Benefits of cure

[Sinful7]

So at farmers market this past weekend I ran into another soaper. This person told me she doesn't have to cure her CP soap. (She makes only goats milk and honey bars) and told me the only reason to cure is for a sudsier bar.
Now I know better than that, soaps get milder as they cure in my experience, and they last longer. Can anyone else give their experiences with cure times and differences in soaps?

And while I understand technically soap can be used as soon as saponification is finished. I find it very drying on my skin or makes my skin feel tight and itchy until properly cured.

 

[Seawolfe]

To my mind a soap improves in many ways during cure. Hardness, sudsing, bubbles, solubility, mildness... I even see it in my HP soaps. Why sell soaps before they are at their best?

 

[LunaSkye]

I only made one soap (my first CP soap) that seemed like it did not need to cure after a 2 day wait. It left my skin feeling really nice too and I got it in my head that it would feel nicer if I left it alone for two weeks.

Outside of that soap, all of my soaps have been cured for at least a few days before using. I'm finding that you really need patience for soaping as it gives you the childhood feeling of being in a candy store only to have to wait to eat that candy! :-| Who want's to wait? Yet it really does yield a harder soap to wait it out. The last pieces of my first two batches are already harder than they were when I first used them (both were HP soaps btw). I imagine that they will last longer too.

No complaints, just excitement! :smile:

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

A very smart soaper once went in to the chemical aspects of it, how the structure of the soap settles and crystalises over the usual 4 weeks. It takes away of lot of the anecdotal nature of the cure and makes sense of it, which is why my soaps get a 4 week cure before anyone else uses them.

 

[pamielynn]

Any experienced soapmaker can tell the difference between a fresh bar and a cured bar.
In my opinion- and take it for what it's worth to you- soap isn't "finished" until it's been cured for at LEAST four weeks. You'll get a bar that is harder, so it lasts longer in use; it is milder on the skin and the lather improves. Why anyone wouldn't cure their soap is beyond me - but a friend of a friend is a burgeoning soapmaker and is selling her soaps the day after they come out of the mold - so I guess it works for some people.

Kevin Dunn (Scientific Soapmaking) also researched "cure" in his book - it's worth having a look-see at it.

 

[Susie]

I really prefer my soaps to get 6-8 weeks. The difference between even the 6 week soap and the 8 week soap is astounding. It may be the humidity where I live making it take longer, though.

 

[Skatergirl46]

I personally don't want my good soap dissolving before it's time and being wasted by insufficient curing! Oils are expensive. I don't sell my soap, but if I did I would sell only fully cured soaps. In the long run I would think that customers will be happier with a soap that has the best possible performance given the recipe used, and the most longevity. If I bought a soap that didn't last I probably wouldn't buy it again.

While I always use the little ball from my crockpot right away to test it (I do mostly HP), I like to cure for at least 12 weeks before using. The exception being Bastile which I cure for the recommended 6 months. So worth the wait!

 

[Sinful7]

I too fully cure my soaps. And would never sell uncured soaps. It just surprised me to hear someone who does sell state they don't have to cure their soaps. However she also didn't make any other kind than the goats milk and honey. (Which is her main business) she sells honeys. Still she was extremely friendly and seemed to be interested in any tips I had for her. So I told her to fully cure a bar and test the difference

 

[coffeetime]

Sigh. I do sell my soaps, after a 4 week cure (4 months for Castile) and I had someone come up to me on Saturday and ask why handmade soap made their skin dry and itchy. They had bought some from another soapmaker at some point and were not pleased. People who sell poorly made, uncured or whatever make this business harder for everyone who sells. Because people will try that and assume that's what handmade is like across the board. And go back to commercial soap.

 

[Moody Glenn]

Hello! Selling un-cured soap means the buyer is purchasing part water - basically, watered-down soap. Curing allows the water used in making the soap to eventually evaporate (not all H2O but most). Un-cured soap will weigh more and the buyer is not getting the true worth. I won't even elaborate into possibly getting DOS and the very slimy, gooey nature of using recently made soap bars. Yucky-Ducky. Very bad selling idea. :thumbdown:

 

[neeners]

I don't sell publicly. I only sell to friends and family (but mostly give away). I never give anything away to anyone until at least a 4 week cure. there's no reason to sell fresh-ish soap. I mean, I'm ok giving the soap a test drive a few days after making it, but that's just me. I'm the quality assurance on my product. I can definitely tell a fresh-ish soap and a cured soap. I feel bad for unsuspecting customers who get duped from uneducated sellers, which make the rest of us who care deeply what we do and take pride in a great product look bad.

why would someone not want to sell the best product to people is beyond me.....

 

[Sinful7]

I think we are all guilty of "testing" our own batches. At least I am. That is how I know cure is a wonderful thing

 

[soapsydaisy]

I made a batch when I started out that I didn't think was a good recipe only to find out it was amazing after a 6+ month cure. Just goes to show you that you can't judge a soap after a couple days. My hubby asked me to make that soap again but sadly I tossed the recipe (that taught me to keep better records).

 

[pamielynn]

I'm gonna make a t-shirt that says "Let it cure"!

 

[neeners]

I tell my non-soapy friends that a good soap is like fine wine - gets better with age!

 

[Sinful7]

Lol loving the responses. I am so ready to do some explaining come next farmers market!!

 

[shunt2011]

I will not sell my soap until it's had at least 4 weeks to cure. I spend the last 4 months getting ready for my spring/summer markets and shows so made a whole lot of soap that is officially at least 6 weeks old or more. I would hate to have someone purchase a bar that isn't cured properly and not last.

 

[kisha]

I have a hard time waiting for full cure but I do notice a difference in bars I use a couple of weeks after making and the last bars of the batch that are usually around 3-5 months old, depending on the batch. That's saying something since I am very new to soap making.

 

[DeeAnna]

I have tried my soaps from their baby stage -- just safely saponified -- through well over a year old.

When young, the soaps "melt away" faster in the shower. The lather is often acceptable, but not as good as it is later on. If you split open a bar that has been colored with something like cocoa, you'll see a dark brown layer of color around the outside surfaces of the bar, but the inside of the bar is still pale brown. This indicates there is much more moisture in the center of the bar that needs to evaporate.

When just cured -- about 4-6 weeks old -- I see the lather begin to improve. It takes less work and less water to build a good suds. A bar colored with cocoa will show a color change throughout most of the inside of the bar, although the very center may still be pale, indicating there is still moisture in the center of the bar that has yet to migrate out and evaporate.

Around that time or a few weeks later, I notice another odd change... the bars begin to vibrate when tapped. What I mean is this -- if you gently tap two young bars together, they will obviously hit together, but they won't bounce away. This is what a physics teacher would call an "inelastic collision". Gently tap the same 2 bars at age 6-8 weeks, and you'll feel a slight vibration with your fingertips and get a slight sense of bounciness (elasticity). This is telling me the crystalline structure of the soap is gradually becoming more organized and stable.

After about a year, soaps that did not lather especially well when young will now lather much, much better.

 

[Sinful7]

Wow DeeAnna great info! Especially the part about the bars vibrating. That was new information to me. Thanks