Preventing Gel Phase

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Apothika

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Hi All!

I have finally worked out a castile recipe I like, but I wanted to add a water discount to my recipe so that it helped the curing process & when I did this, the soap wanted to gel! I'm not really a fan of the gelled look in this soap & wasn't able to achieve a full gel anyway. I adjusted the recipe, made it & put it straight into the freezer. Was I meant to wait until it set up? I can't find much online about the process or how to prevent the condensation on the soap once it is out of the freezer. I Pulled my batches out today & they are still a little soft its been around 24hrs, they are holding shape but I'm worried they haven't saponified properly.

Let me know your tips on preventing gel phase & water discounting for a shorter cure time :)
 
Hi OO recipes, will take longer to trace, setup. IMHO
Condensation? Wrap your loaf in a towel. It will proved an absorbent surface. For moisture to gather, rather than the hard surfaces of the loaf.
Unless you have 0 humidity in the room. You are going to get moisture.
 
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I don’t find that lowering the water shortens the cure time per se. It does typically help with speeding up trace, as well as unmolding time.

You did slow down saponification while it was in the freezer, so that’s going to increase the time until it is firm enough to unmold. Just let it sit in the mold until it is firm enough to cut. I find the condensation reabsorbs on its own, or evaporates, but I do live in a fairly dry climate.
 
Hi All!

I have finally worked out a castile recipe I like, but I wanted to add a water discount to my recipe so that it helped the curing process & when I did this, the soap wanted to gel! I'm not really a fan of the gelled look in this soap & wasn't able to achieve a full gel anyway. I adjusted the recipe, made it & put it straight into the freezer. Was I meant to wait until it set up? I can't find much online about the process or how to prevent the condensation on the soap once it is out of the freezer. I Pulled my batches out today & they are still a little soft its been around 24hrs, they are holding shape but I'm worried they haven't saponified properly.

Let me know your tips on preventing gel phase & water discounting for a shorter cure time :)
There are several things here.

1) There is no such thing as a 'water discount', just a higher Lye Concentration.

2) Water evaporation is only a small part of the curing process. Whether I use a 33% Lye Concentration or a 35% Lye Concentration, or use a fan or dehumidifier, my soap still needs to cure for six weeks.

3) Sticking your soap in the frig or freezer slows down the saponification process, so yeah...it's going to be soft when you take it out. I make Goat Milk Soap...I usually leave it in the frig for a couple of days, then I take it out and let it sit for a day or two before unmolding and then another day or two before cutting depending on the time of year. And you're going to get a bit of condensation...it just the nature of taking something out of the freezer and thawing it.

4) When I first started out, I gelled my soaps but it was fairly easy to do given that my garage isn't insulated and I started making soap in June. Then Summer turned into Fall and I started getting partial gel. I tried CPOPing, but I have an older oven that doesn't go below 200F and got mixed results because...again, an old oven. Then I got the bright idea to preheat to 300 and then turn off to keep the heat in the oven longer, except I forgot to turn off the oven and "baked" my soap all night. So I decided that I like a 'matt' soap. ;) But I'm in the Willamette Valley in Oregon and we don't get more than a month of really hot days which require refrigeration. Most of the time, I can just put a fan on my soaps.
 

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