Gel Phase! Almost there.

[Courtney]

I have been having trouble with partial gel phase since I started soaping back in September. Finally I have almost conquered this problem. I put 3 of my soaps in the fridge over night. 2 of them avoided gel beautifully but one did not. Although it is almost there. Should I have put it in the freezer instead, it just seems like it didn't have enough time to chill before hardening. This fragrance seemed to heat up the soap more than the others (it is Vanilla Champaign from Nature's Garden). I usually soap anywhere from 90-110 degrees Fahrenheit. I really don't have a preference for whether it gels or not, except if there is any white in the bars then I prefer not to be gelled. This is the smallest amount of partial I've ever had it's usually much bigger than that.

 

Ps. Do your soaps sweat after cutting when you put them in the fridge? It was my first time doing it.

[TallTayl]

Chilling soap merely slows the saponification. I’ve had experiments from the freezer heat up quite a lot after removing ultimately reaching gel. Saponification HAS to happen at some point or your soap will not have a decent texture. 

 

Sweating is because the cold soap hits the humid air, much like a cold can or glass of water. If you’re going to use chilling methods to deter gel, put right into a plastic bag to keep the surrounding air from condensing on the soap surface.

 

if you don’t want to mess with chilling (since any level of production will make this a total pain) , try less water.  Less water makes gel much harder to achieve. For instance, I use a 40% lye solution and can’t hit gel without a hot oven.