How about turning on a heating pad in addition to the insulation? I never felt like oven process was needed, but that's just me - a lot of people are used to CPOP
My goat milk soap keeps cracking on top
- Thread starter DebFiel3
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I put my soap on a piece of cardboard on a heating pad and cover it with a cardboard box. It's usually around 90 degrees when I put it on there. I leave the heating pad on low for about 4 hours. Then I turn it off and leave the soap tucked in overnight. I have never had a partial gel ring.
Maybe, if you want to try again for full gel, try a 30% lye concentration (a little extra milk) which should make it more likely to gel completely. I hope you find something that works for you.
Question about this, @ackosel! How do you get your lye solution to stay cooler? I've made soap 3 times now, and all 3 times I've had to wait a long time for the temperature to go down. This is with ice cubes! Am I pouring the lye in too quickly? Should I try to add it slower? I don't pour it all in at once since I know that's bad. Even with ice, my lye temperature sits around 120 F after stirring.
I'm not an expert by any means so I'm just guessing ~ but maybe it's in the percentage of liquid (?). When I was actively making GM soap, I would use the GM for 100% of my lye solution liquid, freeze it solid, put the milk cubes in a container and slowly pour in the lye flakes, usually all at once, just slowly so I didn't make a lye dust cloud. I would give it a thorough stir, and let it sit a few minutes then stir again, then let it sit and continue until the lye was thoroughly dissolved. And usually, my lye solution rarely went above 100°F. That worked out well for me because my oils would have already been melted at this point and set aside to cool a bit, and by the time the lye solution was ready, the oils were usually around the same temperature so it seemed the perfect balance. I didn't force gel, if anything, I would refrigerate to prevent overheating but I only had one recipe get super hot and that one had oatmilk in it, not the goat's milk ~ go figure.
If your lye solution is staying hot even when mixing with full frozen ice, maybe you need a little more liquid
What's your ratio of lye to liquid? Does the temperature of the lye solution cause any problems or are you just concerned?
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I add the lye VERY slowly, just a little at a time. It usually takes me about 20 minutes to add the lye in small increments, dividing the total amount into 6 or 8 additions, and then stir until each addition is dissolved before adding more. The milk ice cubes are usually all melted by the last addition or two, so I started putting the lye solution in an ice bath while adding and stirring. With the ice bath, I have been able to keep the lye temperature below 80°F.
I guess I just like living on the edge 
I read all kinds of things that said the milk will scorch if it gets above 70-something degrees. While it may cause problems for some people, that has not been my experience. I have gotten my milk/lye solution temperature as high as 110 degrees and have never had a batch scorch. I also read that gelling milk soap will scorch it. Acting on the advice I got here on the forum, I have been intentionally forcing gel in all my soaps and have never had a scorching problem.I guess I just like living on the edge
While it is always important to follow safe handling procedures, I think that sometimes it doesn't hurt to push the envelope a little and try something outside the "norm" and see what happens. The result might not be as bad as you think! I might get brave and try adding the lye like you did and see what happens. I'd sure like to find a faster way to add lye to milk. Adding it slowly all at once, and then stirring every few minutes would be a lot less time consuming than the way I'm doing it. I could use that time between stirring to weigh fragrances, set up molds, mix colorants, etc.
I'm usually wiping and cleaning a few things along the way and getting my molds ready ~ I don't have a lot of space so I wait until just before I'm ready to blend everything together
I should probably say I also mix my lye solution in a lye safe plastic container ~ so I don't have to worry about what might happen if it did get to hot 
Sometimes there's just no explaining why things happen other than soap does what soap does Give it a go ~ just pour that lye very slow so you don't get a poof of lye dust come up in your face
As for forcing gel ~ I just haven't done it yet, not sure why really, I just like to be done when I pour into the molds I think
I might try it dom day 
Tell me about it - in the beginning I used to dump all the NaOH into the liquid at once! The batches were small and the concentration was high most of the time - I've never had lye solution boiling volcanoes. Now that I make bigger batches with more liquid (still high concentration, all the time) I don't do that anymore, and prefer to slowly add lye to water in steps, and stir and dissolve well before adding the next part - just in case, I don't feel like pushing my luck anymore lolI guess I just like living on the edge
I think you can definitely gel milk soap without scorching it, as long as it doesn't overheat (your experience is proof). That's what scorches it - gel alone is fine
I'm late to this party but I do have some input that no one has mentioned yet. I love making, and using, goat milk soap but I usually only make it in the dead of winter and put it outside as soon as it's in the mold because I get partial gel and overheating every. single. time. That said, I have noticed that it's usually when I use my wooden loaf molds. Wood tends to insulate the soap,
If you look at your photos vs @scmorgans soap, you'll notice the biggest difference is in the size of the molds. Scmorgan uses a mold that has a larger area of open soap batter vs your smaller loaf mold.
