Cleaning Up Soap?

[Grumpy Girl]

I CPOP'ed my first "regular" recipe last night, and didn't get full gel till about 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 hours after putting it in the oven. I guess this is normal?

Gel started on the edges and worked towards the middle, so before I went to bed, and before the gel had completely reached the middle, I took it out of the oven, left the saran wrap on top of it, but took off the towel because it looked like the sides were sweating. This morning the underside of the saran wrap was full of condensation and a couple of drops had fell on the soap. Should I have taken off the wrap at the point I took it out of the oven?

This brings me to my next question... when this stuff finally hardens up, how do I clean it up? ie, edges smooth, maybe fix the tops where the beading up of water/oil occured etc. They're way ugly right now and I've searched for sometime about how to do this and can't really find anything about it.

*Edited to add a photo of the culprit.

Swirled in the pot (My new method of choice), and scented with Lovely, by SJP.

[Sara]

I CPOP'ed my first "regular" recipe last night, and didn't get full gel till about 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 hours after putting it in the oven. I guess this is normal?

Girl - you're not supposed to peek!! (yeah whatever, don't we all though?)

Yes, that is normal.

With CPOP I put it in the oven at lowest warm for a couple hours, shut the oven off and then leave it for the night. By morning it is ready to cut.

This brings me to my next question... when this stuff finally hardens up, how do I clean it up?

It doesn't normally do that. I think it happened because you took it out early. The warm oven insulates it like blankets insulate regular CP. When I've taken mine out to early it is a not so pretty lookin' either. You'll have to trim the ones you just did, or rebatch.

[Grumpy Girl]

Okay, it's not bad enough to justify a rebatch, just a couple of rough edges.

I won't look again, I swear! LOL.

Is it better to insulate it with towels or put it in the oven naked, leaving it the hell alone with just the saran wrap on top? I don't have a lid for this mold... although I DO have some cardboard...

[Sara]

Nope no towels needed. I just use Saran Wrap on the molds that don't have lids. Cheap and easy.

[Grumpy Girl]

Cool, thanks Sara. I'm doing that to the log in the oven right now.

With this small Kelsei mold, I think a 1.5 lb recipe would work. These bars are super chunky.

[Grumpy Girl]

Okay, so I didn't look at the pink grapefruit log currently in the oven cooling down... And while I wasn't peeking, I noticed that the top has tiny bubbles all over it. I swear, gel is making my soap ugly as hell.

Is there a secret to the mystery of gel? Is it necessary? What is the difference in appearance and perfomance of a non gel stage soap vs a soap that has went through the gel stage?

I understand that all CPOP soap goes through this, and it's a necessary and unavoidable evil of OP, but gads... it is one ugly log of soap right now. Maybe by tomorrow it'll be pretty again.