Teach Soap

before I make my first batch, I just want to be well informed about everything. One of the things I was wondering about was the insulation.

Basically, I know it's important to insulate the soap to allow it to cure. But what I'm wondering is if it's possible to insulate the soap too much.

I was sort of thinking to myself... maybe the slower the soap loses heat the better, but then maybe not. For instance, if I chose to insulated the mold in a towel/blanked, then placed it in a foam container, if that would be good or bad.

Thanks
Lianne

It depends how warm your lye water and oils are and what type of a fragrance you use. Some fragrances heat up more than others. You don't insulate your soap to cure; you insulate to gel the soap. Once cut, it still needs to cure.

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

If you are using a fragrance that will not accelerate trace or will not overheat, I would go for 110 degrees for both oils and lye. If you soap too cool, some of your oils may start to solidify and you could end up with lye heavy soap.

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

ok total noob here...

the only mention of 'gel' ive heard is from anne marie's CP soap video on soapqueen. ive also been reading the everything soapmaking book...

i guess my question is, what IS the gel phase? from what i understood previously, it usually gave CP soap a darker middle, but the video didnt really mention anything else on the gel phase, why soap requires it, etc. guess i need to wait for the next episode!

The gel phase is the time when your chemical reaction is happening the quickest. Imagine that one hand is your lye solution and one hand is your oils. Now, they are going to move against each other while combining. The faster they move together, the more heat they will create...just like when you rub your hands together quickly. The resulting heat causes the gel. You can avoid the gel by forcing your reaction to move slower... soaping at room temperature and putting your molds in the refrigerator...much like if you just rub your hands together slowly. I've never had any luck avoiding the gel. My soaps start gelling right away no matter how cool my lye solution and oils are. The benefit of going to gel is that your saponification process is quicker and your soap is darker. Some people prefer the lighter look and texture of ungelled soap. Either way, you still get soap.

thanks very much for the info!

now that youve explained i can tell that my first batch didnt gel... i thought i was messing up by keeping the oils and water mixture a bit cooler (well... accidentally cooling my lye water too much) but its been about 5 days of curing now, and its a natural VERY light coloured soap, and seems to be ok.

now if only i could figure out what the heck i did to batch two O_o

to gel or not to gel is pretty much a personal preference. I use 100% goat's milk for all my soaps and I prefer not to gel. I soap cool and pop it into the freezer immediately after pouring into the mold, as I like to keep my soaps as light colored as possible. Neither is better than the other.