Teach Soap

So I have been making a lot of goat milk soaps lately and have been having problems with partial gels (the ring or circle the middle) occasionally. It seems to me I get partial gels when I add FO's vs non scented batches. This doesn't seem to be a problem with 2# batches but it does for 8# batches. My questions are do FO make the soap heat up more then not having them after you put them in the mold? I use plastic molds do wooden molds do a better job preventing or encouraging gels? I put them in the freezer once (I have freezer space issues) but it didn't seem to help that much. I usually mix my oils and lye/milk mixture when they are 105 degrees and by the time I put them in the mold they are around 102 degrees. If I mixed everything at a cooler temperature would it not gel as much. I would love any help I could get. I like the colors or non gel type and am not a fan of rebatching my botched batches.

Here is one of the recipes I used that gave me problems

32oz crisco
16oz coconut
20 oz sweet almond
17 oz olive oil
11.75oz lye
48 oz goat milk
1/2c ground almonds
1oz almond FO

Thanks!

Wooden soap molds hold heat better than plastic. If you can't put your soap in the fridge or the freezer, I would elevate it and put a fan on it to help prevent gel.

Some fragrance oils will heat up no matter what you do. I would not soap any cooler than 102. Your oils or butters could start solidifying again, causing false trace and possible lye heavy soap.

You have a lot of sweet almond in your recipe. Any particular reason why?

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

I just followed a recipe that called for that much almond oil. Is it bad to have that much?

I think that you will have a pretty soft bar with 20oz almond oil. My soap calc advised 1oz per pound. This is about a 5.3 pd batch.
I show for this batch you should use 29-31oz goats milk and 11.89 lye.
I use goats milk for every batch. I am curious to know the difference in the recipe and what the soap calc shows. Anyone else know why? I count on my calc for all my liquids.

_________________
Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

Why would you not use almond oil?

_________________
Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

Oh thanks for the tip! I appreciate all your help.