At what temperature do YOU soap at?

[MizzBee]

I don't take temps. I just feel the sides of my containers. I usually soap warm to the touch. If it's a floral or trouble FO, I'll wait until everything cools off more before beginning. I do find that I get partial gel or no gel if I let my oils get too cool and the FO is not speedy. Again, if the FO is speedy, it usually will gel no matter the temps. YMMV.

Same here....I'm a touch and feel too!

 

[Lynnz]

Yip same here cozy warm pot is good to go :0)

 

[IrishLass]

Okay, I feel dumb asking this...but what is gel? Why does that matter? What's the difference?

Don't feel dumb! We're all her to learn.

'Gel' is the term for a natural stage your soap batter goes through on its way to becoming soap. What happens is that the soap batter heats up due to the chemical reaction going on between the lye and oils (which accelerates the saponification process), and as it does so, your batter becomes a translucent mass of soft gel before hardening back up and becoming soap.

Your batter will harden and become great soap whether it gels or not, but it takes longer for non-gelled soap to do so than gelled soaps.

Some people like to 'gel', and others like to prevent 'gel' to get a certain look. Typically, non-gelled soaps have an opaque look to them, and gelled soaps have more of a translucent look to them (although adding titanium dioxide will make them completely opaque).

Also- some like to prevent gel in order to prevent certain scents and/or colorants from morphing (gel can cause those things to happen with certain scents and/or colorants).

The thing most soapers want to avoid is partial gel. That's where the soap doesn't gel all the way through and you end up with part opaque/part transluscent looking soap. The soap itself will still be great in terms of performance once it's done curing, but it won't look as uniform in color.

HTH!
IrishLass

 

[cthylla]

Awesome, thank you!!

 

[judymoody]

After reading all of these posts, I'm wondering if the temp actually matters that much?
I thought that if I didn't stay within the 3 degree span my recipe dictated that the soap wouldn't come out! I'm wondering now how anyone is coming up with the heat they settle on.

For me, it was trial and error. I use a goodly amount of hydrogenated PKO plus some of the more brittle butters in the majority of my soap formulas and noticed that whenever I soaped these particular formulas hotter, the problems that I was experiencing with instant trace and/or ricing went away. I later found out that what was happening was that my soap batter wasn't actually being allowed to come to a true trace, but a 'pseudo-trace' instead, i.e. the cooler temp that I was soaping them at was causing my PKO and brittle butters to come out of their melted liquid suspension and resolidify or revert back to their natural solid states before saponification could really get going into full swing. Also- my finished soaps that went through pseudo-trace always ended up with a smattering of annoying and unsightly stearic spots throughout the bars. Soaping these particular formulas at a hotter temp solved both problems for me.

When I make 100% Castiles, 100% CO soaps, or 70 - 80% olive oil soaps, I soap at room temp or body temp.


IrishLass

What IrishLass said. 100%

 

[ctay122]

I usually soap around 100 for oils and lye. I soap a little higher if I want it to gel, and a little lower if I am trying to not gel. Today I did a batch of each and soaped the first at 115 and put it in a warm oven, and the second at 95 and put it in the freezer.

I am a new soapmaker, I usually soap around 110 degrees. Sometimes I get gel, sometimes not, I guess it depends on the combination of oils I use. Why would someone want to get their soap vs not gel?

 

[cthylla]

I usually soap around 100 for oils and lye. I soap a little higher if I want it to gel, and a little lower if I am trying to not gel. Today I did a batch of each and soaped the first at 115 and put it in a warm oven, and the second at 95 and put it in the freezer.

I am a new soapmaker, I usually soap around 110 degrees. Sometimes I get gel, sometimes not, I guess it depends on the combination of oils I use. Why would someone want to get their soap vs not gel?

Check out IrishLass's post a few above! I asked the same question.

 

[JackiK]

i soap hot usually. my hard oils are warm but not totally liquid and my lye water is around 150 or higher. i use the heat to melt the oils the rest of the way. unless it is a floral FO then i soap around 100. ( i forgot once, and it literally HP'd itself)

I learned this FO lesson, too.

I only have ten or so batches under my belt, but the temperature thing is something I think I caught on to pretty quick.

If I want the soap to gel, I'll soap at 125 degrees or so. If I'm using an EO or FO that accelerates trace, I'll soap at room temp (75-80 degrees). For the whipped soap, of course, the oils and lye have to be cold.

For me, it all depends on what I'm trying to achieve.

 

[soapbuddy]

Gelling or not is a matter of personal preference. I prefer not to gel.

 

[silviaa]

I soap at 120 for both oils and water/lye. I don't think my soap gels, but I'm still new enough at soaping that I can't really tell