Hot Weather: This is a first!

Soapmaking Forum

Help Support Soapmaking Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

danahuff

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 1, 2012
Messages
625
Reaction score
359
Location
Worcester, MA
Hi everyone,

I had the weirdest thing happen to me, and I thought I'd share so you can watch out in this hot weather. I made some soap using the Plum Tea FO from BB, and it accelerated a bit, which I expected. I put it in the freezer for a few hours, then put it in the fridge. The next day, I took it out, unmolded it, and cut it. I thought it would be fine since I cut it, but do you know it's so hot here that it GELLED! Now I have bulgey, lumpy, ugly bars. :Kitten Love:

Live and learn, I guess, but I was sure once I cut it the soap would be fine. I guess it was a combination of the FO and the heat in my house.
 
Don't be so hard on yourself, I'm sure it is still very nice soap! The humidity is making my hot process crock pot shampoo bars stay soft a whole lot longer than in the winter, or any other time of year. I had to set them near an air conditioner vent.
 
Don't be so hard on yourself, I'm sure it is still very nice soap! The humidity is making my hot process crock pot shampoo bars stay soft a whole lot longer than in the winter, or any other time of year. I had to set them near an air conditioner vent.

I think it will be fine to use, just not too pretty. But thanks! I wasn't disappointed in myself so much as I was surprised the soap did this. Thought maybe my fellow soapers might want to know. :wave:
 
Thank you for sharing. I was thinking that I may not want to make soap this weekend because the heat/humidity is almost unbearable. I HAVE AC but refuse to turn it down to less than 70. My DH is not happy. I made a few scrambled eggs this morning and broke out in a sweat....really? from scrambling eggs? I guess using the stick blender is out of the question. Then to have what you think is going to look really cool turn out crazy....good weekend to just chill.
 
I've started leaving my ungelled soaps in the fridge for 2 days cause it seemed one was not enough. Of course that makes the wait that much more unbearable, but I keep telling myself it is worth the wait. :)
 
I've started leaving my ungelled soaps in the fridge for 2 days cause it seemed one was not enough. Of course that makes the wait that much more unbearable, but I keep telling myself it is worth the wait. :)

In this hot weather, it's probably a good idea, but I didn't realize it would happen after I cut the soap. Live and learn.
 
Thanks for sharing Dana! It's good to know and to watch out for in this crazy weather.
 
It seems Salt bars are a good hot weather soap to make, someone correct me if they have had a bad experience due to the summer heat. I used the room temp. oven method and they turned out same as usual even though we keep the a/c at 80 because our house is surrounded by trees (and I had my first lye volcano using homebrew beer in them). Other than that the heat/humidity did not effect them, plus I made them at night.
 
Interesting, even Celine and Titch have that problem in Ireland.

Here is one where it is mentioned 2 days ago:

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emT22wBXgR4&list=UUsp1GTh4qCLv8lHkasxBFTg[/ame]

Here is one from last year where they knew it would gel, but I think that is b/c of the sugar in the chocolate and the cocoa butter, cocoa butter gels on me:

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGQDGn7tRF0[/ame]

Did you add sugar or a heater of any type? FO, EO, sugar, palm kernel seems to heat for me, and whatever your climate may be sensitive to.

I have the opposite problem, I am over 80 percent humidity here daily and I get glycerin sweat that I have to wait for it to absorb!

ETA: Just checked humidity it is at 96 percent, carp. I was going to make some soap today, will see how it turns out later.
 
Last edited:
No sugar or honey or anything like that. No palm kernel. I think it was just a combination of the fragrance and the heat that day.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top