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Cold processed soaps need time to cure and age before they can be labeled and sold. The Hot Process method of making soap does make for a bar that can be sold right away however, their look and feel is not the same as cold process. Cold process soaps are usually smooth and hard bars of soap. When the soap is made, the fatty ingredients (coconut, olive, shea, soybean) and blended with sodium hydroxide (lye) along with essential oils and color and spices or herbs. When the lye (diluted in water) mixes with the molecules of the fatty oils – what you end up with is soap. However, the soaping process, known as saponification, continues over the next couple of weeks. As the bars of soap are allowed to sit out in the air, the lye works its way out of the batch and the water continues to evaporate. A bar of soap CAN be used after only two weeks of curing. It won’t harm you. But, softer soaps melt away faster in the shower or tub. When your bars of soap are allowed to cure a full four to six weeks, the end result is a very hard bar of soap. The basic rule is – the longer it sits, the harder it gets and the longer it lasts. When you cut your soaps into bars, spread the bars out a bit. A slight space between each one is enough to allow air to reach all sides of the bar. But when the bars are crammed against each other it makes it harder for the water in the bars of soap to evaporate. Room temperature is best. Some customers with little space have even told me that they place the bars on trays and slide the trays under the bed with a small fan running in the room when they are at home. Shelves in the laundry room work well as a curing space for you soaps too. No other options? Clean off a shelf in your closet. True, there won’t be as much air circulating in there but the soaps will still cure and your clothes will smell amazing. Another reason why some soaps need a longer cure time has to do with their ingredients. Soaps that contain honey usually feel more ‘oily’ in the beginning. If you label your honey soaps too soon it will leave an oily stain on the label. If you follow the simple rules of how to cure your soap, it will make all the difference in the feedback you receive from customers. Their bars will last longer and they will come back for more. After all, you wouldn’t want to buy cheese that hadn’t been aged properly. Curing soap is similar. The number one question we receive on our bulk soap loaf site is, how do I cut the loaf of soap into bars? What do I use? For years, we have used a wooden mitre box and a pastry scraper to cut the soap. If you choose to use a knife to cut with, make sure it is large enough to slice all the way through the loaf of soap — but, too large of a blade or too thick of a blade can cut away more soap than is needed. If possible, invest in one of the better pastry scrapers, the kind with the firm or wooden handle attached. They also come as one piece of metal with a curve on the end for the handle, but this type tends to warp over time. They are, however, more affordable – usually only about $6.95. The better scrapers should run around $15 and up. The reason we choose a wooden mitre box as a guide for cutting a soap is simple — it can be altered. Most mitre boxes do not have grooves that go all the way down to the floor of the mitre box. With a wooden model, you can insert a saw into the straight cut (you do not want to cut your soap on an angle for regular bars) and finish sawing the groove down to the floor of the mitre box. This insures that your bars of soap will be cut all the way through. Now is the time to decide how wide you want your bars to be. Most people choose to cut their soaps into a one inch thickness. At Green Pergola, we cut our soap bars 1.25 inches thick, which gives us 12 bars from a loaf of soap. When you decide your thickness, measure over from the straight cut and make a mark on top of the mitre box to the right of the guide. So, slide the soap loaf into the mitre box from the left and bring the edge of the soap over to the mark you’ve made on the top of the mitre box. Now, take your pastry scraper and start from the back side and begin sliding the blade into the soap loaf in a rocking down motion until the blade falls into the straight groove closest to you. You have now cut your first bar of soap off of your soap loaf. Repeat until finished. Any left over soap pieces, save for yourself or use as soap samples. |
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