Running out of beginners luck!!!!!

[mare61]

After making my first few batches of soap which I only scented with herbal tea, ground spices and herbs I finally ordered some EO and FO's. So I made the following batch:

7 oz coconut oil fractioned
3.5 oz Cocoa Butter
7 oz Palm Oil
10.5 oz Olive Oil
1.75 oz Castor Oil
5.25 oz Sunflower Oil
5.18 oz Lye
8.75 oz Aloe vera juice
Aloe vera juice as 25 % of oils.

Mixed the lye and oils together at about 120 F.

At trace I added 1/4 cup Maple Syrup, 1/2 cup ground oats, 2 tsp. ground cinnamon and 1 oz of Macintosh Apple FO.

Soon enough the soap started to get very thick, but I managed to get it into the mold okay. (8 bar plastic mold). Covered it with plastic wrap and a thick towel. At that point the soap had a lovely creamy color. When I peeked a few minutes later the soap hat turned very dark and was very hot (gel period?). I left it for 24 hours. Had a hard time removing it from the mold. The soap smells good, but has way to much oats in it and looks a bit purplish. My guess is the mixtures were to hot to beginn with and the maple syrup probably accelerated the gelling process, right. What can I do the next time to keep it from gelling. I rather liked the look it had before it went into the mold.

Every input is appreciated!!!!

 

[Soapmaker Man]

You are using aloe vera juice as your liquids or part of your liquids, right? It has no SAP value as an oil. I take it you are just figuring aloe vera as liquid as 25% of the oils weight.[/list]

 

[mare61]

That's right.

 

[mare61]

What could I have done differently????????

 

[skeel]

First let me say I am NOT an expert. But I have heard/read of people putting their soap in the fridge to keep it from gelling.

Also I usually only use 1 Tb of oats PPO (per pound of Oil)

I have no idea about the purplish color maybe the combo of the spices and maple syrup?

 

[Tabitha]

I bet it smells heavenly!

 

[SouthernEssence]

I have a soap that I color with honey. During the gel stage it turns dark purple but the finished product is...well honey colored. I've never heard of anyone trying to stop the gel stage. Soap is supposed to go through a gel stage. If the soap stays to hot under the towel and the gel stage last to long you can remove the towel and let it cool down.

FOs can cause soap to trace to fast and get thick and chunky too. For some FOs hand sturring is best.

 

[Guest]

Hi!

I try not to gel my milk and honey soaps because they can overheat. Also - when you prevent them from gelling - they should - depending on what you've used for recipe and colorants - stay lighter in color. It can alos prevent colors from morphing and is much creamier in appearance.

It's hard for me to prevent gel. I'm rarely successful - but many people accomplish it. You don't HAVE to gel your soap. The saponification process will happen eventually anyway. It takes a few days longer than when you do gel.

 

[SouthernEssence]

There is some debate as to whether soap needs to go through a gel stage. The gel stage does seem to hurry up the overall saponification though. Without a gel stage, the final soap is a little more opaque, a little less translucent...and needs some more time to cure before you can use it.

No it doesn't HAVE to go through gel stage but IMO it's better that it does. I try to keep my soap making as natural as possible and the gel stage is a natural process of soap making. I make 200-300 bars at a time so a fast curing process is best for ME since I sell them fast.

Edited to add: I like the different colors that come from natural colorants. I use flowers, honey, dried ground leaves, cinnamon...for my colorants and I think the gel stage really brings out the beauty in the colorants. Just my opinion. Here's a picture of my soaps, all colored with natural ingredients and all go through the natural gel stage:

 

[CPSoaper]

Yes, you are correct. Your maple sugar has sugar in it which will cause your soap to heat up.

To avoid your soap overheating, you can soap with your liquid cool or at room temps. Soap with your oils and butters around 90-100 or at room temperature. You can put mold in front of a fan, outside in the cold or in the fridge. You can hand stir as much as possible to avoid your mixture tracing fast.


When I soap with oatmeal, I never use more than 1 TBS ppo and I make sure that it finely ground at that amount. Most times, I use 1 tsp ppo - especially if my oatmeal is not finely ground.

 

[Guest]

Also - I forgot to mention that I have better luck NOT gelling with slab molds that are insulated well.

 

[IanT]

you should set them up like soap-dominos !!! those look very nice I like that use use natural colorants because that is what i would like to do as well. have you ever tried to use beet juice?? i bet it would make a great purple or dark colored soap....

IanT

 

[Guest]

When I don't want my soap to gel I put it on top of a cookie cooling rack with a fan blowing on it so that the wind blows under the mold as well as above and on the sides. It usually works good for me. I use ums and oxides for coloring and I have found that if I don't gel the colors stay the color I want.

 

[Neil]

SouthernEssence

Those pictures are very impressive.

 

[IanT]

i dont know if im correct...but is that 288 bars of soap??? wooooowsa