Why did my soap gel ?

[soapbar]

I used the same recipe in two soaps and I put them in freezer immediately for 8 hours then I cut them 48 hours later I discovered that they have been partially gelled. What is the reason do you think?
My recipe is
5% shea butter
5% sweet almond oil
40% olive oil
5% castor oil
30% coconut oil
15% palm oil
Water 340 g
Lye 142.69

 

[AliOop]

Hi @soapbar! Your soaps look very pretty. Regarding the gelling, you used a LOT of water. Soap with high water will gel at a much lower temperature. Also, what were the respective temperatures of your lye solution and your oils before you combined them? High soaping temps will also encourage gel.

You might be able to fix the partial gel by CPOPing the soap for a bit. If that interests you, use the Search function at the top of the page and look for "fix partial gel." That should bring up a few threads that talk about how to do this.

 

[soapbar]

Hi @soapbar! Your soaps look very pretty. Regarding the gelling, you used a LOT of water. Soap with high water will gel at a much lower temperature. Also, what were the respective temperatures of your lye solution and your oils before you combined them? High soaping temps will also encourage gel.

You might be able to fix the partial gel by CPOPing the soap for a bit. If that interests you, use the Search function at the top of the page and look for "fix partial gel." That should bring up a few threads that talk about how to do this.

Thank you so much for giving me a time to respond. I did put my soaps in oven so the gelled circle disappeared. Considering water amount that is because I wanted to make a swirled soap so I wanted to have a plenty of time to color and design.

 

[AliOop]

That's great that you were able to fix the partial gel!

You can lower your water (to help avoid gelling) and still create a recipe that gives you time to swirl. The first thing is to make sure your lye solution and oils cool off to 90F or less before combining them. The lower temperature will slow down the trace so that the batter stays fluid for longer.

The next thing to do would be to reduce your coconut oil, since that traces pretty fast and also heats up the batter a lot. I would take 10% off the coconut and add that amount to the palm oil. You could also increase the olive oil, but as someone prefers low olive oil in my soaps, that wouldn't be my first choice.

I don't know if lard is an option for you, considering your location. If it is an option, it makes for lovely soap and a very slow-moving batter that is wonderful for swirling.

Anyway, those are my suggestions. HTH!

 

[soapbar]

That's great that you were able to fix the partial gel!

You can lower your water (to help avoid gelling) and still create a recipe that gives you time to swirl. The first thing is to make sure your lye solution and oils cool off to 90F or less before combining them. The lower temperature will slow down the trace so that the batter stays fluid for longer.

The next thing to do would be to reduce your coconut oil, since that traces pretty fast and also heats up the batter a lot. I would take 10% off the coconut and add that amount to the palm oil. You could also increase the olive oil, but as someone prefers low olive oil in my soaps, that wouldn't be my first choice.

I don't know if lard is an option for you, considering your location. If it is an option, it makes for lovely soap and a very slow-moving batter that is wonderful for swirling.

Anyway, those are my suggestions. HTH!

I benefited alot from your advice and I will take them into consideration thank you so much. Considering lard it is not convenient I have sheep lard but it is not always available. I will reduce water amount first and see how it goes.

 

[AliOop]

Sounds good! If reducing the water doesn’t give you enough swirling time, be sure to reduce heat, as well. Or do both if you can. Heat makes a big difference, too.

Be sure to let us know how it turns out, and post more pictures when you can.

 

[Todd Ziegler]

Ditto on what @AliOop has said.