Newbie help please - white blobs in soap

by Jane
(London)

Hi, I normally make lotions, lip balms, scrubs, surfactants etc and wanted to branch out into CP. Here's a photo of the first 3 batches of soap I've ever made. Was worried I was being too ambitious trying to swirl on my very first batch but I'm pleased with the outcome except for the white blobs in the soap. Is this ricing? If so, how do I prevent it from happening next time?

Here is the photo:-

http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/7044/soapall3in1.jpg

(The pink/brown one is 30% lard, 20% coconut, 50% olive - water 38%.
The other 2 are Palm oil 35% of total oils, Coconut oil 20%, Olive oil 45%, water 38%. All the soaps are superfatted at 8% and I soaped at 105 degrees.)

After I made them I sprayed with isopropanol alcohol, covered with cling film and put it to bed with 2 small thin towels. The temperature in my house is around 70 and at night it goes down to 60.

I don't think they went through gel stage - I had some quick looks and it didn't seem like anything was happening.

Answer:

Jane...I placed your picture at the top of the page so readers can see what we are talking about.

The orange orange portion of the top soap seems to have had some separation occur. Separation can occur when soap overheats, when a reaction occurs to a fragrance oil or overstirring after the scent has been added.

The white portion of the same soap seems to have some chunks of white in them. Be careful here. If the chunks are hard and slippery feeling, they may be chunks of lye. Using a wet piece of tissue, dab the white chunks. If the tissue goes brown, you may have lye chunks...in this case you will have to throw out the soap. If the chucks are soft they could be bits of lard, palm or coconut oil that didn't melt completely before you started to mix up the soap.

The pink/blue one might have similar issues. Streaking from a fragrance perhaps...I think I see a couple of white chunks.

The brown one might have cooled down too quickly before going into the soap mold.

Without actually touching and testing the bits, it is hard to tell for sure. The best that I can do is to make some suggestions.

Be sure when you mix your lye that all bits have dissolved and the water has gone clear before adding it to the oils.

For the room temperature method, before using the stick blender to mix the batter, be sure that the hard oils are completely melted and no chunks remain.

For the cold process method, the hard oils should be melted before mixing in the lye solution.

When insulating your soap, be sure to use enough blanket material to keep the heat in. My soap mold is wooden so it holds in the heat. Even so, I use a wool blanket to wrap the soap into. I check it every couple of hours to see if it has reached a full gel or not and when it has, I unwrap the soap so it doesn't overheat.

Hope these suggestions are helpful,
Cathy