White spots on my Bastille soap

[toyah999]

Does anyone know what these white spots are? They are throughout the soap and I first noticed them when unmoulding. It is 70% EVO 30% CO and buttermilk 5% superfat no fragrance. I don't think I did anything wrong and all my oils, milk and lye were good. I tried zap test and nothing, I picked abit out and wet it on paper and was fine. I'm paranoid now, does it look like lye pockets because I'm not convinced it is but I can't figure out what it is. I even tried washing with it and no probs, was really nice soap. Any help is appreciated, thanks.

 

[Obsidian]

Do they feel oily at all? Almost looks like coconut oil spots. As long as they don't zap, I wouldn't worry about them. Definitely not lye pockets or rancidity.

 

[coffeetime]

Did you soap at room temp? Or use sodium lactate?

 

[toyah999]

They don't really feel any different to me than the rest of the soap. No sodium lactate and I soaped quite low cuz of the milk, about room temp but I lowered the temps by ice bath. Does it matter if I get impatient and lower the temp of the oils with water bath before adding, I always heat up properly to fully melt oils especially with palm oil and Shea butter but then sometimes I rapidly cool them back down so I don't have to wait.

 

[Nevada]

I like to Stick blend Bovine Milk before freezing to avoid spots.

 

[toyah999]

Do you think the spots could be the milk separating?

 

[coffeetime]

It could be the coconut oil clumping together as a previous poster suggested. Why would it be pure white if it was from the milk?

 

[toyah999]

True, I didn't think of that. I'm still learning. Does coconut oil spots happen even if you melted and mixed it properly? And thanks for the help everyone.

 

[coffeetime]

It can if the temp is too cold. Did you gel your soap?

 

[coffeetime]

And Obsidian is right... As long as the spots don't zap you are good to go. Next time I would keep your oils and lye just a bit warmer to avoid it. I use goat milk ice cubes in one of my recipes but the lye solution doesn't feel cold when I use it, just room temp or a little warm. And my oils are bath water warm. I also gel my soap and it doesn't discolour badly or smell weird. Just FYI.

 

[toyah999]

I never insulate because I live in crazy hot weather and soaps tend to gel without it. But I did soap this quite cool so it probably is coconut oil spots, I didn't know that happens but now I do. Thank you both for your help, the more I learn the quicker I will have useful info to contribute back to this wonderful forum.