Teach Soap

Greetings again,
Many apologies for my first two posts being of a similar nature.....
I made a batch of soap last night to the following recipe :

coconut oil (30%) 207g
palm oil (25%) 173g
olive (pomace) oil (25%) 173g
Babassu oil (10%) 69g
Kukui oil (10%) 69g

NaOH 100g @ 37C
H20 270g @39C

approx 0.25ml blue water-dispersed colour
5ml (1 tsp) Ho Wood EO
2.5ml (1/2 tsp) clary sage EO

Mixed with stick blender and traced within 1 minute. Kept in insulated (polystyrene) box 24 hrs, it did gel, cut easily.

The problem (and I am suspecting that this may be related to my other post...) is that a fair number of largish spots have appeared on the side of the soap (where it was in contact with the silicone loaf mould), that are slightly indented. These do not go through the soap (please see attached pictures - though perhaps ignore the not-quite-perfectly-blended colourant).





Any thoughts? There were no obvious liquid pockets/crystaline/powdery deposits inside the soap, and pH strip was 9.5 on surface cut soap.
I am inclined to trim the edges (which I wouldnt normally do), and leave to cure as normal (6 weeks for me), and if a surface pH checks out OK, then continue to use.

Cheers (again),
Adam

p.s. I have made a similar recipe before, but substituting the kukui for either brazil nut or macadamia nut oil (and making the necessary weight adjustments via a SAP calc), with no issue.

Sorry I really have no idea, never saw that before. Nice color and if ph is good which it seems to be I would let it cure and see what happens.

_________________
Four Seasons Fine Handcrafted Soaps
& Specialties, Inc.
Laugh, Love, Live!

Those spots could be condensation from water as the soap soap went through gel. A silicone mold doesn't absorb water, lye nor oils.
It's a very pretty color!

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

amazing color! At first when I looked at the photos I thought they looked like finger prints from handling a very soft soap? Since they don't seem to go though and all of the rest of the soap has no issues I would just cut them off.

_________________
Susie
Sometimes A Mistake is so much fun, You just have to do it again!

That seems to be a lot of water in that recipe. 691g of oils and 270g water.
The pockets looked to me as if they might be a combination of soda ash and contraction caused by drying-out of pockets of excess water?
As an example, I just made a similar size batch (675g) with 180g water. But it's hard to tell by a photo. Cool colour.

Thanks for the comments - especially regarding the colour. Im not sure I could replicate it tho!
I shall perhaps take on the advice about amount of water, perhaps trying a little less next time. It does seem that these go together with the other 'watery' issues i.e. beading on the surface.

I shall make up another batch tonight and see

Cheers,
Adam

I love the colour! Its wonderful!

_________________
~~Heather~~
Mad [soaping] Scientist

I have soap envy !