Teach Soap

I have white spots in my soap. This is my fourth batch and my first time using palm oil and an EO. The picture is too big to upload but... There are white spots and a few streaks. Oils were 109 and lye water was 114. I thought I blended well. I unmolded after 24 hours and washed my hands with no burning and PH strip was about 10. HOWEVER: when using Pheno DARK pink in every spot that I tested. I heated the palm oil but had no idea that it should have been CLEAR (it was cloudy with little white dots - stearic acid?). After realizing the palm should have been clear, all my oils were mixed (Caster, Coconut, Palm, and Shea butter) so I knew I probably had a failed batch. My questions are 1) were my temperatures correct? 2) were the white spots stearic acid and was that the cause of the soap being lye heavy and 3) when should CP soap be tested for lye? My test strip didn't show heavy lye so I don't feel confident using them.

Your temps are fine. The white spots in the palm oil were probably unmelted stearic acid.

Did you gel the soap? Did you do a zap test? PH strips aren't particularly accurate, as they only give a pH range. Soaps should be a bit on the basic side, so the reading of 10 is ok. That also most likely explains the phenolphthalein turning pink - it does that in the presence of a base. But if you zap test your soap and it doesn't zap you, then you should be ok.

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~Kelly~

My bet is on the stearic from the palm oil too. The temps are ok.
How much did you superfat? I presume you ran the recipe through a lye calc?

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

There should definitely be no pink after an 8 week cure. pH strips will only give you a range. They are not as accurate as a pH meter. Those are pricey though. You don't need to lick the soap.

Dampen your finger
Run it across the soap bar
Lightly touch that finger to your tongue
If it's lye heavy, it will feel like licking a battery or being lightly snapped with a rubber band.
If it just tastes soapy, then you should be ok.

The phenol test still testing pink worries me though. Are you sure you have reached a true trace?

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

If the soap didn't gel, it can take up to three days before it saponifies. That's most likely why the phenol is testing pink.
I prefer not to gel.
Give it another day or two before getting it out of the mold.

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

If you're going to make a 1 lb recipe, I would convert it to grams for better accuracy.
I prefer not to gel as the soap comes out smoother, lighter and I can use less fragrance, BUT the saponification slows down significantly.
The soap can zap up the three days later. After that it is fine. I give all my soaps 4-6 weeks of cure time. Pure Castile soap cures for 8 months.

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

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