Teach Soap

Hello-
My lipbalm is about 3 months old, and it has developed little white dots all over it. They almost look like snowflakes, and are setting on top of the lipbalm. It's soft and seems to dissolve when I rub it. Can this be from the cocoa butter or shea butter? Is it because one of the ingredients were rancid, or is it because I used too much of something? Are these still OK to use, or should I toss them? Thanks for any advice!!

Lisa

Cocoa butter or shea butter can go grainy like you described. Some people have good luck tempering their butters before they use them.

Forgot to say, yes, you can still use them.

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

Definitely still useable! And, it's the strangest thing, but since I haven't been melting my butters and instead allowing the extra hot oils/waxes from the recipe naturally melt my shea and cocoa butter ... no little white dots.

I've heard other ways to do it as well; the most popular is a form of tempering: heat the shea/cocoa butter slowly over heat for 45 minutes, chill right after using

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Happy Soaping!

Anne-Marie
blog: www.soap-queen.blogspot.com
supplies: www.brambleberry.com

Thank you both! Guess I need to be more patient with the melting. Good to know that they are still usable, just wish they didn't look kind of moldy. Is it possible to remelt them to make it go away? I thought I remember reading somewhere that you can't remelt butters, but I'm not sure why. Thanks!

You could try remelting, but if they have any flavor oils, you will loose those; due to heat.

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

I just recently had this problem as well. Good to know I'm not the only one I guess. All my lip balms are grainy and ick. guess if nothing else I have several I'll be using for a while.

When you temper it, do you need to double boil or what, for lip balm. Almost makes me want to just buy a premade base. My first balms turned out fine, and I did them in the microwave, the exact same way...but the second round, disaster!!!!!