Teach Soap

Hi, All .. very nervous; my first visit here, but I need your help!

I've been making M&P soap stuff for a few months, and kind of hope it'll go well. So far so good ... it's fun, and I'm enjoying it. But ... and here's the bit I need help with, please, and I know you'll all know much more about it than I do. Made a big chocolate soap bar about 5 days ago ... top bit out of opaque M&P with a bit of chocolate FO, cocoa powder dissolved in a very little melted cocoa butter, then poured over some 'orange chips'. The bottom layer is 'white chocolate' ... opaque M&P with a bit of cocoa butter, which gives it that lovely creamy look. All went fine; bar unmoulded, no probs. But a few days on I've noticed that the top of the bar (the chunky bit) has developed a whitish bloom, just like you get on slightly past-it chocolate. It wipes off, kind of, but takes the shine off the soap as well. What am I doing wrong? I suspect it's the cocoa butter behaving as it would in real chocolate ... should I just go for it without the cocoa butter, or is there a way around it?

The picture (hope I can attach it - bear with me if I don't manage it!) is of the bar as it was when it was first unmoulded. Imagine it now (!) with a fine, greyish layer on top. Doesn't look very appetising ... !

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Tired? Depressed? Sick of the weather? Talk to your doctor about the benefits of Chardonnay ...

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Tired? Depressed? Sick of the weather? Talk to your doctor about the benefits of Chardonnay ...

That happened to me too. I just went with it.

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

Unfortunately cocoa butter at a certain concentration or higher will bloom (cocoa butter solids will rise to the top) .. I found anything more than 2% would do that but about 1.5% you can get away with using it. Cocoa powder will also discolour and bleed brown into other soaps, ie white.

If you want to do a redo, try to add some base with no cocoa butter added and mix it with your existing soap (I've chopped up the existing and used it as embeds with the new soap) - this will cut down the % of the cocoa butter in the final soap and might help.

If you're not selling these, they're fine to use, no problem.. for selling, it'll be a problem. HTH

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Tired? Depressed? Sick of the weather? Talk to your doctor about the benefits of Chardonnay ...

You could sell it as a Limited Edition with natural cocoa bloom.

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

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Tired? Depressed? Sick of the weather? Talk to your doctor about the benefits of Chardonnay ...

I don't know... personally I wouldn't buy a soap with a bloom (I definitely wouldn't buy chocolate with a bloom either). For mine, I cut the bloomed edges off and then cut the inside chocolate soap into chunks and used them as embeds. Then I used the cut offs with fresh base and also some coffee soap I had from a previous redo and made a chocolate mocha soap which is just lovely... the fresh base allowed me to cut the % of cocoa butter but keep the goodness of it also.

I think it'd be worth trying them as embeds into another base .... you could find something fabulous in doing this.

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Hi, again, Honey! I have this horrible feeling that you're 100% right, but I'm so upset! The huge bars take so long to make, and they have tidgy little orange chips in them ... and they're layered with white chocolate. And they look lovely. And they smell lovely. And I've done all my PIFs. And I've done all my labels. The white chocolate bars are fine (presumably they don't show the 'bloom'), but I think I'm going to have to dissect all the layered bars, remelt with a fresh batch of chocolate (NO COCOA BUTTER!) and start again. AAAArgh!

On the bright side, did make a rather cool Christmas cake soap today, AND cracked the floating goldfish problem. Yeah ... I know it's corny, but people do like them, and so do I! It seems to be all down to thin wire and timing!

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Tired? Depressed? Sick of the weather? Talk to your doctor about the benefits of Chardonnay ...

How about trimming the outside edges off them? You'd have to be careful but if you had a beveller or something it might work. I hated having to redo mine but they actually worked out so much nicer (also my coffee soap as it split and also had cocoa butter in them). I preferred the newly done ones compared to the originals. I just think that, for sale, it's better to produce something you're completely happy about and I get the feeling that, through asking the question, you're not 100% happy with the final result. Yes I am sure they are pretty but if not just perfect, it can be very annoying indeed!!! The good thing is that you could cut them into fairly fat chunks and keep the integral design about them whilst embedding them into the fresh soap... it could work well for you. However, it's entirely your decision of course!

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I know this doesn't help your problem now the soap is made but l stalk all the soap forums for information and noticed a recipe which uses 1/2 tsp per lb of Liqua par Optima to stop a white bloom forming on a soap which had cocoa butter,coffee,and expresso powder included in the recipe. I have never heard of this ingredient but than l am a newbie to soaping there are a lot of things l haven't heard of, l was wondering if this would help in future soap batches .

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Pauline
http://www.facebook.com/SudsandKissesSoaps
Founding member & admin of Melt & Pour Soap Crafters.

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

Thank you all for your replies. I think I'm just going to have to grit my teeth and separate my lovely chocolate soap bar layers, then remelt the dark chocolate bit with some new chocolate M&P and no cocoa butter. Grrr

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Tired? Depressed? Sick of the weather? Talk to your doctor about the benefits of Chardonnay ...

It could end up looking even nicer don't forget - happened to me and I was much happier with Mark III than Mark I!

Please show pics!!!

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I tried to post a photo, but the site wouldn't let me. Dohhh. Will try again ... !

Decided to keep the two iffy bars, and am still experimenting with 'cocoa bloom prevention measures' . The rubbing alcohol didn't work, but the olive oil was ... a bit effective. What I think I'll do is wipe the two bars I have with olive oil, then immediately wrap them in silver foil and give them away as presents! I've modified my labels to explain what cocoa bloom is (wonderful stuff - means you've got really creamy soap!) so that should do it. I'm afraid that life's too short to worry about remelting vandalised chocolate soap bars (it was Katherine Whitehorn who said, 'Life's too short to stuff a mushroom', and to that I'd like to add 'or dissect chocolate soap bars'!). I shall, however, make some more unblooming bars so that my aesthetic conscience is completely clear!

I'm now going to try and attach a photo of the chocolate stuff before it 'bloomed'. If it doesn't appear, you'll know I've failed, yet again!
Teach Soap Chocolate Soap.jpg [ 22.64 KiB | Viewed 6934 times ]

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Tired? Depressed? Sick of the weather? Talk to your doctor about the benefits of Chardonnay ...