Questions about fluffy top soap

[foresthome]

I love the look of these and Lyn is so kind to share how to do them with us. I love seeing the pics of all of the soaps being made this way. I want to try it for some soap to send to my mother on Mother's Day. As all of you know you have to start early, you need a couple of trial batches and then there is cure time. So I have some questions, first I take it that you do not want your soap to gel when making this type of soap, as that would ruin the look, am I right. If this is correct how do you prevent soap from gelling. Also at what trace do you take the knife to the soap to create these tops.

 

[newbie]

Many people have speculated that you don't gel to preserve the top, but we haven't heard that directly from the master, herself. To prevent gel, first you can soap cool and then after you're done sculpting, you can put the soap in the freezer, fridge, or in some of our cases where it's cold enough, in the garage for 12-24 hours. I don't think anyone can tell you exactly when it's thick enough to do the tops- it's clearly at a thick trace, but that's the trick, I guess, is learning how to recognize when, That's why we're all still practicing, or at least I am!

 

[AmyW]

I poured at a thicker trace than usually and just stood there and poked at it with my knife...once it start doing what I told it to (lol), I got into shaping it. I've only tried Lyn's method once so far so I'm no expert!

newbie already posted what I was going to on the gel. I usually put mine in my cold laundry room and open the window to cool it off even more. It's about 50/50 if it works, sometimes I can't stop gel no matter how hard I want to, but if I do get it, it's a partial gel that doesn't mess with the top.

 

[Bubbles Galore]

No speculation. I gel mine often. I don't cover with anything as I just put it in the oven. These are both gelled. :wink:





Every now and again, depending on oils, fragrance or essential oils, I get overheating, separation, flopping of textured top and a complete mess. This is relatively rare but very annoying. :evil: This one had to be poured back into pot and stick blended and it ended up like HP. High Coconut Oil with 20% lye discount, Neem Oil, Lemongrass EO. I should have known better than to texture the top. This one gelled spontaneously out of oven.

 

[carolyntn]

Wow, Bubbles Galore, those are beautiful!! Whenever I don't cover my soap and gel it- I get lots of ash. How do you prevent ash, if I may ask?
Thanks,
Carolyntn

 

[Bubbles Galore]

Some of them ash and some don't. If I am worried about ashing, I spray the tops with Isopropyl Alcohol before putting into oven. Sometimes a light ash can look very pretty on textured tops.

 

[GreenScene]

I've never had problems with gelling and textured tops, though I prefer the look of ungelled soap.

 

[agriffin]

I gel mine also...never had problems with the tops flattening.

 

[foresthome]

Thanks

Thanks for all the info. I usually gel my soaps, but I am in Montana and could easily put it out in the garage where it is 29 degrees right now to try to prevent gel. Bubbles your soaps look great gelled so I will probably try that for my first one. Carolyntn, I read in thsi forum that 70% isopropyl alcohol doesn't really prevent ash, you need 90% grain alcohol to do it. Not sure if this is true or not, but will probably buy some Everclear to try it out myself. I had one batch of soap ash really badly, one a little, and the last 5 not at all, I have no idea what I am doing different. I am going to try my first goat milk recipe today and hopefully a fluffy top.

 

[carebear]

you can get 90% rubbing alcohol at some grocery stores or drug stores. you don't need to waste your good booze on ash! (save the Everclear for making Kahlua or Limoncello!).

 

[KnowWhat]

That lavender and pink soap is inspirational!

 

[ToniD]

Wow! I too love the purple and pink soap! Lovely! Can you share, BubblesGalore? topped the white first and then poured a different layer for the purple and pink?

Whatever you did, it's great.

 

[Bubbles Galore]

Wow! I too love the purple and pink soap! Lovely! Can you share, BubblesGalore? topped the white first and then poured a different layer for the purple and pink?

Whatever you did, it's great.

Glad you like it. It's my plop soap. I just plop and glop everything into the mould because it's setting up fast.

(Pour the white into mould and texture, then pour the different colour down the sides and over the top, follow up with next colour and save bits of all to drizzle and plop over top.) :wink:

 

[carolyntn]

Thank you Bubbles and Forest Home for the tip about the Isopropyl Alcohol. As it so happens I have a bottle in my cabinet! Now of course I need to make soap so I can try this! Do I barely spritz or liberally spray?

 

[Bubbles Galore]

Give it a good spray so it's covered and let it sit for a bit to evaporate before putting into oven. :wink: