Shaving soap with white spots in it forming - What's up ?

Dave in KY

Dave in KY

Monkeying Around
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If this has been posted before, my apologies and the mods can feel free to delete thisor move to that thread. Thanks

Sunday February 5, 2023
Razor: Rockwell 6S Plate 5
Blade: Wizamet
Brush: KB "The Kentuckian"/Timberwolf
Soap: A&E NYC (1508.5 Project)
AS 1: Witch Hazel
AS 2: A&E NYC
Fragrance:
Consecutive Daily Shaves - # 1,553

So a legitimate question was asked about this soap I'm trying to kill and have had for about 6 years roughly. It is on the ropes and it had these white spots in it which I have to say can be less than attractive. Some see them and think their soap has gone bad and even called it mold. It is NOT mold and not harmful to you nor does it affect the lather quality. Ha it happen years ago with another soap and the maker explained it to me. Seems it would be worth sharing here for others not to panick when/if they see it in their soap. I had a friend throw a bunch out thinking it was mold, again it is NOT. If the appearance bothers you all you need to do is SLOWLY heat/warm it in a microwave........SLOWLY. I do 5-10 seconds at a time. the goal is to warm it up to a gel/semi-liquid state WITHOUT cooking/boiling it and then stir the ingrediants together again. The white you see is the salt compound in the Stearic Acid. What's Stearic Acid that you see in soaps ? Here's a googled quote/description:

"Stearic Acid is a saturated long-chain fatty acid with an 18-carbon backbone. Stearic acid is found in various animal and plant fats, and is a major component of cocoa butter and shea butter. NCI Thesaurus (NCIt) Stearic acid is a white solid with a mild odor. Floats on water."

Once you have things stirred together again, you simply let it cool again to firm up and it's ready to use as shave soap again but looks better. Same lather quality etc. Lesson is, don't throw away your soap if it's just the white spots of the salt from the stearic acid. Use it as is or give it a warm make-over. Hope everyone has a great day !

BEFORE
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AFTER
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SOTD
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GREAT LATHER STILL
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If I remember correctly I had something as such happen on one of the Italian soaps I had - I want to say it was razorock XXX (I’m 90% sure) - just kept on lathering as normal and it worked fine. I believe when I bought it (online store) I did get sent older batch since it looked a little ‘tattered’.

Good tip on heating it up! Nice one
 
Scorpio93 said:
If I remember correctly I had something as such happen on one of the Italian soaps I had - I want to say it was razorock XXX (I’m 90% sure) - just kept on lathering as normal and it worked fine. I believe when I bought it (online store) I did get sent older batch since it looked a little ‘tattered’.

Good tip on heating it up! Nice one
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Thanks, I was just lathering it and not worried but actually had a soapmaker post a question and asked why it looked like tapioca in my SOTD. Thought odd I'd need to explain to him but figured why not do a post for others benefit and show results if the appearance bothers them. Thanks again
 
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I noticed this in your SOTD post the other day. I wondered if during use it, somehow, has separated out or re-formed stearic acid? The other possibility could be excessive heat during production can naturally create additional stearic from butters and vegetable oils used in the recipe
 
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BrianH said:
I noticed this in your SOTD post the other day. I wondered if during use it, somehow, has separated out or re-formed stearic acid? The other possibility could be excessive heat during production can naturally create additional stearic from butters ad vegetable oils used in the recipe
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Yep, you know your stuff Brian and much better than I do (y)
 
Thanks for the information @Dave in KY

I have a Wickham Super Smooth soap that has those white(ish) spots on the surface, and it lathers like a champ. It must be over seven years old
I don't see it being a problem at all.
 
I had a Razorock soap do that to me as well in the past. I think it was mudder focker.

It still performed as well as it did before the white spots appeared. So I just finished it off.
 
I had this happen to an old Wickhams Spice Road soap I acquired already used on BST here. Most of the soap had hardened into the little balls.
I used the soap as part of my rotation but I never got on with it that well; the lather wasn't great, it dissipated, I didn't find it that cushioning and occasionally it irritated my face. I ended up binning what was left about three weeks ago but I often wondered what the little balls were.
 
I’ve had this when getting towards the end of a tub, and can only assume it’s something to do with that. I’m sure there’s a scientific explanation…. I haven’t noticed any decrease in performance though, although it was Wilkinson’s Sword soap, so was pretty rubbish performance anyway…..
 
Paul L said:
Thanks for the information @Dave in KY

I have a Wickham Super Smooth soap that has those white(ish) spots on the surface, and it lathers like a champ. It must be over seven years old
I don't see it being a problem at all.
Click to expand...
Potd-24-06-23-01.png

Me too P. - see above - a Wickham Super-Smooth and P&B Denali of similar vintage - they look ugly but they work just fine and have held their scents over the years. It's just the stearic acid separating out - as said above. Cheers - I.
 
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