You might be asking yourself what a soap doctor is.
Can you visualize a soap doctor? She/he would be wearing a white lab coat while checking the soap for thickness, hardness, lastability (is that a word?), or mildness.
Humor aside, soapmakers do become soap doctors.
What happens when a batch of soap doesn’t turn out as expected? The soap doctor steps in to diagnose the cause.
In this case, a soap bar with a circular pattern (or “ring”) inside, tells me that the room temperature when the newly made soap was poured into the mold was very cool and that the soap was not well insulated.
Sometimes the soap inside the ring is less solid, it can be crumbly. The appearance of a ringed pattern in soap does not mean it cannot be used for bathing. Rings can be a cosmetic type of thing, not affecting the stability or use of the soap at all. As I prefer to do, usable (slightly flawed) soap can even be sold at a discount – with explanation, as it isn’t grade A+ soap. Botched soap can also be donated to the Clean The World foundation, www.cleantheworld.org .
P.S. Additional blog posts on troubleshooting to follow! Imperfect soap happens.
Annies Goat Hill Handcrafted Soaps 