Understanding Why Your Oil Gel Didn't Form

Based on the process you described, the reason your mixture didn't turn into a gel after adding the Oil Soap is likely due to how Sugar Gel works and the nature of Oil Soap itself.

Here's a breakdown:

How to Properly Use Sugar Gel

Sugar Gel is designed to create an oil gel texture, but it requires a specific method involving a small amount of water and glycerin to activate properly. The correct steps are:

1. Mix Sugar Gel with Glycerin and water together. Heat this mixture to 70-80°C and stir until it becomes a creamy texture.
2. Separately, heat the oil you want to gel to 70-80°C.
3. Slowly pour the heated oil into the creamy Sugar Gel/Glycerin/water mixture while stirring continuously until the gel forms.

Your method of adding water after heating the glycerin and Sugar Gel, and then adding the Oil Soap instead of the base oil you intend to gel, deviates from these instructions.

The Role of Oil Soap

Oil Soap is a surfactant blend (like MIPA-Laureth Sulfate, Laureth-4) designed to create cleansing oils that emulsify and turn milky when mixed with water. It is not a simple oil that can be gelled by Sugar Gel. Surfactants work by bridging oil and water phases, and adding a significant amount of a surfactant blend like Oil Soap to the mixture is likely interfering with or breaking down the gel structure that Sugar Gel is trying to form.

Why It Didn't Gel

Sugar Gel is an oil gellant, and Oil Soap is a cleansing agent/emulsifier. They have different functions. You were essentially trying to gel a surfactant blend (Oil Soap) using an oil gellant (Sugar Gel) in a way that isn't compatible with either product's intended use. The presence of the surfactant in Oil Soap prevents the Sugar Gel from properly gelling the oil phase.

Recommendation

If you want to create a cleansing oil gel, you should first use Sugar Gel to gel your base oil (e.g., Fractionated Coconut Oil) following the correct steps mentioned above. You would then need to determine if and how the Oil Soap can be incorporated into that finished oil gel, keeping in mind that adding a surfactant might still affect the gel's stability depending on the ratios and specific ingredients. It's important to note that directly gelling Oil Soap with Sugar Gel is not the intended or effective way to use these products together.