# Storing personal soap



## CraftyRedhead (Jan 22, 2014)

I'm new to soap making, my first soap is at the 4 week curing mark. I'm obviously not trying to package them for sale, but it's going to take me some time to go through all of it myself.. so I'm wondering, what do I do with it? I don't want it to lose it's scent, but I know cp soap is supposed to breathe, so I have no idea what I should wrap it in. I read somewhere that when it's completely cured I can wrap it in saran wrap or newspaper, would either of those work? Sorry if this is a silly question, but I'm lost!


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## My Mountain Soaps (Jan 22, 2014)

i wouldnt bother wrapping them. I normally set them on wax paper (More so to keep the shelf clean) and keep them away from direct heat, water, and air from the vent. I have mine in a drawer also. Soaps will last a long time, your soaps look nice too


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## AngelMomma (Jan 22, 2014)

Its not a silly question. But I would def not do plastic wrap. And I wouldn't want newspaper up against my soaps. It always leaves ink and a weird feeling on my fingers and wouldn't want that same thing on my soaps. But you DO want them to breath. So any number of set ups would work. Brown paper lunch sacks. Cardboard boxes that aren't closed up too tight. Photo boxes (which are just decorated cardboard boxes ). Plastic Rubbermaid type of containers with air holes drilled along the sides. And as far as having that much soap to store........If you are anything like us you might as well just find a room to store your soap in. Because before long you just may have hundreds of bars, lounging peacefully on shelves for their 6week cure I counted 18 different kinds at my kitchen sink today.


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## The Efficacious Gentleman (Jan 23, 2014)

This might also be a silly question - but if it has already reached the 4 week cure, does it NEED to breathe more?  Sure, soaps are often better with more cure time, but I know that other soapers do wrap them at a point to keep in the scent and a lot of people put a 4 week cure on most recipes.  I know I just set the cat fully amoungst the pigeons.


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## SoapMakingTommy (Jan 23, 2014)

CraftyRedhead said:


> I'm new to soap making, my first soap is at the 4 week curing mark. I'm obviously not trying to package them for sale, but it's going to take me some time to go through all of it myself.. so I'm wondering, what do I do with it? I don't want it to lose it's scent, but I know cp soap is supposed to breathe, so I have no idea what I should wrap it in. I read somewhere that when it's completely cured I can wrap it in saran wrap or newspaper, would either of those work? Sorry if this is a silly question, but I'm lost!



Hello and thanks for posting, I have actually been considering the same thing except batches for sale. 
All the soap i have made for myself, family & friends were all stored in regular room conditions in a dark cool place, i never had them contained inside a container of any sort.
My soaps are as good as new, but i did not use any scents, they smell wonderful tho.
The soaps i will be making soon will be scented and before i make packaging or even possibly after, I would like to find something to store it in to not loose the scent and try and keep it fresh for longer.
I am thinking i could store my soaps inside plastic tupperware.
I am still thinking of what i could place them on, i have had some color change by placing them on paper and if they are scented its possible the scents might wick  up a bit in the paper, but it might be so little not to worry, im not sure.


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## neeners (Jan 23, 2014)

i'm not sure how great my storing methods are (i'm also fairly new), but I store my soaps in brown paper bags with a label on them, then in an open huge Tupperware container on a shelf in the storage closet.  I haven't lost scent yet, the soaps can breathe and still continue curing.


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## The Efficacious Gentleman (Jan 23, 2014)

At the moment to cure I stand mine on baking paper and put them inside shoe boxes, lid off.  When 4 weeks are up, I close the lid for ease of storing.

When I move all of my stuff to the cellar (when I've got around to tidying the cellar!) I'll make holes in the sides of the boxes and always store them with the lid on to cure.  Once cured I'll then put them in a shoe box with no holes.

(There is a shoe shop on the ground floor of my building and they have to get their shoe boxes collected so they love it when I walk away with armfulls!)


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## shunt2011 (Jan 23, 2014)

I store mine in baseball card boxes.  Each box holds about 10-12 bars and I just label them and they stack nicely.   I actually got the idea from someone on one of the forums and it's worked great.


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## AngelMomma (Jan 23, 2014)

I have never notice older bars losing scent except for maybe citrus EOs.  So I don't really think that I need to wrap them up to "keep them from losing scent".  But as far as the 4 week thing still needing to breath???......I know some people strongly believe that its totally cool to use and sell young soap.  I do not.  I never will.  If you ever make a soap that morphs naturally in color.....(like a beer soap that also has vanilla infused oil), try curing it to 4 weeks, then cutting it in half.  There is still a bit of curing left to go.  You can see where it has cured to.  Almost there, but not quite.  Besides, the longer the cure, the dryer the bar, so it will last longer.  I don't know about you.  But I would hate for all my hard work to go to waste if I put my soaps in a plastic container with a lid only to have something weird to happen, like DOS, or mold etc.  Why chance it when there is no benefit?


(I personally do not consider my bars to be done curing until at least 6 weeks for many more reasons than the above statements though)


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## nebetmiw (Jan 30, 2014)

All my soap is tored in my bathroom cabinet stacked by scent.  Nothing under it or around it.  Never had a problem with it loosing scent either.  I just started the last one I made 6 months ago and it is still strong on the coconut smell.  Scent was from Soapazoola.


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## Seawolfe (Jan 30, 2014)

One of the guys at work told me "you just store them in your sock drawer till they're cured - makes your socks smell real nice!"


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## fuzz-juzz (Jan 30, 2014)

I just keep them on the drying racks. There is 5 of us and I give a lot away so most soaps get used up in about 6 months.
Regarding curing time, you might be a bit impatient as a new soaper.  I was I know how it goes. But now I cure all my soaps until at least 6 weeks mark. After 3 months they are at their best. Especially soaps with high olive oil and lard %. 
They tend to feel so much better on the skin, lather more, last longer and get less soggy after a 6-8 weeks cure.


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