White spots on soap

[Lyma]

Hi there,
After solving my problem with crumbling, a new problem appeared and i want to share it with you. After unmolding and cutting my prickly pear soap i saw some white spots on the surface and inside the soap.
I wonder what could it be. Is it lye pockets? Is it bad stirring? Is it the color of red clay or the fragrance?
My recipe:
90% olive oil, 10% coconut oil, 5% superfatting, 35% lye concentration, water+prickle pear juice, red clay, fragrance.
Mechanical stirring for 1 hour (no trace). After pouring the fragrance i had a very strong trace in a few seconds.

Hope it's not something bad, and easy for solving.

 

[Genny]

Did you zap test it? That's the only way you're going to know if it's lye heavy.
I doubt it's the clay, because it doesn't look like red clay. Also, did you hydrate your clay before putting it in? That can help it incorporate in soap better.

It kind of looks like air bubbles.

 

[VanessaP]

Yeah, you're going to have to zap test some of those spots. Though to be honest, if you were blending for an hour with no trace (100% olive oil takes me 10 minutes to trace with a 40% lye concentration), I highly doubt it is lye heavy. You do need to test for zap though, to rule that out. Otherwise, I agree with Genny that its likely air pockets from the fragrance oil accelerating the trace so quickly.

 

[Lyma]

Hi Genny,
I checked it and it didn't zap. When we say lye heavy, we mean the whole bar or specific parts of the soap like these white spots?
I can't think that the lye didn't incorporate well, after 1 hour mechanical stirring.
If it's air bubbles what could cause this? Too muck stirring? Could it be the fragrance and the really strong and quick trace it produced a few seconds after it was mixed? And if they are air bubbles why they are white?

 

[Genny]

When we say lye heavy, we mean the whole bar or specific parts of the soap like these white spots?

If the spots didn't zap, then the spots are not lye.

Air bubbles are caused by too much stirring & sometimes the equipment you use to stir can trap air, causing bubbles to get in the soap batter. I had a stick blender that did that.

I'm going to be honest, I don't know why air bubbles are white, I just know they are.

Although since it took an hour for you to stir your batter, is it possible your coconut oil cooled down and started to resolidify?

 

[Lyma]

I don't think it's the coconut oil. The temperature during stirring never dropped below coconut's melting point.
As you and Vanessa said, probably it's air bubbles caused from the fragrance oil accelerating the trace quickly. Before adding the fragrance the batch was really liquid so it would difficult to form air bubbles. The problem now is how to avoid this problem? Stirring by hand when adding fragrance? Warming a bit the fragrance before adding so that it reaches the temperature of the batch?

And something else:
With that kind of olive oil i use, it's really difficult to achieve trace, probably it needs more than 2 hours. Mostly i can't stand stirring for 2 hours, so i add the fragrance and achieve trace immediately. Is this good, or i must wait until the batch comes to a thin trace and then add the fragrance?

 

[Genny]

If your batch isn't at trace & you add the fragrance oil and your batch immediately thickens up, then your soap can sometimes separate in the mold. Just in case you don't know, separation is when some of your oils separates from your lye/solution.

For fragrance oils that cause problems like that, I add them to my oils before mixing my lye solution into my oils.

 

[Lyma]

I don't get this kind of oil separation in the mold, but sometimes after i unmold and cut the soap is a little brittle in the edges. Could this have any connection with the above?

I will try your advice with the fragrance. Hope it won't trace in a minute again and have to eat or drink any additive i was planning to add afterward.

 

[hoegarden]

I do have such spots from time to time. As they are usually on the surface, they are usually okay and don't zap.