Curing Soap Outside?

[Gryfonmoon]

Hi all! I have a question about locations best suited to curing soap- I know that in the wintertime where I am, the air is very dry and since curing soap involves the water evaporating out of it I figure it would do better outside (sheltered from the elements of course, on my covered porch). Is this okay to do?

Secondly. if I continue to do this, will freezing temperatures at night and above freezing temps during the day (about a 27-63ish range) hurt the integrity of my soaps? Should I just bring in the soaps at night? I'm doing this with an olive oil only recipe at the moment. Thanks for your help.

 

[Seifenblasen]

I have not tried curing soaps outside myself. The thing is, there are two main factors that affect evaporation - humidity and temperature. You will be gaining in the humidity side, putting your soap in cold, dry, air, but losing in the temperature side.

Not entirely sure how freezing is going to affect curing soap. Some people put soap in freezer after they pour to avoid gel, but at that point the soap is still quite "active". I have also put a PVC pipe mold with soap int he freezer to help get it out, but that is for a short 15 minutes or so.

Perhaps someone more experience could give you a better answer. If I were you, though, I would probably leave one bar of soap outside and the rest inside and compare the two in 6 weeks!

 

[Gryfonmoon]

Yeah, that would be the smart thing to do. I should at least move them inside for the evening.

 

[Maythorn]

Where I live there would be exhaust fumes from cars. In summer there's all the bbq smoke so I couldn't do it anytime even in my storage room.

 

[Lindy]

If you're letting them freeze then it will slow down the curing. I would prefer to have them warm and dry....