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“White Spots” in Soap
Good day! Our soap was observed with “white spot/dot”. As I’ve been reading articles regarding the soap making, these spots were produced because of “uneven” temperature of lye solution and oil? Can someone confirm this claim so we can use this as our proof for our supplier of soap. Attached to this post is the image.
Thank you!
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10 Replies
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@MarkBroussard
@ngarayeva001
@Perry
Please help
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It is difficult to “confirm” anything by simply looking at a picture. Most here are kind of hands on people ? when it comes to solving a formula problem. What is your soap maker saying?
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Very true @Gene, those white spots can be very different things.
I suppose the soap is made cold process, by looking at the texture in the pic.
The spots you see could be as simple as tiny air bubbles incorporated during the mixing of the soap batter. Or, if the soap maker uses a mixture of high-stearic oils and fats (palm, but even more shea butter, cocoa butter, lard, and tallow) those could be “stearic spots”, which are caused by mixing a cold base with not so warm (partially melted) oils and fats. The temperature difference causes stearic and palmitic glycerides to solidify, forming specks that appear in the finished product.
In both cases the soap is perfectly fine to use, except that it might not pass the aesthetic test.A third option would be that those are “lye pockets” where the emulsification of lye water and oils was not complete and uniform, and some lye droplets either were too big or started to coalesce. The soap would be unsafe for use, in this case.
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Also it could be filth, mould, the buggers of a sick employee or a portal to other dimension. The thing is you shouldn’t care. You got a bad batch from your supplier and you are holding the proof. Even if it’s nothing the customers won’t see it that way. As to why, it’s their job to find the answer. If I had a complaint like that I’d refund the client with an apology. That surely was a “send it anyway, perhaps they don’t notice it”.
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Gene said:It is difficult to “confirm” anything by simply looking at a picture. Most here are kind of hands on people ? when it comes to solving a formula problem. What is your soap maker saying?
Thank you @Gene. They are saying that it’s a normal process of saponification, that white dots are due to bubbles formed. That’s what they are telling us.
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lmosca said:Very true @Gene, those white spots can be very different things.
I suppose the soap is made cold process, by looking at the texture in the pic.
The spots you see could be as simple as tiny air bubbles incorporated during the mixing of the soap batter. Or, if the soap maker uses a mixture of high-stearic oils and fats (palm, but even more shea butter, cocoa butter, lard, and tallow) those could be “stearic spots”, which are caused by mixing a cold base with not so warm (partially melted) oils and fats. The temperature difference causes stearic and palmitic glycerides to solidify, forming specks that appear in the finished product.
In both cases the soap is perfectly fine to use, except that it might not pass the aesthetic test.A third option would be that those are “lye pockets” where the emulsification of lye water and oils was not complete and uniform, and some lye droplets either were too big or started to coalesce. The soap would be unsafe for use, in this case.
Thank you for this information. By the way what is the aesthetic test?
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DAS said:Also it could be filth, mould, the buggers of a sick employee or a portal to other dimension. The thing is you shouldn’t care. You got a bad batch from your supplier and you are holding the proof. Even if it’s nothing the customers won’t see it that way. As to why, it’s their job to find the answer. If I had a complaint like that I’d refund the client with an apology. That surely was a “send it anyway, perhaps they don’t notice it”.
That’s what I’ve been telling the supplier. But, they are insisting that the soap just went a normal saponification process that formed bubbles during mixing that produced the white spots. I’m still waiting for their final report and response since I’ve asked them to replace 800 pcs of soap with this kind of condition. Thank you.
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@paoloferino the point of the aesthetic test is exactly what it says. You have been provided with a subpar product that, even if it might be safe for use (and that is not clear), is visually defective and will never sell, or not as well, even if you manage to bring it out on the shelves.
Are your product specification clearly outlined in the contractual obligations you have with the supplier?
It goes on to contractual/legal fields from here, and I am not at all prepared to have an informed opinion on this. -
lmosca said:@paoloferino the point of the aesthetic test is exactly what it says. You have been provided with a subpar product that, even if it might be safe for use (and that is not clear), is visually defective and will never sell, or not as well, even if you manage to bring it out on the shelves.
Are your product specification clearly outlined in the contractual obligations you have with the supplier?
It goes on to contractual/legal fields from here, and I am not at all prepared to have an informed opinion on this.I will check again the Memorandum of Agreement with our supplier. We will them within the week for possible solutions and agreements on this matter. Thank you
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paoloferino said:lmosca said:@paoloferino the point of the aesthetic test is exactly what it says. You have been provided with a subpar product that, even if it might be safe for use (and that is not clear), is visually defective and will never sell, or not as well, even if you manage to bring it out on the shelves.
Are your product specification clearly outlined in the contractual obligations you have with the supplier?
It goes on to contractual/legal fields from here, and I am not at all prepared to have an informed opinion on this.I will check again the Memorandum of Agreement with our supplier. We will them within the week for possible solutions and agreements on this matter. Thank you
*meet them
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