To gel or not to gel

DeeAnna said:

You are not alone -- it's critical to get the right consistency when forming the rim. There's a learning curve, so if this was your first time, you just need a little more practice. In the videos I've watched, sometimes the soap cracks despite the best efforts of the soapers to prevent that. They've just fixed the cracks as best as possible and moved on. If the soap is super brittle and can't be molded or bent at all ... well, that's a "back to the drawing board" kind of situation.

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Thank you DeAnna! That is encouraging. Any specific oils you recommend?

I thought about doing the rim with MP .....:???:

Could be a couple of things..

Hi. Usually this is caused by rancid oils in your mixture. But there are a couple of other things such as superfatting your mixture too high to allow saponification of all oils used, or using oils that put your linolenic and linoleic acid concentrations above an acceptable level.

Kittish said:

My very first batch gelled, and had that kind of rubbery feeling along with a very strong playdough smell. Seems to have gone away, mostly anyhow, now that the soap has cured for a couple of months (though I still catch hints of playdough if I sniff my bar I'm using for testing while it's wet). I don't think I've gotten another batch to gel since then, and with some of them I was trying for gel. Just wind up with spots of weird brownish discoloration along the bottom of the loaf, like it got too warm, and tons of ash on top. But if it's getting warm enough to be 'too warm' why isn't it gelling? I've more or less given up on it at this point, my oven apparently either does too warm or not warm enough, with no happy middle ground.

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earlene, I rebatched my mermaid tail challenge soap. It came out a nice, almost sea green and is definitely translucent. Hold a bar up to a light, and you can see the light shining through around the edges of the bar. Can't actually see through it all, though. That's what I mean by translucent. My ungelled soaps, hold a bar up to a light and there's nothing around the edges, they're totally opaque.

Mr_Clean- the brownish spots I've gotten on soap were definitely not rancidity. No off smell to them, and present when the soap was removed from the mold. Just a couple of irregular blotches on the surface where apparently the soap got too warm that were easily trimmed off.

SunRiseArts said:

...Any specific oils you recommend? I thought about doing the rim with MP .....:???:

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This isn't a technique I've actually done -- I apologize if I gave that impression. Like I mentioned earlier, I've watched enough videos to know how to do it and to pick up on some of the tips and tricks, but never got interested enough to try it myself.

I have made a soap where there was a colored layer on top of a plain white layer (the acrylic cell challenge earlier this year) that ended up something like a rimmed soap. The colored layer eventually washed away, leaving a plain white bar behind. The bar was not too interesting at that point.

My guess is getting a successful rim is less about the recipe -- I'd just use a balanced blend of fats that makes a good basic soap -- and more about timing. I'd pour the soap in the morning and then be testing it as the day goes on (with gloves on!) to find the right point at which the soap is just pliable enough but not too soft.

I've never used M&P at all to know if it would make a good layer for a rimmed soap, so no opinions there.