surface bubbles

[Jessrof]

This soap is a beer soap mixed at 90F and wrapped in blankets with a warm heating pad (problems with partial gel). These bubbles appeared after and are hard and not zappy. This also happens with my cpop soaps. I am assuming it is temp related. Is there anyway to avoid this? Especially for my cpop soaps?

 

[Jessrof]

I let it flatten then boil for good measure. I have used alcohol before and didn't notice the difference

 

[newbie]

Looks like it's getting too hot. You can insulate less and watch very closely. As soon as gel reaches the edges of your mold, remove the soap to a place with good circulation to cool.
How do you do your cpop? Sometimes pre-warming the over to 170, turning if off and then putting the soap in for an hour or so will get you to gel, sometimes longer. Depends on your recipe, your mixing temps, your FO and if you have other things in that will heat up the soap (sugars, milks etc..)You'd have to experiment with that to know how long to let it sit in that warmer environment.

I've found that I can't have the oven on while my soap is in there, even a 170 degrees. It always gets too hot and I get bubbles on the bottom and/or sides at the very least. Sometimes, I warm the oven and let it sit for a bit after turning it off before I'll put the soap in.

 

[Jessrof]

For the cpop, I am putting it in the oven at 170 for one hr. The slab mold I used for this soap always gets a partial gel so I tried to get a full gel by using the heating pad....

 

[newbie]

If I have a slab mold, I find I have to tend it a lot more, which is a pain but if you don't want partial gel nor overheating, you may have to do it. I use a heating pad too but I watch it probably too much because I hate those damn bubbles. Once it starts, I adjust my insulation to make certain it goes to the edges but doesn't get too hot in the middle. With the sugars in a beer soap, it's more likely to gel all the way once it starts so that may mean more adjusting. For the oven, if you are getting overheating, try preheating the oven and turning it off sooner than an hour, maybe 20-30 minutes. You can always turn it back on if it doesn't seem to be heating up.

 

[savonierre]

it does look like it overheated a bit..I watch soap with sugar etc like a hawk, to change the heat factor if I have too.It will still be awesome soap, you can plane the bumps off if they bother you.