# Gelling soap and oven drying?



## Island Creek Farm (Jun 16, 2010)

Two questions...

1. What is "gel" in soap making? I made the same recipe I always make last night and the center swelled up and looked like the inside of a jelly bean while the outside was already firm...is this gelling? If not, any idea what happened? It all firmed up today, but I can see the center is still a different opaque-ness (wal mart recipe, w/milk and scent...exactly same recipe I always make w/no issues)

2. How do you oven cure soap? Do you do it in the mold? How long and what temp and how soon can you unmold?

Thanks much in advance!


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## BlackRiverBubbles (Mar 21, 2013)

Sounds like you had a partial gel-nothing wrong with the soap, just cosmetic. I noticed with the heat and humidity that if I don't want my soap to gel I need to get it into the fridge or freezer right away even with soaping at room temp. 

Sorry, I haven't done any HP so I can't help you with that but hopefully someone will chime in


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## MF-Alpines (Mar 29, 2010)

I get a partial gel depending on what eo I am using. It doesn't bother me a bit, nor does it bother my customers.

I haven't done any oven-processing, either.


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## a4patch (Oct 7, 2009)

I have more soaps gel in the summer.


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## tlcnubians (Jan 21, 2011)

Amanda - what you may be seeking information on is the CPOP process of soapmaking - "cold process/oven process" where soap is put into oven-safe molds after being made using the traditional cold process method, and then put into an oven set on a fairly low heat setting for a certain amount of time. There's a great CPOP tutorial on the Rustic Escentuals website here: http://library.rusticescentuals.com/item_19/Crunch-Time-For-Soaping-Rescue-CPOP-Tutorial.htm. I've used it before when I've had soaps that seized so badly in the pot that I could hardly put them into molds, and it makes a nice soap, but not as attractive as plain cold process. They do suds like crazy though, and since all the lye is cooked out of the soap by oven processing it, it can be used much sooner than cold processed soap.


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