Partial Gel - how long after cutting can I try fixing in oven?

[Jamitea]

So I’m fairly new to soap making but I’ve been pretty successful so far! It’s only actually partial gelled on me a few times, typically it gels all the way through. I’ve been experimenting with colours after I got some soap making stuff for Christmas and I wanted to make a pretty deep blue soap but it partially gelled leaving the tiniest thinnest line around the edge. It actually doesn’t look too bad but I would prefer if it was the same colour all the way through.

I’m going to experiment with using a heating pad or putting it in the oven after making it (CPOP I think it’s called?) but for now I want to fix this batch. I’ve also read you can put it in the oven on a really low temp to fix the partial gel. My issue is that I cut it yesterday. Is it okay if I try to put it in the oven tonight to fix the partial gel even though it’s been sitting out for 24 hours? Picture below.

Also, why did it do this with such a thin line? Did I take too long to cover it? Thanks everyone !!!

 

[DeeAnna]

This soap is not showing a partial gel. The pattern for a partial gel is always an oval or circle shape with (usually) a darker center bordered by a lighter colored soap. I really doubt your soap will be helped by doing a "rescue CPOP" so you might want to hold off on that. (If it was a partial gel, you can do a rescue CPOP any time. to answer your question.)

The border on your soap is parallel to the outer edges of the bar rather than an oval/circle shape. I call this a "rind". The entire bar will (usually) turn the same color as the rind in a few days. So in your case, I expect the soap will become a pale blue all over. I'm not sure what causes this color change -- maybe water evaporation or a slow chemical reaction due to exposure to air ... who knows.

If you split the bar after the outer surface becomes all one color, you'll see the center will still be the dark blue ... but will gradually turn lighter upon exposure to air.

There is really nothing you can do to "fix" this issue. It is what it is. If your colorant is a botanical colorant, you might want to ask the other soap makers for advice about getting a deeper shade of color. This seems to be an ongoing challenge for natural colorant users.

FWIW, the one "rind" soap I had was colored with cocoa. The rind was semisweet chocolate brown and the center started out as a light milk chocolate color. The surface of the bars turned semisweet brown after a few days. Months later I split a bar in half out of curiosity and as I expected, a small area in the very center was still light brown.

 

[Catscankim]

The first time I got a rind, I freaked out. I found out here that it was due to the vanilla in the FO I was using. It was pretty white in the middle and dark dark on the outside. Kinda like smoked cheese when you cut a slice. It all eventually turned dark, like the rind.

Now I wish I could make a soap with a rind like that, that will stay lol. It looks pretty cool, but short lived.

 

[DeeAnna]

I think one person recently had a soap with a permanent rind. I don't think anyone could explain the reason why the rind was permanent - I certainly couldn't. But this example was a rare exception to the general rule from what I've seen.

 

[Jamitea]

I think one person recently had a soap with a permanent rind. I don't think anyone could explain the reason why the rind was permanent - I certainly couldn't. But this example was a rare exception to the general rule from what I've seen.

Yeah the rind has stayed exactly the same. No change. So weird! I used indigo powder for the first time and I mixed it in the lye solution. It didn’t mix well with the lye solution at first but when I mixed it in the oils and used the immersion blender it mixed very well.

Thanks for all the info!

 

[DeeAnna]

Indigo has some really specific requirements for oxygen levels and pH when it's used as a fabric dye. Those requirements might be the reason for the permanent rind on your soap. Maybe the pH is slightly different in the outer skin of the soap (the "rind" area) versus the interior?

 

[Zing]

I get a rind when I use rosehips powder. After cutting, you can practically watch the color darken from the outside in -- it's freaky deaky. I also get a rind when I use cocoa powder and that takes days to become uniform.

 

[Becky1024]

I think one person recently had a soap with a permanent rind. I don't think anyone could explain the reason why the rind was permanent - I certainly couldn't. But this example was a rare exception to the general rule from what I've seen.

That person was me. Mine looks exactly like Jamitea’s. Two suggestions I got were to pour into the mold at thicker trace (I poured at thin) and to gel it with some heat added - either CPOP in the oven or use a heating pad. The thought about adding heat was it gelled to almost the edges. I have not made another batch yet so I don’t know if either will work.

 

[DeeAnna]

@Becky1024 -- I don't remember the details -- what colorant were you using in that soap?

 

[Becky1024]

@Becky1024 -- I don't remember the details -- what colorant were you using in that soap?

I was using indigo from Nurture Soap. I’ve had 2 batches do the same thing.

 

[DeeAnna]

I thought it might be indigo, but wasn't sure. I wonder if there's a connection between soap, indigo, and a permanent rind -- this is two soaps now with the same thing.

 

[Zing]

Just my opinion, but I do not think the rind detracts from the appearance at all! It frames the bar.

 

[DeeAnna]

I agree. It's seriously cool, IMO.

 

[Quilter99755]

I got a rind when I ground up lavender seeds into a fine powder...my thinking was that just maybe I would get the lavender fragrance from the flowers, but not get the seeds on my tub floor when using the soap. Not a bit of lavender fragrance was left in the soap. The outside was a muddy brown and the cut inside turned a beautiful gray. Which of course was ugly next to the muddy brown. I can't remember the recipe at this point but certainly didn't bother to grind lavender buds into powder to use in soap again. The only pluses were that after a bit of air to the cuts, the whole soap went to brown AND that the powder was fine enough that it didn't turn to clumps on my tub floor. LOL

 

[Becky1024]

I agree. It's seriously cool, IMO.

It does look kind of cool, but it just wasn't what I was after!