Teach Soap

Hi, I need help in determining what is causing the white specs on my soap, I've had this happening before but not as bad, I am not sure what is the cause. This soap has white clay and salt added at trace, not sure if it is the clay or the salt or maybe something else, any comments greatly appreciated. I added water to the clay before adding it to batter, could these be steric spots?

I've had those on a couple of my soaps, too, but the soap tested out ok - not lye heavy - so I thought it was just cosmetic. But I have no idea what caused them.

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

It could be stearic spots or maybe just air bubbles, it is hard to tell from the picture. Did you use palm oil in your soap. Sometimes the stearic acid settles to the bottom of palm, so it needs to be remelted after you get it and stirred as it hardens again. Your soap is very pretty anyway.

Thanks, lsg. I just checked my notes and the soaps that had these spots did have palm oil in them. These were in my earlier batches of soap so I may not have known yet to mix the palm oil before using it. I haven't had any spots since then, so this is probably what caused the spots in my bars.

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

It looks like stearic spots to me.

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

thank you for your replies, how do you get steric spots from a packet of 1/2 kilo of palm oil? is it that I am not melting the oil enough for it to dissolve the steric in it?, I have been soaping at cooler temps lately trying to avoid gel maybe this is the problem

The stearic precipitates out of the palm oil if you soap too cool.

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

Thanks Soapbuddy for your reply, may I ask what do you consider too cool to cause steric acid precipitation? I soap at lukewarm temp approximately 100 degrees F

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

Thank you

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