No, your not a dummy. If you are reading this, you are in fact much smarter than the average bear.
What is "gel"?;
When soap forms, the chemical reaction, called saponification, produces heat. All soaps produce this heat. If the heat is allowed to build up, the soap turns into a goo, or gel, for a few hours. It may happen within a half an hour after pouring into the mold, it may happen 24 hours after you pour. This period of time when your soap looks and feels like hot jello is known as the infamous gel stage. If you get a gel, do not panic. As a matter of fact, it is almost always a sign of a successful batch of soap.
Should I gel or not? and Whats the difference between gelled and non gelled soap?
If you choose to promote a gel stage when your soap is forming, you do so by insulating the soap with blankets, thick wooden molds, etc. Again, what one does when encouraging a gel stage, is trapping the natural heat produced when the soap forms. Moving blankets work great to insulate molds and trap heat to encourage a gel stage.
A soap that gels will be more translucent, and will also get harder faster, and require less cure time. Most soaper's report colors get deeper or more vivid in a soap that has gelled.
A soap that does not gel will usually be more opaque, and look more like store bought "soap" bars. Also, many people report that a non-gelled soap feels silkier on the skin.
So, Gel or no gel effects color intensity, translucence, cure time, and finally;
Gel phase and scent.
Heat is an enemy of essential oil. The hotter your soap gets, the more scent is "burnt" off, or lost. Now, that said, soap that has gelled can smell wonderful. This is where some experimentation comes in. Maybe your scent is unscathed by a gel phase, maybe your scent is almost completely lost due to a gel phase.
How do I prevent gel?
Its simple, you have to keep the temperature low while the soap cures. Yes, your soap will fully use up all the lye even if you leave your loaf in the freezer. It just takes more time for the soap to form and cure. Many people say they can not prevent gel, and this may be true. However, from an organic chemistry standpoint, any exothermic chemical reaction can be slowed, and even stopped, if temperatures are kept low enough.
What the heck is exothermic? A chemical reaction that gives off heat, like our beloved soap does. The opposite is endothermic, meaning heat has to be added. This is important to understand if you really want to wrap your arms around this mysterious gel phase.
Hot process soap adds heat, an oven or crock pot keeps the soap so warm that it finishes much faster than cold process. The added heat speeds up the reaction. The same soap will in fact form and cure with out heat, and even inside the freezer.
The more heat you keep, the more gel you get, the faster things get done. I prefer to gel to cut down on cure time, that's the only reason. I prefer the denser thicker look of ungelled soap, and do in fact try my best to prevent gel when using sensitive essential oils, especially lavender and citrus scents.
You can try everything under the sun to prevent gel, and it still may happen despite your best efforts. You may want your soap to gel, but the darn stuff refuses to do so. This is because of the almost limitless combinations of oils we soaper's use.
Also, different humidity levels and altitudes effect chemical reactions, and therefore our soap. Most all soaps gel here in Florida, even without insulation. My friend in Colorado almost never gets his soaps to fully gel. Yes, we have experimented with identical recipes, and found that identical recipes do in fact behave differently at different locations.
So, your still wondering, should I gel or not? It really is, as many gifted soapers on this forum have posted, simply a personal preference. If your soap gels, partially gels, or does not gel, the end product will still be soap, and will work just fine regardless.
This is where experimentation comes in. A good way to prevent the gel stage is to use very small molds, and plop them into the fridge, or freezer. Make a batch of soap, split it in half, and try to promote gel in one half, and prevent it in the other. You'll then have your aha moment, and realize, much of the mystery surrounding the infamous gel stage is really much ado about nothing.
Fell free to message me with any questions, or with any info I may have missed.
Your, Paul Robb
