I read I could stick my soap in a 170 degree oven, Ive also read all I really need to do is put the mold on a heating pad. Would forcing gel ruin my fancy tops? Here is a pic of the kind of soaps I make.
Thank you!
Beautiful soaps!
Speaking as one who likes to gel all my soaps, I can say unequivocally that you definitely don't need to stick your soap in a 170 degree oven to ensure full gel. Based on my own experience, that high of a heat is totally unnecessary, unless of course you are cooking your soap, as with HP. When I HP, I always set my oven to between 170-180F.
With CPOP, however, I'm not cooking the soap, i.e., my goal is not to
force gel, but to
gently coax the batter to gel (there's a difference), by providing just enough gentle heat to get the ball rolling.
I'm not sure what % of lye solution you use with your batches, but generally, 'full-water' batches gel more easily than batches made with a water discount. I myself use a water discount with just about all of my batches (33% lye solution), which means that my soaps need a little extra help to fully gel, which I achieve thusly:
1) I soap between 110F and 120F
2) I pour into wood molds with a wood cover, which I insulate by covering over with a few cotton diapers.
3) I place my soap in a preheated 110F oven, which I turn off as soon as the soap is placed inside (my oven has a digital read-out that keeps track of the temp is as it's heating up. As soon as it reaches 110F, I turn it off. For what it's worth, it takes about 3 minutes for my oven to reach 110F from the time I turn it on).
4) Once my soap is in the oven, I leave it in there to sit undisturbed overnight (I soap right before I go to bed), and then I unmold some time the next day- usually about 18 hours after pour. Nine times out of ten, I get full gel (there's always that occasional 1-percenter that falls about 1/8" - 1/4" short of full gel).
RE: MP embeds: For what it's worth, I have never had a problem CPOPing with MP embeds. Mine have all come out perfectly fine without melting.
I don't make a lot of textured tops, but when I do, they stay perfectly intact through CPOP/gel just as long as I texture when the soap is at thick trace.
IrishLass