Why is my soap clumpy

[Gothra]

Hello all,
I made a batch of soap today, everything seemed to be fine at first, no sign of ricing, the batch is of a nice smooth consistency when I pour into the mould. However, when I pull out the swirling tool, the bottom of the batch that got drawn out was clumpy. As you can see in the picture, one side of the soap is still very smooth, but the other side where the swirling tool came out is all clumpy. Is this ricing or separation?

I mixed the melted oils with 3% fragrance oil first, then I add the lye water (36% lye:water), both at 65C, blended light to medium trace. I used green and black mica, and titanium dioxide as colorants. The soap is still in the mould at the moment, but it looks like the green and black part is less clumpy than the white part. Could it be the TD?

 

[JuLeeRenee]

My guess would be since you started with a high temperature that it started overheating.

 

[Gothra]

Okay, I’ll try again next time with a lower temperature, maybe close to 50C and see how it goes.

 

[JuLeeRenee]

Hope it helps you. I personally try to soap between 78 and 90 after I had one crack on me and one almost volcano on me. It still is very pretty.

 

[Anstarx]

Titanium Dioxide can accelerate trace in my experience, so that could also be the reason.

 

[Gothra]

I cut my soap today, if you look closely, the white is not consistent. But I think it should be safe to use.

 

[The_Phoenix]

Okay, I’ll try again next time with a lower temperature, maybe close to 50C and see how it goes.

Even 50C is pretty hot. I'd recommend 30-42C and not much hotter.

 

[AliOop]

In your first pic of the soap in the mold, it looked like soda ash forming on top. I tend to get a lot of ash with TD myself.

The second pic looks to me like a combination of TD that didn't get mixed in well, plus some glycerin rivers which are common when you combine TD with high soaping temps. High water can also play a part, but at 36% lye:water, I don't think that was your issue. It was the TD + temp, and fortunately it appears to be just cosmetic. If you had anything oozing, or pockets, then you'd have cause for concern.

 

[Peachy Clean Soap]

Your soap design & colors are pretty.

 

[Catscankim]

i get that when one color accelerates faster than another color. I have on particular color that is my absolute favorite, but is the bane of my existence because it always gets thicker quicker than the others. Can't remember it off the top of my head, but it is a blue.

It will pour nicely, then when I swirl, there will be clumps of it. Now I know that this color will be the absolute last one that I mess with before I start pouring. And I keep it SUPER thin until I add the color, while the other colors in the same soap will be brought to a thicker trace first to keep them at the same consistency when pouring/swirling...if any of that makes sense. It is trial and error, and sometimes a little bit of luck.

And I have read in the past that colors don't accelerate trace...I beg to differ since I have this problem consistently with one of my micas. I KNOW I have to treat it differently, and for the most part, I do not use this one for anything too fancy.

Other than that, I think your swirl is lovely. I think in the white, it looks like glycerin rivers. Wait a little while and some of the other stuff might plane off nicely. It looks like ash or unincorporated td to me.

"Magical things happen when you plane your soap". I can't remember who said that LOL. Maybe @dibbles or @TheGecko LOL.

 

[Gothra]

Thanks for the help everyone. I’m reading up the older posts regarding titanium dioxide, and it seems I might have used too much of it. So it’s most likely a combination of high soaping temp plus extra TD that triggered the clumps to form. I was disappointed because the batter was so smooth and consistent when I poured (my previous batch had ricing problem due to the FO), I had no idea the bottom had started to react and formed clumps until I started swirling. Hopefully my next batch will work out better.

 

[ResolvableOwl]

Looking at the cut photo, there is just zero reason to be disappointed, IMHO! Some people (like me) are trying hard and unsuccessfully to recreate glycerin rivers.

What is your reason to go that high with temperature? Do you work with very high-melting ingredients like soy wax, stearic acid or beeswax? If not, you're just adding extra hassle to the soapmaking process (shorter time window for pouring/swirling, danger of glycerin rivers, volcanoeing and ricing, FO/EO evaporation losses) without benefit.
If you intend to avoid stearic spots, melting up hard fats at, say, 65°C is good, but after mixing with soft oils, there is no need to keep temps up that high for the whole process. If it's that you want to enforce gel, heat liberated by saponification (insulation) and/or CPOP usually do the trick.

But I think it should be safe to use.

After stable emulsion is established (i. e. you don't find drops of liquid in/on the soap), safety for use is only a matter of the recipe (you're fine off as long as you have neutral to slightly positive lye discount/superfat), and curing time.

 

[Peachy Clean Soap]

For the life of me' haven't a clue the temps ya"ll are speaking of. I'm a Fahrenheit Gail, guess I got a look at that temperature.

 

[Gothra]

What is your reason to go that high with temperature? Do you work with very high-melting ingredients like soy wax, stearic acid or beeswax? If not, you're just adding extra hassle to the soapmaking process (shorter time window for pouring/swirling, danger of glycerin rivers, volcanoeing and ricing, FO/EO evaporation losses) without benefit.
If you intend to avoid stearic spots, melting up hard fats at, say, 65°C is good, but after mixing with soft oils, there is no need to keep temps up that high for the whole process. If it's that you want to enforce gel, heat liberated by saponification (insulation) and/or CPOP usually do the trick.

I used to soap at around 40C, but then I started reading about “false trace” after my previous batch riced. So I increased the temperature this time, thinking that would help prevent false trace...now I know I shouldn’t fix something not broken, lol.

 

[ResolvableOwl]

False trace is a thing, yes. But there are only very few ingredients that can provoke false trace at 40°C, let alone at 65°C. Even the “worst” base oils (tallow, cocoa butter, palm stearin, soy wax) are well-behaving at >40°C.

 

[earlene]

I cut my soap today, if you look closely, the white is not consistent. But I think it should be safe to use.

Beautiful soap. Some people don't like glycerin rivers, but I do. It makes for a gorgeous design IMO. Lovely and perfectly fine to use. It is an aesthetics issue if someone doesn't like it, not a safety issue.

 

[Catscankim]

This brings to mind an ocean inspired soap that I made a long time ago. It was with the dastardly blue that accelerates on me and TD. Since the blue clumped up, and the TD got glycerin rivers, it made for an unexpectedly neat ocean soap lol. I will have to find a picture. I don't think I have any of the actual soap left.

Edit: found it lol. And MM Key West Blue is my offending blue. There were probably 50 things done wrong with this soap as it was close to one of my first ones, but I get the same problem every time I use key west blue. I save it for when I want a challenge LOL. But here I have glycerin rivers and clumping at it's finest. I used to soap much warmer back then as well.

 

[KiwiMoose]

So some of you appear to have problems with particular coloured micas? (I'm assuming they are all micas that you're talking about). I've never experienced that ( I don't think....)!

 

[earlene]

So some of you appear to have problems with particular coloured micas? (I'm assuming they are all micas that you're talking about). I've never experienced that ( I don't think....)!

Well, Titatium Dioxide is not a mica, but it is also added to some micas for color variations, so I have experienced TD thickening in some micas as a result.


The Key West Blue by Mad Micas has TD second in the ingredient list, so perhaps that is what is causing the clumping. It could also be the amount of colorant used that contributes to the clumpiness.

I have noticed the more TD I use, the thicker the batter, so it makes sense to me that if I add more rather than less of a colorant that includes TD (I have several that do), then the batter will thicken even more, and it does.