Teach Soap

So I have been having issues with some of my soaps. Since I have switched over to the all natural Bramble Berry bulk soap I have noticed that some of my soaps started failing. At first it seemed random. Even though I wrapped all my soaps immediately after I removed them from the mold some of my soaps started gathering what looked like glycerin dew. Within a week, the dew would dry and look like ash. I have cleaned off the dew, but it just comes back and turns my soap ashy. This is extremely frustrating as I am selling these and it's important for them to look as perfect as possible. After giving it some thought, I realized it's was only the soaps with the butter added that are failing.

I add my own additives to my soaps. The BB soaps seems to take honey, liquid oils, milks, clays and flours alright, but it doesn't do well with butters. Shea, Cocoa, Mango, they all create issues. I have been adding additives to soap bases since I've started making soaps (over 3 years now), and I've never had issues like this with the other bases I've used (and I've tried many). I love the BB soap bases, but I add butters to a lot of my soaps and can't continue to use them if my soaps keep failing. Is there anyone out there that adds their own additives to bases, who can give me any help to prevent this?

Additional info: I add 0.5 oz of butter or oil per pound of soap (less than 5%). Since someone's probably going to ask , I add my own additives to my soaps for many reason. To save money. To experiment (I have come up with some truly lovely blends). To make the soap a little more "mine." But mostly for more freedom in my designs. My biggest issue with pre-mixed butter soaps is that they always have Titanium Dioxide added. For example, I have a couple Shea soaps which black is the prominent color in the design. This would not be possible to do with a pre-mixed shea soap base. With a Shea base I would have to settle for a gray color. Another example. I have a few Chocolate soaps I add cocoa butter, cocoa powder and buttermilk to. They are a very dark brown color. This color would also not be achievable with a pre-mixed cocoa butter soap base.

In advance, Thank you.

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Niquy's Eclectica
Artisan Glycerin Soaps, and other artsy crafty goodness all created with love and joy.
www.niquy.etsy.com

Welcome! I don't add more then 1 TBS of any additive TOTAL per lb. of soap. I have had no problems with it this way.

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

I really think I'm ready to throw my hands up and give up on the natural base. I just weighed a TBS of shea butter and it's about 0.5 oz. I add about 0.25 oz per pound and my soap still fails. So the issue isn't that I'm adding too much butter. I even bought the low sweat base to see if I'll still have issues. I checked some soap today that I made two days ago, and sweat is already gathering, on the soap that isn't suppose to sweet. (It's wrapped btw). I have no idea what I'm doing wrong. I don't know why all my butter soaps sweat. I live in the high desert of New Mexico, very low humidity, I shouldn't be having all this issues with sweating. I'm just dumb founded and frustrated beyond belief. I think I'll be careful not to add any more butters to the natural soap base I have left and start looking for another base that I can work with.

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Niquy's Eclectica
Artisan Glycerin Soaps, and other artsy crafty goodness all created with love and joy.
www.niquy.etsy.com

Are you sure it's sweating? Shea butter can get grainy if not cooled quickly enough, so maybe grainy shea is coming to the top?

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Genny

I was thinking that. It really has be scratching my head. I worked with the LCP base again, and added shea butter and it turned out fine. Odd.

_________________
Niquy's Eclectica
Artisan Glycerin Soaps, and other artsy crafty goodness all created with love and joy.
www.niquy.etsy.com

*has me

_________________
Niquy's Eclectica
Artisan Glycerin Soaps, and other artsy crafty goodness all created with love and joy.
www.niquy.etsy.com