Gel phase

[Courtney]

Every soap I make goes through partial gel phase. Just a ring around the middle. What can I do to prevent this? 

[Barbara AL]

Force gel in the oven on 170 degrees and than turn oven off. Use heating pad for a couple of hours, I have these corn warmers I microwave and put on the bottom of the log and cover with towels.

[Shari]

I do what Barbara AL does in the oven sometimes.  I generally just cover them with either a lid or some cardboard then place 3-4 towels over the top and then put one of those   I always get full gel.  If it's cooler than usual, I'll put a heating pad under the molds.  I use wood molds with silicone liners.

[TallTayl]

7 hours ago, Shari said:

I do what Barbara AL does in the oven sometimes.  I generally just cover them with either a lid or some cardboard then place 3-4 towels over the top and then put one of those   I always get full gel.  If it's cooler than usual, I'll put a heating pad under the molds.  I use wood molds with silicone liners.

Same

[Sarah S]

I force gel in the oven, just like above. I always gel my soap, I'm not a fan of the texture of un-gelled CP.

[Sponiebr]

@Courtney
If you REALLY just DON'T WANT GEL PHASE soap... (I can't imagine why you'd not want that, but I'm not gonna judge you...)

1. You're going to have to make sure there aren't any components to your soap formulation that will heat the soap up, anything dairy, honey, sometimes sugar, additives, natural vegetable colorants, TITANIUM DIOXIDE, high CO content, high PO, or PKO content... There's about a BAZILLION things that can heat soap up.
2. You're gonna have to do a water discount which means things are going to move much faster.
3. Your mold is going to have to be completely un-insulated. Thin wood is ok, thick heat retaining wood or anything else is a no-no... Basically a shoe box lined with freezer paper is ok for a non insulated mold. 
4. You're going to have to keep the soap COLD throughout the entire saponification process which will be GREATLY slowed down and will take MUCH longer at low temperature. Stick it in your fridge. 

ANOTHER way to avoid PARTIAL gel is to skip CP altogether and go with a High Temperature Fluid Hot Process in which you FORCE the whole batch into gel and then completely finished soap ready to use as soon as the soap has cooled enough to cut it. That's the way I used to do it... Wonderful swirls, just GREAT! The drying time was a tad long at over 6 months and I lost a lot of soap having to plane the shrunken warped bars pretty again... But the soap was AWESOME! You also get to pick WHAT your exact superfat will be (you make 0% SF soap and then add in at the end of the cook whatever fat you want the SF content to be, OO was one of my favorites.) 

Or you can do what everyone else has suggested above and force gel the entire loaf. Gel phased soap is prettier, smoother, dries harder, and the colors "pop" better. 

HTH! 

Sponiebr
The Executor of Bad Ideas and Sundry Services. 

 

[TallTayl]

In general I don’t aim for gel. I soap cool with a steep water discount.  I need soap that is ready to cut within a day and package within a very short period of time. 

 

My shop does not have an oven. The most I care about is that it DOES saponify thoroughly to prevent crumbly soap.  In the winter season, which is exceptionally cold and long here, if I don’t preheat my molds and set filled molds stacked on a heating pad many of the loaves and blocks just don’t have enough energy to fully saponify.  The effect is soap that crumbles when cut. Hence the heating pad to move more energy up the heavily blanketed stack. 

 

“IF” gel were important I would soap much warmer with more fluid and deal with trace changes. 

 

Partial gelled soap on occasion does not bother me in the slightest. I have had loads of success sticking a partial gelled log into an oven to second process, basically a slow oven hot process, to even out the colors.  The oven gels from the outside. The goal is to have the colors meet somewhere in the middle.

 

oven hot process also forces out more moisture, making soap dry a bit quicker, sometimes too quick for the tank cutter. 

[Candybee]

I never force gel and don't intend to. Not every soaper wants to gel. I have done it before and frankly don't see the benefits one way or the other. But then I do mostly milk soaps and I have heard that other soapers that do milk soaps tend to not force gel. I just see gelling as a matter of preference and not a rule of soapmaking.

[Courtney]

Thank you for all your feedback. I will definitely try some of these tips out.

[Jcandleattic]

On 1/4/2019 at 10:10 AM, Candybee said:

I just see gelling as a matter of preference and not a rule of soapmaking

Exactly, soap will become soap whether gel is achieved or not. As long as saponification is achieved as TT said, you will still get soap. 

 

I don't force gel in an oven, but do like to gel my soaps by wrapping in towels and not peeking during saponification. 

[Crafty1_AJ]

On 1/3/2019 at 3:25 AM, Sponiebr said:

There's about a BAZILLION things that can heat soap up.

 

 

Like most floral fo's.  *sigh*

 

On 1/4/2019 at 11:10 AM, Candybee said:

I never force gel and don't intend to. Not every soaper wants to gel. I have done it before and frankly don't see the benefits one way or the other. But then I do mostly milk soaps and I have heard that other soapers that do milk soaps tend to not force gel. I just see gelling as a matter of preference and not a rule of soapmaking.

 

I let my soaps gel because I can unmold and cut sooner.  But I will say that I prefer the creamy look and texture of ungelled MILK soaps.  There's my one exception!