gelling

[catikit]

why does my soap sometimes appear to miss out the gel stage?

 

[FreeRabbit]

it might not be able to build up enough heat to gel. for gel the soap needs to be isolated enough to get hot and stay hot.
that being said what makes you so sure your soap didn't gel? some soaps are sneaker and others and some partially gel or not gel or gel- most often without their owners control...

 

[IrishLass]

Like FreeRabbit said, it may not be able to build up and then retain enough heat to gel. I like my soaps to gel, so I soap my oils warm at 120 degreesF, and I pour my medium-thick traced soap into a well insulated wooden mold which I cover & then set in a warm oven (preheated to 120 degreesF and then turned off) to let it do it's thing overnight, and 99.9% of the time my soaps always go through complete gel. The tiny % that resists gel or only goes through partial gel seem to be related to a few certain FOs for whatever reason.

Other soapers use similar or different methods to get their soaps to gel. Some set their molds on a heating pad and/or wrap them in warm towels, etc...

You can tell whether your soaps have gelled or not by their look and consistency. Ungelled soaps are opaque and quite soft right out of the mold, and when you go to cut them it feels like you are cutting into cream cheese. When pressed with your finger, they easily dent.

In comparison, gelled soaps are slightly transluscent (unless you used TD or a lot of other colorants) and are much firmer to the touch and harder to dent when pressed with your finger. When you cut into them there is much more resistance, like cutting through hard, refrigerated butter rather than soft cream cheese.

IrishLass

 

[catikit]

ok thats useful thanks. I wonder if its because i'm making such small amounts of soap (to test recipes) e.g. 1 or 2 bars.... What are the benefits (if any) of encouraging my soaps to go through a gel stage?

 

[IrishLass]

ok thats useful thanks. I wonder if its because i'm making such small amounts of soap (to test recipes) e.g. 1 or 2 bars.... What are the benefits (if any) of encouraging my soaps to go through a gel stage?

Ah- that's the problem. Your batches are way too small. The bigger your batch, the more heat that will be generated.

Also- just in case you didn't know- unless you have a really good scale that can measure accurately down to .0005 ounces (.01grams), it's just asking for trouble to attemp to make a batch of soap containing less than a pound of oils. The lower one goes below a pound in total batch size, the more room there is for errors to occur in getting an accurate reading from your scale, especially if they are the typical scales that most handmade soapers use that weigh down to only .1 oz. At that low of a weight (a 1 or 2 bar batch), just the slightest discrepancy in the weight of your lye can mean the difference between a good soap and a lye-heavy soap.

My smallest test batches are just a slight fraction over a pound, which gives me 4 or 5 bars of soap depending on how thick or thin I cut them. I soap them the same way as I mentioned in my previous post and they gel just fine.

The benefits of gelled soaps (to me) are that they can be unmolded, cut, and beveled much sooner (12 hours from pour for my soaps, sometimes less, depending on my formula), and they spend less time on my curing rack (4 weeks as opposed to 6 weeks or more).


IrishLass

 

[xyxoxy]

Everything IrishLass said...

I would add that I almost never gel my soaps as I prefer the more opaque, creamy texture that results from preventing gel. And on normal sized batches I have to work hard to keep my soap from gelling.

Either way it is still good soap whether you choose to gel or not.

 

[catikit]

great - thanks everyone. I'm using a jewellery scale that measures down to 0.001g - but i think i will take your advice and make slightly larger practice batches (perhaps 250g ish). Many Thanks!