Question about gelling and room temp.

[WallFlower]

I made a new mold today out of silicone and wood (I have pictures in the photo gallery).

My old soap mold was of the same silicone but I didn't have a wood mold around it like I do now for the new one & it was also half as big.

I believe my soap is gelling in the new larger mold. I think it's because it's insulated by the wood now. And it's holding twice as much soap.

I NEVER had gelled soap in my old mold. I do not want my soap to gel. I know you can put the mold in the fridge/freezer but I was wondering if anyone knows if I use room temp. lye water and room temp oils, when I mix the two will it create heat still? I'm wondering if I can just do room temp instead because I have no room in my fridge/freezer for this mold.

Thanks in advance. :smile:

Edit: wanted to add that another problem for the gelling could be that I was so happy to soap in my new mold I didn't wait long for the oils and lye to cool down first. I also had trouble with accelerated trace & a bit of ricing. Not sure if that was due to *just* the FO (I did use florals) or the heat I soaped at?

 

[Kansas Farm Girl]

If you heated your oils then poured the hot lye water in you may have caused your accelerated trace. I mix room temp oil and hot lye water as my standard method. It still heats up and goes into gel stage. I encourage it by insulating, but I can feel the mold getting warmer before I wrap it, and feel heat coming off the top of it. A larger mold with larger batch will probably generate more heat than your old smaller mold just because of the additional volume of soap.

 

[melstan775]

I soap at room temp using a plain old box about the size of a silicon mold. It still gels. I can usually feel the heat off the side of the box before I'm done with the top of the soap. I just throw it in the freezer if I don't want gel.

 

[Shannon_m]

The combo of the extra insulation, soaping a bit warmer and of course the floral FO/EO most likely will cause your soap to gel. If you don't want to gel your soap you'll need to cool it down fast, or you could cover it and force gel. I've had a few that did partial gel and it makes that darker circle in the middle. Not a bad thing, it's just aesthetics.

 

[WallFlower]

Thanks for all the comments. So it seems the wood box might be an issue for me if I don't want to gel... I'll have to try some of the stuff you all mentioned. Thanks again!