gelling soap

I got a question a while back on what gelling of soap means. When I saw this batch I had to take it's picture as it is a perfect example of a well gelled batch! For the non soapers under us, when you make soap you can pour it and cool it (most small shapes are made like that) or you can pour it and gell it, as in heat it (but not to much) so it transforms into a better quality soap. Individual soap molds do not have the bulk to easily generate the heat needed to gel so I only gel my soap batches. Another thing is that gelling changes the color of the soap, and even tho I can make a nice bright yellow regular soap, when that same recipe gels it's more of a dull orange which is not as effective with my sunflower shape molds.

You know a soap batch is starting to gel when from the inside a dark translucent oval forms which will work it's way slowly to the outside. If cooled too soon it might only be gelled in the center and your soap might be colored unevenly, if heated too much it might overheat and separate - an overheated soap is not a loss, but it does need to be rebatched (noodled and reheated) which is a pain in the butt!

The way I have pretty consistent success with gelling batches of soap? I put the 31 bar batch on a seedling hatching mat for about an hour on top of a piece of pink foam insulation with another piece over the mold and horse blankets wrapped all around. Sometimes I heat it for 15 minutes, sometimes for 2 hours, kinda depends on how hot it went in (140F or 90F makes a difference, tho I aim for 120F it does not always work out that way) but I leave it wrapped until the next day (maybe with a peek just to make sure it didn't go too far). When you peek and a batch is gelled like the pic above take it out and let it cool down, it can't gel any more than that but it can overheat.

I find that properly gelled soap is easier to get out of my molds as well. My experience is that soap recipes without shea butter release well with a little oil rubbed inside the mold (I use a piece of paper towel, rub the inside of the container I measured my oils in and use that to oil the inside of the mold - that way the same oils go in the recipe) - recipes with shea butter only release if gelled nearly completely...

Something else, last time I ordered molds from Milky Way Molds they send me the sleeping cat (front) instead of the sleeping goat (middle)... since I do not make cat milk soap (har har) I did not quite know what to do with it, until I whipped up a batch with paprika powder and poured a bunch of Garfield cats! Customers really seem to like them, for some reason; then again, don't most cats like milk?!