Preventing Partial Gel

[Michelle La]

Hello! I made this soap in the early hours of the morning, about 14 hours ago. The smell is INCREDIBLE. And I love the colour it came out, even if it didn’t maintain the beautiful green of the cucumber olive oil. I didn’t want it to get too hot in hopes more of the green would come through but I’m too scared to put soap in the fridge in case I have a volcano, and leaving it outside worried me in case a fox got into it and hurt themselves. Is there anything else I can do to stop from getting the partial gel ring?

Oil:


Cucumber water lye:


Soap:


Recipe:

 

[DeeAnna]

I know a lot of people say to "pop the soap into the fridge or freezer" to prevent gel or manage overheating, but I've never been comfortable with the idea of putting a hazardous material (actively saponifying soap) in a place where edible food is kept. If someone pulled that stunt in a reputable analytical chemistry lab, they would be reprimanded and possibly even lose their job.

If you want a more reliable way to prevent the soap from getting overly warm, I recommend raising the mold on a few soup cans or other supports and use a fan to blow air over, under, and around the mold. Room-temperature air flowing around the soap is a ~much~ more efficient way to cool compared with the non-moving air inside a fridge or freezer, even though the fridge/freezer air is colder.

If you don't want soap to gel, you should also pay close attention to your starting temperature. Since you're using stearic acid that melts around (IIRC) about 160F, the starting temp of your soap batter will likely be on the warmer side. That will make the soap more likely to reach its gel temperature during saponification.

IMO, the 0.5% stearic acid in your recipe is more likely to create more hassles than add much in the way of benefits. Maybe lose the stearic and soap at 90-100F / 32-28C?

 

[Michelle La]

Thank you DeeAnna for the advice. I added the stearic acid out of curiosity and it’s the first time I’ve used it. Having read what you’ve said, I’ll probably save it for when I’m ready to try shaving soap, rather than use it in regular soap.