Question about Embeds

[brian0523]

Ok - I want to make a bar of soap that has a contrasting colored chunks of soap embedded into the bar.

Question is - do the embeds have to come to a full cure, or can I make them one day, and use them in the main soap pour on the next day?

 

[Guest]

Good question, because there will be a little shrinkage, but if your total bar needs to evaporate then it should do it at the same rate.

But I would think that it would be ok to make it one day and use it the next as an embed.

 

[Lane]

I embed with just about every single CP soap I make.

If you make them the day before, cut the soap up in the shape you want (shred, cube..etc) and lay them out on a table over night. Night air is dryer and it will pull more moisture out, rather than cutting the pieces RIGHT before you embed them. You want the embed to have less moisture, so as the soap cures it shrinks around the embed, hugging it into place. Of course it works to have the embed cure right along with the main soap, but if the embeds have just a pinch more water than the main soap, the main soap will harden first. Next the embeds with shrink out of there little pockets the main soap made. I mean, they won't just fall out, but as the soap gets used, they may be looser and crumble while using.