what's this grit in my bars?

Soapmaking Forum

Help Support Soapmaking Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Joined
Feb 15, 2024
Messages
141
Reaction score
421
Location
Tennessee
Ever since I started using tetrasodium EDTA in my bars, I've had little particles show up in some. Not all. This is a good example, unmolded this morning. (Not talking about the bubbles but about the actual little pieces in there that look like granules of salt.)

Recipe:
34% olive oil
30% palm oil
17% coconut oil
10% shea butter
5% sweet almond oil
4% castor oil

+ EDTA (7.13g; for comparison, the whole batch was 1000g oils before processing)
+ sodium lactate (10g)
Lye concentration is 33%.

The EDTA is pre-dissolved in a 50% solution with distilled water and added to my oils before I add the lye.

Any suggestions? I'm definitely not consistent with my soaping temperature, still trying to figure out what works best for me, could that be it?
 

Attachments

  • IMG_1786.jpeg
    IMG_1786.jpeg
    582.2 KB
Another gritty one. Finer particles but still particles. This recipe is:

32% olive oil
31% palm oil
17% coconut oil
10% avocado oil
5% castor oil
5% shea butter

The EDTA was in a 35% solution rather than a 50% solution but I'm pretty sure I accounted for that water difference.

What am I doing wrong? Something is causing something to precipitate out, but I don't know (a) what's causing it, or (b) even really what the precipitate is.
 

Attachments

  • mystery grit.jpeg
    mystery grit.jpeg
    2.3 MB
It could be the edta, but my first suspect is the palm oil. If you’re not already, try heating the palm oil to at least 160 F before you add the other fats. That should take care of any palmitic or stearic-rich fat crystals. @Zing had a similar looking issue that was discussed in a thread that I can’t seem to find at the moment.
 
It could be the edta, but my first suspect is the palm oil. If you’re not already, try heating the palm oil to at least 160 F before you add the other fats. That should take care of any palmitic or stearic-rich fat crystals. @Zing had a similar looking issue that was discussed in a thread that I can’t seem to find at the moment.
Ohhhhhh thank you so much. I bet that's it!
 

Latest posts

Back
Top