Curing CP Soap

[Caterpillar]

Hello,

I have successfully made a few batches of CP soap - hooray! - BUT, a batch I made last summer developed DOS - yuck! I believe it was because I live in an area that gets very hot and somewhat humid during the summer. I have recently acquired a mini fridge and am wondering if it is okay to put my CP soap in there to cure? Do you think it WILL cure in a fridge or would it be better to cure out in the open for a while and then store in the mini fridge? The fridge is at its warmest setting.

Thank you!

 

[Susie]

I have soaped in hot and humid weather from day 1. The environment is usually not the cause of DOS. Exposure to metals, old oils, lavender essential oil, and other things cause it, not the weather. After all, soap is going to be used in the most hot and humid room in the house.

Do not try to cure your soap in the fridge. Just leave it out in open air, and let time take care of the rest.

 

[soap1daze]

Using tap water isn't a good idea if you have hard water. Try distilled water and make sure your recipe is balanced with soft and hard oils.

 

[Caterpillar]

Lavender essential oil can cause DOS? I've never heard that. Anyway, I didn't use it in the icky orange batch.

At first I thought the problem was that one of the oils I used may have been past its prime but I used them all again later without developing DOS. I guess I just assumed that the heat and humidity during the cure was to blame. Now I'm running out of excuses, lol! I will continue to let it cure out in the open and just hope for the best. BUT I won't be investing in any lavender essential oil!

Thanks!

 

[Caterpillar]

I've always used distilled water in my recipes so I can't blame that either. Hmm, thanks for the input!

 

[IrishLass]

What does your soap formula look like from the viewpoint of the fatty acid profile? You can check it out by typing your recipe into SoapCalc. I ask because formulas high in linoleic acid are more vulnerable to coming down with DOS. For what its worth, most folks try to keep their total linoleic content from going too much over 15% to avoid DOS.


IrishLass

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

Was there a lot of air flow over and around the soaps?

 

[Caterpillar]

I've looked over and re-checked the oil types and ratios, etc. in the recipe I used last summer and everything looks okay. The one weird thing about that recipe was the fact that it is the one and only time I ever attempted to use spirulina as a natural colorant. Who knows, maybe the spirulina wasn't even to blame but after a short while, the greenish color faded and the soap developed DOS.

 

[Steve85569]

The problems I have had with DOS all were traced back to lye discount. Now I use a much smaller lye discount ( sf) and have had no problems. Had a castile develop DOS before it was cured.
Lesson learned the hard way.

It may be that the spirulina brought something unexpected to the soap as well since it's the only time you've had the problem.

 

[MiHan]

I live a humid city too. I just cleared a shelf on my bookshelf, covered the opening with a thin film of paper/ cloth blend (I really don't know what it is, it came in as wraping for something else..), and placed a dehumidifier in it. I'm currently curing my soaps on that shelf. I don't know if it would work for sure yet since I just started doing that two days ago. But I think it should work since the air in that area is somewhat contained but not sealed, and at least some of the water molecules would be taken away by the dehumidifier.

 

[Susie]

sounds good, i only start to make homemnade soap

You may want to go read about 5-10 pages of threads in the Beginner Forum, then repeat in the Lye Based Soap Forum. This will give you invaluable information as you start this awesome hobby.