Monday, January 25, 2021

Whoopsie....

 

I  made soap all last week. One loaf a day. The drying racks are getting filled up again.





I ended the week with some unscented goat's milk soap and it was not without drama.



My molds are in two pieces. You have a wooden outer part and an inner silicone liner so the batter doesn't run out and you can get the soap out once it's hardened. Without realizing, I poured the batter in the wooden part and forgot to put in the liner. Argh....what a mess.  I had to scrape it all out and put it in another mold. It's a good thing I have two of those molds and I wasn't planning any fancy color work.




But there's more....immediately following that drama I noticed that the last two loaves I made were full of  brown spots. What on earth...




Every single batch of the spotty ones was made with the exact same measurements, the exact same ingredients and tried and true fragrance oils as the non spotty ones except......




....the coconut milk. Coconut milk helps boost lather so it's a regular addition but I ran out after three loaves and ordered some food grade coconut milk from Amazon. I checked the ingredients and they were the same as the soap grade coconut milk (which is coconut milk and maltodextrin) but the percentages must be different. All those spots say too much sugar to me. Lye caramelizes the sugar making the dark spots. The same thing happens to goat's milk if you let it heat up and I let the spotty batches heat up because....who knew?




Oh, well.....it should be fine to use. Just weird looking and I've made plenty of weird looking soap. It all seems to work.












9 comments:

  1. I think the spots are kind of pretty.

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  2. Sorry about the oopsies with the soap but I can testify that you make wonderful soap. I use it every day in the shower!
    I would have never notice the brown spots if you hadn't told me.
    Blessings and hugs,
    Betsy

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  3. You are like a chemist!! I bet it's very nice, spotty or not.

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  4. I found the same problem when I used honey in one of my soap recipes--very finicky temperature parameters! The soap always works fine! Nice to be in the lab again, right?!

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  5. My first thought was to be awed by all of the science! I always love your soap-making posts because it's something I'll never do but it's so very interesting! Your soap is lovely, spots or no spots!

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  6. Spots or not, it’s pretty and useable. It reminds me of knitting or sewing mishaps - no one notices until it’s pointed out.

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  7. The spots look planned to me! I agree with Dee!

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