Teach Soap

I have been making the same recipe for several years with the same FO and/or essential oils, and lately several of my batches have ended up with tiny pimple like bumps all over the cut sides. I don't notice the bumps until just after slicing them into bars and the bumps protrude within hours. Does anyone know what is happening?

You can see them in this photo:

The tiny white spots are bumps.

I can't think of anything that I have been doing drastically different. Sometimes my lye solution is cooler than the oils by 10-20 degrees...could that be causing this? I always use my oils around 100 and never had the bumps before. I would love to hear your thoughts as I don't want this happening...it really is annoying

Thank you for your help!

Kelly
Natural Family Botanicals

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Kelly Frohnauer

More than likely it is stearic acid from one of your oils. What oils are you using? I had those all the time when I would include palm oil in my recipe but since I stopped using it, no more "pimples". If you don't heat up all the palm oil and stir it thoroughly, you are likely to get that effect.

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Haven

Are you using a different implement to cut your soap?

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~bytheSEAsoap~ Mella bythesea, bythesea, bythebeautiful sea

海の皂

Thank you for responding, Mella and Haven!

I do use palm oil, but it has been part of my recipe for 10 years and the pimples only started showing up within this last year. I do make sure my oils are completely melted...I will try leaving them on the heat longer and see if that helps.

I have been using a wire soap cutter all the time, also...no changes there either.

I hope I can solve this mystery!

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Kelly Frohnauer

I have noticed that this happens with soaps that have palm oil as one of the ingredients. Stearic acid tends to settle in palm oil over time. So by the time you get to the bottom of your container, it contains more of the stearic acid, which can give you these kind of spots.

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

Could this be remedied by increasing the lye?

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Kelly Frohnauer

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

Have you change suppliers for the palm oil? It's possible that the supplier didn't properly melt and mix the palm before dispensing it into smaller containers for resale.

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Linda
I know the voices in my head aren't real, but they sure have some great ideas!

You can get no-stir Palm so you eliminate the increasing stearic concentration problem completely.

I have been using the same brand of palm oil for several years now. It comes in a box lined with a plastic bag. Should I melt the whole thing when I first get it and then pour it into a bucket and then dip it out when I need it?

Or, when making a batch, should I heat the oils longer and mix my soap at a higher temp?

It just seems weird that one batch will be fine then the next 2 batches be bumpy, then the next batch or 2 fine, then the next batch or 2 bumpy...etc...etc....

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Kelly Frohnauer

If it's not hydrogenated palm you would have to remelt the entire box each time then use what you need. I melt the whole thing once when I get it and stir it really well then portion it out into smaller containers that fit in the microwave. That way I only have to melt a small amount each time and stir before I use. If you wanted to make it super easy you could measure out your oil into per batch containers when you do this.

No, it's organic palm oil.

Thats a great idea...putting it into separate containers premeasured for my recipe! That would save alot of time! Thank you for the tip

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Kelly Frohnauer