Teach Soap

Sometimes I feel like a gel...sometimes I don't...

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http://www.inarubathandbody.com

I was visiting with my soaps the other day (hehe...does anyone else do that? you know...just look at 'em, smell 'em, rearrage 'em? hehe). Normally I like to bevel my soap edges but I've been experimenting with leaving them unbeveled. Anyway, I was visiting with my batch of Kumquat soap that hadn't been beveled and the edges were really sharp. Too sharp for my taste. The soap itself is really hard so I guess that's why the edges came out like that. So I pulled them all out and sat down to bevel and THEN IT HIT ME! This is one of the batches that didn't gel!!! OMG! I can't even tell a difference between the gelled and the non-gelled soap. That's pretty cool.

But I'm not jumping ship on gelling just yet. I do love my gelled soap too. It's so much easier to work with that first week and I don't like the extra long cure time of non-gelled soap. But I do feel better about the ones that didn't gel. I think I'll experiment with some those finicky FO's this way. I even decided to buy some Milky Way molds which I NEVER would've considered before.

By the way...speaking of Milky Way Molds....if for whatever reason I pour some CP in one and it were to gel, can they take a little gel heat? I seriously doubt this would happen since I have a hard enough time getting a gel in my log molds. But figured I'd ask just to be safe.

Thanks,
zeo

I have always been a "geller" and even threw out a batch a while back because it didn't gel and I thought it was ruined. This past weekend, we made our very first milk soaps which are not gelled - they are put in the fridge for the first 3 hours. We made 3 different batches and they all turned out beautifully.

But, I will probably still gel, unless the recipe specifies otherwise...

Zeo:
I visit my soaps daily, at least. I turn them, rearrange them, sniff then, etc. So, you're not alone!

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HEAVENLY SCENT SOAPS

I gel because I'm a noob and it's the easiest thing to do for now. Later on I will try the non-gelling. I think it depends on the individual soap at hand.
I just made a mushroom soap that I wanted to turn a grayish color, the ends didn't gel and they turned a light beige color and the rest gelled and was the gray color I was hoping for.
But if I were making a milk soap that I wanted to be white, I would put it in the fridge or freezer so it wouldn't gel.
If I wanted pastels or lighter soap I wouldn't gel those either.
I just made a wine soap and wanted it really deep red, so gelling was the way to go because it really helped deepen the color.
Next on the list is a salt bar which I'd like to color a sea green/blue and will not gel that one to keep the color light.