Soap is turning to dark gel

[veronica]

I have read book after book, watched videos and read just about every post on this forum. (which is very very helpful by the way)
I have made 3 batches of soap. When I pour it into the mold, cover it and leave it for about an hour I'll take a peek and find it starting to turn dark and gell like in the middle and slowly going to the sides. But it starts in the middle.
The recipe is
2 oz lye
5 oz water
4 oz coconut oil
3 oz canola oil
4 oz olive oil
4 oz safflower oil
I have tried this recipe adding oatmeal and without. It reaches trace in a few minutes using an electric mixer. It's nice and creamy. I made a wood loaf mold. I lined it with freezer paper. The soap pours nicely and looks great. I have left one batch sitting uncovered for about 15 minutes and it was firming up just a bit. I normally have the lid on and wrapped in towels in less than 10 minutes from pouring it in the mold. I have went back to take a peek about 1 hour or so into it and find it turning an ugly brown and gel like. It looks terrible.
It doesn't stay white and creamy. What's making it turn this terrible color. I like the nice white with oatmeal. What am I doing wrong? It seems like if I leave the lid off and not wrap it in towels it stays nice and white.
Thank you for any help.

 

[Lynnz]

Are you using fragrance in your soap? as anything with a vanilla base will darken your soap regardless of Gel or Non Gel
I use light olive oil when wanting a nice white soap and add Titanium Dioxide to help get it white............I also don't gel by leaving my soap unwrapped and place in my fridge for 10hrs or so.

 

[veronica]

No fragrance. Only the ingredients listed. So I should leave it uncovered and place it in the fridge?
When it's in the wood mold it starts to firm up the first 15 to 25 minutes. Once it's covered it starts turning dark and goes into a gel like form. After 24 hours it's hardening up but it can bend. It's darkened. Not a pretty color. Almost like it burned but it's not burned.

 

[ChrissyB]

Raw soap heats up after reaching "trace", unless you work very hard to prevent what we call the gel stage.
Wood is also an excellent insulator, so will be holding in some heat and pushing the "gel" along.
As long as your soap doesn't start heaving up in the mould and volcanoing out the top, it will be fine. Once it's cooled down, and re-solidified, it will become lighter, denser, and not transluscent like it is when gelling.

 

[Jezzy]

Mine does The same thing too. The gell starts in the middle. From what I have read its normal.

 

[fionab]

Yes your soap is gelling.

If you want to avoid gel you need to soap at lower temperatures i.e. 80-100 degrees Fahrenheit and not insulating the soap. That way your colours will stay nice and opaque.

Please remember that non-gelled soap is much more brittle and often needs to stay in the mould approx. 2x as long as normal.

It will be harder to cut cleanly as well. You may also get increased ash issues.

Compromises compromises........

Hope this helps.