a bar to see if they “pop” and disappear.

If the bubbles are from liquid and ash, steaming will also erase them. I’m wondering if this is the flipside of the separation question from CPOP in another thread?

Well, one time when I had lye heavy soap and I knew the lye didn’t dissolve properly, it had similar round spots through the soap that were wet.
The spots throughout the soap (not talking about on top) are small and wet. They have wetness coming out of them. That’s what happened last time I had lye spots. You don’t think they are? I will try a zap test tomorrow. It also doesn’t look quite right. But I may have just overheated it and that’s the problem.

Thank you for your help.

 

[Bree]

Your soap looks beautiful! @DeeAnna would have way more experience than me. I would trust what she said.
I experience a similar problem before and was so disappointed when I vi the soap to see the white spots. and in my case it seems like the little while spots disappeared as the soap cured, I even forgot about them.
You can do a zap test before using the soap.
I believe your soap will be perfectly fine

Thank you! I will see what happens and do a zap test soon. I appreciate your help.

 

[Bree]

Why do you think they are lye pockets @Bree? Not sure what the whitish clusters are, but the round white balls throughout the soap and top look like one time I had bad air bubbles from a stick blender. Try steaming the top and one side of a bar to see if they “pop” and disappear.

If the bubbles are from liquid and ash, steaming will also erase them. I’m wondering if this is the flipside of the separation question from CPOP in another thread?

Also, my lye water looked like it may not have been fully dissolved when I poured it in, but I hoped I was wrong so I had doubt in my mind from the beginning that I hadn’t mixed the water lye solution properly.

 

[Ford]

Are you straining your lye water. As you pour into your batter. Helps catch bits and pieces

 

[Bree]

Are you straining your lye water. As you pour into your batter. Helps catch bits and pieces

I do sometimes but of course didn't this time. Thank you for the tip!

 

[Bree]

The "balls" are liquid that is weeping out due to slight overheating. You say you soaped warmer than usual and then you CPOPed the soap at 200F. It's very likely all that warmth was a bit too much of a good thing.

The white crust that remains behind after the beads of liquid disappear will be soda ash (washing soda, sodium carbonate). That is created when NaOH in the liquid reacts with CO2 in the air.

Hi @DeeAnna ! I know you're very knowledgeable and I'm wondering if you can help answer another question for me. I cut a soap bar from this batch of soap last night and it confirmed my suspicions - it had the wet streaks in it I recognize from another failed batch of soap I made in the past that had lye pockets. Zap test also double confirmed my suspicion of lye pockets, too.

My question is - I see you can grate up soap and mix with water, washing soda, and some borax and make a laundry detergent. Can I do that with this soap? Wont the lye pockets "be okay" or dissolve into the detergent mix, or otherwise work just fine if I grate the soap and make it into a laundry detergent? Or can that only be done with "properly made" soap? Thanks so much for your help!

 

[Lidiacgarcia]

Hi @Bree
In order for you to reach a specific person, it will be helpful to add @+the person name. So it gives the person a different notification.

Not Deanna here, but I do make laundry and dish soap.
In order for a dish laundry soap to clean properly. You will want it to be at 0% superfat or slightly negative superfat.

You can do a rebatch. But to use as a laundry you should add more lye.

The other option would be to do a rebatch to use as a soap for personal use, but you would need to confirm that the lye will be well dissolved. I imagine that if you were to add distilled water ( I would add about 10% of the weight of the soap in water to start) and rebatch on keep on keep warm low heat on a crock pot or oven it would do the job. Add the minimum amount of liquid possible to keep it well fluid to dissolve the lye.
Then you will need to confirm that all lye is dissolved before pouring into a mold. Dissolving all the lye for the soap to be safe to use will be the tricky part. If you choose to do this, a water sprayer with distilled water will be helpful to spray water as needed during the process.

Don't be discouraged in your soapmaking journey, that's how we learn unfortunately.

All the best!

 

[AliOop]

I will caution that if there are any undissolved lye crystals in the soap, it is very, very difficult to ensure during rebatch that all those lye crystals not only come in contact with water, but actually dissolve. Unless that happens, the soap will not be safe to use, as those undissolved lye crystals will not saponify any oils, but will remain intact and can burn the skin upon contact.

 

[Bree]

Hi @Bree
In order for you to reach a specific person, it will be helpful to add @+the person name. So it gives the person a different notification.

Not Deanna here, but I do make laundry and dish soap.
In order for a dish laundry soap to clean properly. You will want it to be at 0% superfat or slightly negative superfat.

You can do a rebatch. But to use as a laundry you should add more lye.

The other option would be to do a rebatch to use as a soap for personal use, but you would need to confirm that the lye will be well dissolved. I imagine that if you were to add distilled water ( I would add about 10% of the weight of the soap in water to start) and rebatch on keep on keep warm low heat on a crock pot or oven it would do the job. Add the minimum amount of liquid possible to keep it well fluid to dissolve the lye.
Then you will need to confirm that all lye is dissolved before pouring into a mold. Dissolving all the lye for the soap to be safe to use will be the tricky part. If you choose to do this, a water sprayer with distilled water will be helpful to spray water as needed during the process.

Don't be discouraged in your soapmaking journey, that's how we learn unfortunately.

All the best!

@Lidiacgarcia Okay, thanks so much for all your help! I appreciate it.

@AliOop Thank you for your help, too! Much appreciated!!

I will caution that if there are any undissolved lye crystals in the soap, it is very, very difficult to ensure during rebatch that all those lye crystals not only come in contact with water, but actually dissolve. Unless that happens, the soap will not be safe to use, as those undissolved lye crystals will not saponify any oils, but will remain intact and can burn the skin upon contact.

 

[Ephemerella]

Don't be discouraged in your soapmaking journey, that's how we learn unfortunately.

Just wanted to echo this, we ALL have made oodles of mistakes, and many (ok me) will continue to do so!

Your soap looks lovely, like some delicious Amish fudge I'd just love to snack on with my