Stopping the gel

I have heard lots of threads about stopping the gel. Why would you do this and when? Does it depend on the recipe and what does this do to the soap? Sorry so many stupid questions. Everything I read doesn't seem to address this method so I'm curious about it!

Stopping the gel is often done with goatsmilk or dairy soaps, to prevent them from getting stinky.
In most recipes a gel isn't a problem; a partial gel is. That way the color will change only in the hottest parts.
You can keep soap from gelling by putting it in the fridge/ freezer
You can get soap gelling by wrapping it in towels, use a heat pad.
Curious what everyone else thinks :wink:

I made a batch the other night that I didn't want to gel, so I left it uncovered under a ceiling fan. NO gel!

If I'm using essential oils, I find the fragrance is stronger and truer if I don't gel. With FOs, I prefer gelling because it won't zap you up to three or four days later.

Stopping the gel is often done with goatsmilk or dairy soaps, to prevent them from getting stinky.

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Not necessarily to stop it from getting stinky, but since milk soaps tend to get hotter it's more to prevent overheating. Over heated soap can often seperate and that's a drag...

1.) with milk soaps if they gel it may effect the color. the milk heats up and turns the soap tan. ever notice the difference in the color of commercial canned milk compared to fresh. the canned has been heated and carmelizes the natural sugars so it's tan compared to the fresh milk that's white.

2/) non gelling cuts down the chance of the soap overheating if it is a milk soap, or contains alot of honey or even some fo can get pretty hot by themselves.
so you are less likely to have soap crawling out of your mold or to burn off the fragrance if it has a low flashpoint.

gelled soaps have a transparent look while ungelled are more opaque/creamy look. even though you can't really see thru either one of them, that is usually how some describe the different looks. it's like the soaping method you use, it's your choice.

i try to ungell all my gm soaps to keep them on the off white side but some fragrances have a mind of their own and will gell no matter what you do. the only time i have had an ammonia smell with my gm soap is when i burnt the milk and soaped everything way to hot. i can unmold them the next day with no zap.

i soap everything room temp to start with and don't insulate my soap molds. this time of the year i can do this on the kitchen counter just set the molds on a couple of soup cans to elevate it. but i have been known to set it out in a snow bank if i know the fo will try to heat things up.

in the summer time i do have to put them in the frig.

Hi guys,
I recently made ungelled GM soap for the first time, because the soap was left uncovered there is some ash on the soap. Is there any way of avoiding the ash when trying to stop the soap from gelling? I have previously always covered my soaps and have had no problems with ash, this is a new feature to me. Any suggestions to avoid this?

Elly, cover it with a piece of freezer paper or saran wrap.

Hi Jen,

thanks for the tip

Your welcome!