White streaks in soap

[Carl]

I keep getting these white streaks in my bar soaps. I'm not sure I can identify what is causing it and how to prevent it. They don't seem to go away, even after cure. I thought at first that maybe I wasn't mixing enough, but then I realized I'm guilty of stick blending my batches to death sometimes.

It occurs in a lot of my batches but is most noticeable in black, so I took a picture.

It's a very basic recipe of coconut, olive, and palm with fragrance and coloring.

Any suggestions? Thanks ahead of time!

https://drive.google.com/open?id=16XbytDemj7K2GMnRzKfB9nbT9O28Ibkm

 

[KiwiMoose]

It's glycerin rivers - they occur usually when the soap is gelled and there is a low lye concentration. Some people like them, some people don;t. I get them all the time in my soap, and see it as a benefit. Commercial soap has all the glycerin extracted and they sell it separately for a higher price!

http://emilyshandmadesoaps.blogspot.com/2015/04/cry-me-glycerin-river.html

 

[Carl]

Ahh thanks. I always knew about Glycerin Rivers. I just always thought they only formed on top of the loaf and not within.

Learn something new everyday!

 

[Carl]

One more question. Does it always show up as a river? Can it every be more of a little white dot effect? Almost like little white polka dots.

 

[Dawni]

Actually glycerin rivers are a misnomer, and I quoted DeeAnna on that. They're not actually glycerin anything, just soap.

Also, it's mostly what they call soda ash that forms on the tops, but once cut some people get em on all sides too. It's explained a bit in the below link.

Glycerin rivers or stearic spots (something else entirely now) are what usually occur within, or everywhere actually lol. I also recently learned that stearic spots could be in non spot form. More on that here.

The rivers have mostly to do with water content plus heat. You can read more about it here and is explained better here.

Honestly yours looks like someone else's post recently also of black soap.. And the concensus on that one was insufficient mixing. Not stick blending mind you, mixing as in getting everything incorporated from the sides n bottoms with the spatula.

I could be wrong.. Let's see what other say.

 

[Carl]

Actually glycerin rivers are a misnomer, and I quoted DeeAnna on that. They're not actually glycerin anything, just soap.

Also, it's mostly what they call soda ash that forms on the tops, but once cut some people get em on all sides too. It's explained a bit in the below link.

Glycerin rivers or stearic spots (something else entirely now) are what usually occur within, or everywhere actually lol. I also recently learned that stearic spots could be in non spot form. More on that here.

The rivers have mostly to do with water content plus heat. You can read more about it here and is explained better here.

Honestly yours looks like someone else's post recently also of black soap.. And the concensus on that one was insufficient mixing. Not stick blending mind you, mixing as in getting everything incorporated from the sides n bottoms with the spatula.

I could be wrong.. Let's see what other say.

Yeah, I feel like sometimes I over mix. I stick blended that batch really well to almost a thick trace. Then I stir it up a bit with the spatula before putting it in the mold.

One of the links above suggested that insulating your soap may be a little too much if you use wooden molds. I'm wondering if that's what happened to me? I have wooden molds that I made with wooden lids and the wood is 3/4 inch thick birch plywood. I used to get partial gel, so I started wrapping the molds in towels; double layer of towels actually. Now I don't get any partial gel! I'm wondering if I should cut back on the use of wrapping in towels and maybe a small water discount?

 

[Mobjack Bay]

In this additional post by Auntie Clara, she further describes what she did to force rivers: https://auntieclaras.com/2018/05/how-to-make-glycerine-rivers/. She also mentions that one of the distinguishing features in a soap with rivers is the unevenness of the cut surfaces after the soap is cut. The few times I’ve forced rivers, they have had quite a bit of surface texture.

I’ve produced rivers that have texture (described below), but also had white lines without the texture a few times. One time it was with a soap that had a fair amount of Shea and I thought that maybe it happened because I was scraping cooler soap from the side of the bowl into the mix. When I first started making soap I watched YouTube and wondered why makers always seemed so ocd about stirring batter and scraping the sides of the bowls, funnels of pitchers, etc. Now I stir and scrape religiously!

Auntie Clara produces soap that is as close to perfection as any I have seen and she emphasizes the importance of achieving the right combination of lye concentration and processing temperature. In the notes I have from studying her methods, I wrote that she uses water at 25% of oil weight and oven processes her soaps at 50-60C (122-140F) to avoid rivers. That contrasts with what she did for her “Red River” soap described at the link I added, where she used 2.5:1 water to lye and oven processed for two hours at 60C. I translated her methods to 42% lye concentration for low water soap and 28% lye concentration for high water soap. I also used a recipe she mentioned for test soap (40 PO, 40 OO, 20 CO). Surprisingly, the high lye concentration does not speed up trace much for me (more FO dependent). I have been able to force rivers in a high water portion of a high water:low water layered soap I’ve made twice now by using those lye concentrations and keeping the soap in the oven at 140F for at least two hours. I’ve also noticed that the surface texturing gets more pronounced as the soap dries/cures.