Do y'all have any strong feelings or advice on storing soap after cure? Open air but covered? shrink-wrapped? What's the best preservation method to preserve bar integrity and fragrance without promoting DOS?
Storing Cured Soap
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jcandleattic
Well-Known Member
I wouldn't shrink wrap/cover tightly for curing, depending on your climate. Hot humid climates, with no air circulation could promote DOS
I store mine in the open air, which is semi covered (not directly covered on the soap, they are on sliding shelves, one of those wooden fruit rack things) I also live in a fairly dry/arid climate with very little humidity on a regular basis.
After a full cure and when I need the extra room, I will then shrink wrap, label and put in covered boxes ready for market.
I store mine in the open air, which is semi covered (not directly covered on the soap, they are on sliding shelves, one of those wooden fruit rack things) I also live in a fairly dry/arid climate with very little humidity on a regular basis.
After a full cure and when I need the extra room, I will then shrink wrap, label and put in covered boxes ready for market.
What about after cure? It’s crazy humid where we live, but the house is air-conditioned.
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jcandleattic
Well-Known Member
See my above reply -
...After a full cure and when I need the extra room, I will then shrink wrap, label and put in covered boxes ready for market...
You will just have to see what works in your area/climate.
There are numerous threads about this on the board you can search, and I'm sure there is an answer in one of them.
For me in my very humid house (in spite of our AC, some rooms are more humid than others, partly because I tend to dislike the coldness of AC), I found that storing my cured soaps in my wrap of choice INSIDE enclosed boxes prevents the humidity from getting at the soap and ruining it.
I shrink wrap and label, sometimes the label is on the inside, but mostly it's on the outside of the shrink wrap.
I have purposely kept out some soap from a few batches and left them open to the environment of the house, while the rest were stored away inside a box with no light or air circulation (this is after cure, of course) and this was the result:
Soap inside the boxes are all as good as when placed in the boxes in terms of being dry and colors remaining true.
Soap in trays open to the environment of the room (air circulation, humidity, minimal indirect light) were less than optimal condition: some suffered the effects of humidity, forming moisture inside the shrink wrap; some soaps had color fading.
Additionally, I tested use of desiccant packets in a semi-closed (air could still get through because I only loosely covered the trays) environment, and found the same negative results as leaving the soap open to the air inside my house. So I will not recommend the use of desiccant packets for soap storage unless inside of fully closed container. I have not found a need to utilize them inside a fully closed box, however.
I shrink wrap and label, sometimes the label is on the inside, but mostly it's on the outside of the shrink wrap.
I have purposely kept out some soap from a few batches and left them open to the environment of the house, while the rest were stored away inside a box with no light or air circulation (this is after cure, of course) and this was the result:
Soap inside the boxes are all as good as when placed in the boxes in terms of being dry and colors remaining true.
Soap in trays open to the environment of the room (air circulation, humidity, minimal indirect light) were less than optimal condition: some suffered the effects of humidity, forming moisture inside the shrink wrap; some soaps had color fading.
Additionally, I tested use of desiccant packets in a semi-closed (air could still get through because I only loosely covered the trays) environment, and found the same negative results as leaving the soap open to the air inside my house. So I will not recommend the use of desiccant packets for soap storage unless inside of fully closed container. I have not found a need to utilize them inside a fully closed box, however.
I store mine in baseball card boxes once cured well and will generally shrinkwrap and label first if I have a shows coming up. Otherwise I just leave them on my open racks and put a sheet around them to keep most dust off.
I use the baseball card boxes too. Or shoe boxes. I don't always use shrink wrap, so they are usually not wrapped when I store them. If I was selling, I think I'd wrap and label first so they are ready to go.
bohunk
Well-Known Member
I store my soaps in the $1 plastic shoe boxes I buy at the Wal-mart. Those are stored, stacked, in my bedroom closet. The scents don't mingle; in fact, when I open my closet you wouldn't know I had soaps in there unless you looked on the shelves. My house is not air conditioned and I live in coastal Virginia where our humidity levels are in the 60%-100% during the summer; that's 100% humidity on a cloudless, sunny day with no rain in sight, UGH! But I digress...anyway I don't have a problem with DOS or scent fading storing my soaps this way. I can get about 24 bars of soap in a box. When I sold, I wouldn't wrap soap until the night before a show.
meena.shah
Well-Known Member
As where I leave has a crazy humidity and I am having a problem with the soaps they have been started to sweat and melt.
Meena, see my reply in your thread here: https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/sweating-soaps.75722/#post-778394 I hope it helps.
meena.shah
Well-Known Member
Thank you guys
