Even experienced soapmakers get DOS!

It can happen to the best of us.
No matter how many batches you've made...no matter how much you think you know...the day will come when you open up your box of curing soap and see them - (cue ominous music) - dreaded orange spots, or DOS.
I've been cleaning and organizing my soap and candle room and consolidating some of the batches of soap I've made over the past while. I had one batch that was about a year old. I opened up the box to look at it...and there were the spots. DOS is not completely understood, though I've got several links to "explanations" at my brief article on Dreaded Orange Spots. You'll read that superfatting is the most suspected culprit of DOS. But this batch had a zero superfat. (I was going to make laundry soap with it.) The next most common suspected culprit is soft oils like sunflower. Nope...not here either. This batch was mostly lard. The one thing that may have been this batch's downfall was that it had no scent in it. I have heard that fragrance and essential oils have a bit of a preserving effect on the soap. So my guess is that it was just a combination of the age of the soap - perhaps some uneven curing - and an unhappy soap gremlin that got into my soap room and caused some trouble.
Click on the "comments" button below and tell me your DOS stories, and what you think caused it!