Teach Soap

Hello everyone. I am pretty new to CP soap making and just finished my 6th batch. I have a couple more questions I'm hoping someone can help me out with. First, about half of the batches that I have made have had a lot of air bubbles in them and I'm not sure why. I feel I am mixing each batch the same. I use a stick blender and I always keep it fully submerged. I mix it until it reaches a light trace and slowly pour it into the mold. Why am I getting so many air bubbles?
Also, some of my batches have come out the mold looking a bit greasy. The freezer paper that I use to line my molds gets a greasy saturated look to it towards the edges. Also, the soap will have random areas that look a bit more wet and greasy. This last batch that I made was the worst. It had many small areas where the soap had small greasy circles. Is this normal?
I have been ph testing all of the soap. All of them have tested at 9.0 right out of the mold. However, on the last batch, most of the ph strip turned a solid green color(9.0ph), but there were 2 very small dots of a dark blue color on the strip (hard to say but perhaps an 11.0 ph color? ) I examined each cut bar of this soap and other than the air bubbles and slightly greasy areas it looked okay to me. I put a ph strip directly on one of the greasy areas and it read 9.0. What do some of you more experienced soapers think about all of this? I would really appreciate your help. Thank you so much and sorry this is so long
btw-I have been using a lye discount of 8% and most of the batches were made with coconunt oil, olive oil, and palm oil.

You could go for a thicker trace if you're not adding anything else. If there were any blue dots on the paper strip, it means you didn't it mix completely.

What was your recipe?
How hot did you combine the two?

When I use a stick blender, I stir with it by hand, turn it back on for a minute or so, then go back to stirring by hand.

Bang your mold after you pour the raw soap in to help relase some of the trapped bubbles.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

Also, something that I learned from making gel candles many years ago, if your pour your soap over a large serving spoon or spatula, you will break up any of the air bubbles.

I learned a lot when my stick blender died mid batch and I had to finish by hand. It taught me to go a bit slower- use the stick blender a little, and stir by hand to make sure you get all the edges and thoroughly mix it, and the use the stick blender some more. When I get to a very light trace, I mix the rest by hand. Slow it down, stir by hand for a while, and see how your next batch goes.

thank you everyone......soapbuddy, here is the recipe I've been using:
12oz distilled water,
128g lye
454g Olive oil
284g coconut oil
170g palm oil
I've done a few variations but am mostly just adding about .5oz FO at light trace. This last batch did have a couple tiny blue dots on the ph paper. Does that mean the batch is bad?? Also, you asked what the temps were when I combined and I'm not for sure what the best temp is but I had the oil temp at 102 F and the lye at 104 F. Is that okay? I have been using the 90-110 range given in the Smart Soapmaking book. I did bang the mold a couple times but maybe I need to do that a bit better than I am. Thank you so much for your help
jbren....that is a good idea about the spoon, I might have to try that.

redfishinggirl ...you probably are right about the stick blender. I may try your idea about finishing stirring with the spoon. I've maybe been a bit overzealous with the stick blender..lol. Thank you all

also...just for curiosity sakes I want to add this...in the smart soapmaking book, Anne talks about how you can test saponification by taking the temperature of the soap mixture. She says to measure the temperature of the soap mixture just after blending the oils and lye(stir briefly), and then continue to measure the temp until you see a 2-3 degree rise. I noticed this happen with all of the recipes I used from the book, but with the recipe I listed above this did not happen. With the above recipe, which I have used several times now, I am actually seeing a decrease in temp. With this last batch the intial temp was 101F but after several minutes and after seeing trace for a while the temp was only 97 F. Isn't that a bit strange?

I don't take temps anymore, but when I did the lye and the oils were at about 110 when I mixed them together. I don't gel. I have put my soap molds in the fridge or the freezer to prevent gel.

My temps go down too and I have not had any problems with it.

_________________
Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

_________________
Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

You didn't list a fragrance oil so this may not apply, but just an fyi--- some fragrance oils cause soap to "sweat" oil during the curing process--- actually causing a separation of some of the oil. I try to avoid these myself but when trying out new ones, you never know. Many times the oil will reabsorb over the days of curing.

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