What happened to this batch?

[Allen]

Today I made my 6th batch of CP soap. I used a basic recipe that I was successful with before.
This time I incorporated 3 natural colors (cocoa powder, turmeric & ginger) and 2 essential oils (cinnamon and cloves).
I mixed base oils together and removed one tablespoon each to mix into colors.
I mixed the lyewater mixture with remaining oils and used a SB to mix then added EO’s.
I used a coffee frothier to mix one Tbsp of oil and each color into small bowls. These mixtures became fairly thick before mixing them into 3 separate bowls of lye & oil mixture. I again used a SB to blend into batter till a medium trace was achieved.
Everything was looking good to this point. I scooped first layer into mold and leveled in with spatula. Second layer was scooped into mold and leveled. Third layer was scooped into mold and while I was leveling it with spatula I noticed what looked like greasy spots in a few areas. It reminded me of melting brown sugar sprinkled on oatmeal. I decided to scoop the top layer out and try to re-mix it. While doing this a noticed they middle layer had the same issue so I scooped out all three layers and hand mixed again. By this time it was at a very heavy trace so after mixing it all together I again scooped it back into the mold. My tri-color soap in now kind of a russet red color. I will unmold and cut tomorrow to see what it looks like.

I ran this recipe the soapcalc and I am certain that I measured everything correctly. I think it had something to do with added the colors/oils when mixed into main batter.
Any ideas what might have happened and if this soap will still be useable?
I did not add recipe because of the length of this post already but can if needed.

 

[SaltedFig]

It always helps to add the complete recipe (sometimes there will be a detail that is important, and may be overlooked if it's not included).

Having said that ... it's likely that your spices have accelerated your soap.

The greasy layer sounds like separation - that happens when either soap isn't mixed together well enough in the first place (I don't think this was your problem), or the soap accelerated and was starting to overheat (I think this might be what happened - did you notice if your soap was hot?)

Anyway, the amount of the cinnamon and clove bud essential oils is also important, as both of these have limitations on safe skin use, so it would be worth writing out your recipe, just to include those for checking (if you like)

I do like the match you have between the colours and the spices - they sound like they go well together (even mixed together, it should actually look nice cut - you might even end up with some accidental colour patterns ... I look forward to the cut!).

 

[Allen]

This is the recipe that I used. 32 ounces of oil. 5% super fat
Coconut oil. 20%. (6.4 ounces)
Olive oil. 35%. (11.2 ounces)
Palm oil. 40%. (12.8 ounces)
Castor oil. 5%. (1.6 ounces)
Lye. 4.48 oz
Water. 12.16 oz
Both essential oils were between .5 -.7 of an ounce each and were under maximum recommend usage.
It appeared that the oil & color mixture did not blend well into batter even though I stick blended it pretty well after mixing. Everything looked well mixed until it was scooped into mold.

 

[lsg]

Cinnamon and clove essential oils might accelerate trace. Both of these essential oils are skin sensitizers and should be used very sparingly in soap.

 

[Allen]

Does mixing these two essential oils at about .5 oz ppo seem excessive?
This soap appeared to trace very quickly but I did manage to get it in the mold twice. I will be interested to cut into it later today to see what it looks like.

 

[HowieRoll]

I agree that the spice EOs would have heated things up - they can be challenging ones to work with!

It also appears to me that the usage rate is too high. My notes indicate Tisserand/Young recommends going no higher than 0.6% for cinnamon leaf EO (not sure if you have leaf or bark? I think the bark EO max is even lower), and 0.5% for clove bud EO. Did your EO supplier indicate a higher usage rate?

 

[Allen]

I will try and attach a couple of pictures taken after I cut the soap today.
It was softer than normal after 24 hours.

 

[earlene]

I suggest you use an essential oil calculator such as this one in the future. The usage even in a wash off product like soap was far too high according to the batch size you made and the essential oils specified. Now when I did the calculations, I did use cinnamon leaf as opposed to cinnamon bark EO, so it may be a different result, but I doubt much different. In any case both clove and cinnamon EOs are rapid accelerators, but even more importantly, they are both skin irritants and sensitizers. Cinnamon bark EO is contraindicated in pregnant women. Clove bud EO should not be used on children under that age of two. Neither is recommended for use in the bath. So I would not use that soap in a bath tub and would probably not use it all. I would probably shred it into bits and add it as confetti in limited amounts in new soap batter to dilute the percentage of those 2 EOs.

Here are some sources to read about the EOs you used:
https://www.aromaweb.com/essential-oils/cinnamon-oil.asp
https://www.aromaweb.com/essential-oils/clove-bud-oil.asp

Also you need to look at the recommended usage rates for the type of product in which you are using the EO. Soap generally has different usage rates than aroma therapy or lotions, etc. So that's very important when you choose how much to add to your product.