Dehydrating soap

[rparrny]

One of my techs is involved in a charitable event to raise money for disabled vets who need work done on their homes to make it more handicap friendly. He asked me if I could make up a basket of soaps for the chinese auction. I wanted to make some specific soaps for the event but it is next weekend.
Is it possible to cure my cut soaps in my excalibur dehydrator to make it cured enough for the event? Anyone have any experience with this?

 

[traderbren]

There are a few threads on using a dehydrator for curing. The general consensus is "no". There is a lot more to curing than just losing water and "not zapping". If the event is next weekend, melt and pour is your best bet if you really want to include soap.

 

[not_ally]

No, there is just no way around whatever the cure is for whatever soap you are making (4 wks minimum for CP/HP, more depending on what kind it is.) Believe me, if it was possible I would have found it. This has been discussed ad infinitum on threads here and elsewhere, and I read all of them. Those, plus checking my own soap, made me accept the conclusion that zillions of other impatient soapers before me had to deal with Also, using a dehydrator will extract water from your soaps faster, but will not speed other aspects of curing, and will likely warp your bars.

Why not just make MP for this event, I know that you do that as well?

 

[jules92207]

Do you have any soaps already cured that would work? I always have so much soap around I can pretty much throw together something nice no matter what the occasion.

 

[Seawolfe]

A beer isnt ready to drink when its done fermenting, and an soap isn't done just because the saponification reaction is done. Soap needs a cure to be any good.
Use MP or make liquid soap.

But don't take our word for it - test all your soaps every week while they cure. Just don't hand them out early or your friends and family might think your soaps are so-so and that would be sad.

 

[cmzaha]

If you need soap to donate next week, get a good m&p base and pour bars. Excalibur will melt the soap even on the low setting. Tried it, although I was not trying to dehydrate the soap, I was aiming to soften it which I accomplished. Do not remember what I was aiming for at the time. I turned it up on med at first and the soap melted, on low it softened but would have melted if left in long enough.

 

[rparrny]

Why not just make MP for this event, I know that you do that as well?

Great idea thank you! I have some glycerin and other bases downstairs somewhere...haven't used them in years...do they go bad??
Also can I use my mica colorants? I still have some others that I use in my bath salts and bath bombs that I can use in MP but I have more colors in mica...

 

[rparrny]

Do you have any soaps already cured that would work? I always have so much soap around I can pretty much throw together something nice no matter what the occasion.

The really sad part is yes...I was experimenting for the holiday season gift giving and I gave them all away to be tested by my usual happy guinea pigs. There are only so many bars I can try out...
I will go with the MP bars and run over to the MP forum and see what I can learn there.

 

[not_ally]

I'm not sure about the bases if it has been years, I asked about this myself recently, and the general idea I got that a couple of years (the time frame I was looking for using them up) was probably OK. I seem to remember reading about this on BB/Soap Queen, maybe, and that the advice was to add a bit of glycerin in (but not too much, or it would get slimy) if the base seemed dry/splintered when cut, but not sure if there is some point at which it becomes unworkable ...

If I was making it for a basket for an auction I might just try and order some more really fast from someplace that is near you and ships quickly. Nature's Garden ships immediately (usually same day) but they are in OH, not sure if they would reach you in time. Anyone know if there are good MP base suppliers on in the NE US?

There are times when I have needed something really fast from a given company, placed an order, and then called to ask the co. to ship it out right away if they can, they are generally pretty good about that if you are nice and polite. I wish you lived near me, I could just give you as much as you needed to get this done.

You can use almost all micas w/MP. I don't remember any that were really bad in MP (there was one did not work v. well w/either CP or MP), they usually only morph in CP.