"Aleppo" Soap -- halfway through cure

[SimpleSoaper]

That one looks nice - pretty similar in color to the HP 25% ones that I made. How old is it? Did it oxidize?

 

[shunt2011]

That one looks nice - pretty similar in color to the HP 25% ones that I made. How old is it? Did it oxidize?

It's almost 14 months old. No oxidation. Have left it on my curing rack the entire time. It does smell kind of earthy I guess you could call it. I think it smells like pea soup. However, it has mellowed out and isn't a bad soap at all. I've had a bar in the shower for the last 6 months and have been testing it. Used it last night and it acutally has pretty good lather but is slick.

 

[cmzaha]

Those look great!

 

[topofmurrayhill]

I'm wondering what causes the color difference with your's, topofmurrayhill? Is it the lye excess? My soaps don't seem to be oxidizing like the real thing, and I was thinking of trying a lye excess next to see what happens.

I was going to do the opposite and try a generous lye discount with the laurel oil added at the end. Your high laurel soap with superfat seems to be the greenest and if there is one thing for sure in the photos we see it's that this soap begins life green. As for why it isn't oxidized I could speculate that it's too young, since this soap is cured for a year and may be purchased older than that. Also since the green may be chlorophyll it may be subject to photo-oxidation. Maybe your soap hasn't seen much light?

 

[SimpleSoaper]

I had considered putting some bars in the front room window for some sun before, but I thought it would smell up the house. The whole basement smelled like laurel oil when it was first curing. But I tried a bar of each in the window a couple of days ago and surprisingly there is no smell. I'll leave it there for a few weeks to see what happens.

I think the real Aleppo soap must not not need sunlight to cure, because of they way they stack it. From the pictures I've seen, there is little direct sunlight that makes it into the curing rooms, and the bars on the inside of the piles get no light. But then again my "Aleppo" soap is almost certainly not made in the same fashion as the real thing. Whenever I get some time, I'm going to try the salting out method that was mentioned by the Turkish laurel oil supplier a few years ago in a thread here.

 

[topofmurrayhill]

It's almost 14 months old. No oxidation. Have left it on my curing rack the entire time. It does smell kind of earthy I guess you could call it. I think it smells like pea soup. However, it has mellowed out and isn't a bad soap at all. I've had a bar in the shower for the last 6 months and have been testing it. Used it last night and it acutally has pretty good lather but is slick.

It's nine months now and I brought a bar home to try out. I didn't have the highest hopes, not really being a big OO soap fan, but it's actually pretty good. The laurel oil gives it a nice lather and tames the sliminess a bit, though not completely. As you say, it gets somewhat slick in use as a thin layer of gel forms on the outside. It doesn't get sticky or ropey until it's been sitting for a little while after use. The skin feel is pretty good. The laurel oil odor has died down and now just contributes a pleasant natural character to the smell of the soap.

I would like to try this again, but not until I can get my hands on some real raw pomace. And next time I'll use a mixed lye.

 

[cherrycoke216]

It's nine months now and I brought a bar home to try out. I didn't have the highest hopes, not really being a big OO soap fan, but it's actually pretty good. The laurel oil gives it a nice lather and tames the sliminess a bit, though not completely. As you say, it gets somewhat slick in use as a thin layer of gel forms on the outside. It doesn't get sticky or ropey until it's been sitting for a little while after use. The skin feel is pretty good. The laurel oil odor has died down and now just contributes a pleasant natural character to the smell of the soap.



I would like to try this again, but not until I can get my hands on some real raw pomace. And next time I'll use a mixed lye.

Dear sir, we need your one year Aleppo soap full report!!!

Thanks in advance!

 

[biarine]

View attachment 21568heres mine. I CPOP it and it got a bit too hot I think. I have one pound left might make another batch.

Beautiful I remembered the Savon de Marseille, My aunt was given me about 9 years ago.