# bumps in peppermint soap



## janner (Nov 3, 2012)

I have been making soap for quite a while now, but the first batch I ever added peppermint oil to has bumps in it! They are kind of sharp, but they will disintegrate if you rub them in water. The soap is very mild, but....scrubby! Does anyone have any idea what I did wrong or is this just something that peppermint does to soap?
Thanks,
janice


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## hsmomof4 (Oct 31, 2008)

Were all of your oils completely melted? I don't know that it's necessarily the peppermint that is the issue here. I have a number of different soaps with peppermint, including some that are all peppermint essential oil for the fragrance and that has never been an issue. And I'm assuming here that peppermint essential oil is what you used, so if that's not the case, please let me know.


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## Faye Farms (Sep 14, 2009)

The first thing that comes to my mind is stearic spots from soaping too cool.


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## janner (Nov 3, 2012)

Yes Stacey, it was peppermint essential oil and I didn't think that was the problem but it was a strange coincidence. Heather, I think you may be right. I don't recall how careful I was about the temp, but it is something I am not super fussy about. I had never heard of stearic spots before. They must not be dangerous since we have been using the soap and it seems mild, just scrubby. 
Thank you both for your posts,
janice


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## hsmomof4 (Oct 31, 2008)

Stearic spots are what you get when the oils are too cool: stearic acid is one of the fatty acids found in relatively high concentrations in tallow, lard, and palm oil. It is what makes those oils so hard at room temperature, and what contributes to those fats/oils making a hard bar of soap. Oils are made up of different combinations of fatty acids, and the different fatty acids contribute different qualities to the soap. If you go to soapcalc.net, you can look at the lye calculator and see the different fatty acids that make up the oils you are using. Anyhow the melt point of stearic acid is pretty high (about 157) and what you see with palm oil, in particular, is that it settles out as it cools. This is why if you use palm oil, if it's not homogenized palm oil, you have to melt and mix the ENTIRE container before you measure out what you need in order for the fatty acids to be evenly distributed throughout the oil that you are using (otherwise, if you just scoop out some from the top of the container, it will have a different composition from what is at the bottom of the container, and your lye calculations might be incorrect, because they are figured for evenly mixed palm oil). Anyhow, with soaping too cool, the stearic acid might not be melted, and if it's not melted, it won't mix properly with your lye, leaving these little spots in the soap. The issue is primarily cosmetic, though, so you can definitely use the soap.


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## Kalne (Oct 25, 2007)

It took me forever to learn about stearic spots. A lot of my early batches had them. I still get them from time to time too but like Stacey said, it's just cosmetic.


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## janner (Nov 3, 2012)

I can't tell you how much I appreciate this information!:lol 
Thank you so, so much,
janice


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