Where do you cure your soaps?

[Happysoap]

Every little while I come up with a random question. I have no soapers around so I have to constantly bug you guys :wave:

Where do you cure your soaps? What are the conditions you aim for?

I just found a piece of soap from last weekend's test batch that somehow wound up on the heating vent. It is much harder than the soaps from the same batch which are curing at room temp on a table top designated for curing. The heat vent soap is almost at the goal weight and the scent is what I was expecting at full cure. I am thinking that it might be time to rethink my curing environment.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

Mine currently sit haphazardly on top of my boxes of raw materials in my office! I will be moving them down to the cellar soon.

But in both cases, it's a normal temperature. Not sure if a heating cure is the best option otherwise it would be more common

 

[Dennis]

MFFESSALWAMOMC finally said I had to move them. Curing soaps now reside under the bed, in a closet and in a bedroom corner with shoeboxes.

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[yadonm]

 

[yadonm]

I pushed the button too quickly. I have that rack in my basement soaping area. It holds a lot of soap. When it's cured, I move it to another rack like that. I have plastic shoe boxes my husband drilled holes into for air flow.

 

[dixiedragon]

Mine are in soda flats on an old bookshelf. They cure fine in the house and fine in the attic. But NOT the basement. I think the basement is too damp. The soap gets sticky and tacky, and I've had some develop DOS, when bars from the same batch that are kept in the attic and in the house were fine.

 

[Happysoap]

So all of you cure at room temperature? There is probably a good reason for that. I think I will keep this one puppy on the heating vent just to see what happens

 

[Seawolfe]

I have claimed the top of a small table that sits by our 1920's in-floor heater that always has the pilot light on. We live near the beach so its always pretty damp, so newly made soap cures there where its slightly warmer and drier. Once they done curing they go live in a big old cardboard box nearby.

 

[seven]

before i cure my soaps in the bedroom coz it has air conditioning that is on at night. but there is a bathroom inside, and during the day the a/c is off while the bathroom door is open all the time. it didn't work.

my curing racks are now placed in the living room with better air circulation. it is very humid here and i have to be careful. my dream is to have a room where the temp is always controlled. of course that is a dream as there is no more space to build such a room.

as you can see, the curing racks also serve as a place to put whatever bits, from packaging stuff, EOs/FOs, etc

 

[green soap]

I thought direct contact of soap with any metallic surface was a no no. Has anyone experienced any problem doing this? Any soap discoloration? anything else?

I have the same set up as Yadonm but I line the shelfs with paper or cardboard. I use fruit cardboard trays often, they hold the soaps well for transport but have lots of breathing holes.

 

[dixiedragon]

I thought direct contact of soap with any metallic surface was a no no. Has anyone experienced any problem doing this? Any soap discoloration? anything else?

I have the same set up as Yadonm but I line the shelfs with paper or cardboard. I use fruit cardboard trays often, they hold the soaps well for transport but have lots of breathing holes.

Lye reacts with aluminum. I don't put new soap bars on aluminum trays or foil for that reason. Stainless steel is okay.

 

[yadonm]

I haven't had any problem whatsoever. The shelves I believe are stainless steel.

 

[Hermanam]

I was lucky enough to find this bakery cart and pans for a great price on craigslist. I just lay down a sheet of freezer paper between the soap and the pan. I can write the date and any other notes/ingredients right on the freezer paper. I am always on the lookout for another one because I just love the convenience and space saving of it.

The Coke fridge was a working fridge in our basement for years. It finally crapped out and the cost of repair is more than the value of the fridge. Voila...it now have the perfect storage space for my oils, etc. It's cool and dry and out of the way. Hubby, of course, preferred the working fridge, but I can't say I'm sorry it died

 

[Happysoap]

I am going to sneak into your house and steal that fridge! Awsome!

 

[fuzz-juzz]

I store and cure mine on the top of the bookshelf. This works for me, as I'm not selling.
I have a small child and a very nosy cat, so this way they are out of their reach.
My soaps just sit on stackable cookie racks. Some of them are stainless steel but I didn't notice they are bothering soaps. Cookie racks give soaps good aeration on all sides, even at the bottom.
Storage room where the soaps are, have no windows and it's sort of in the middle of the house, it has no heating but it can't get really cold, or really hot and so far so good, I had no problems with any of the soaps. Except the one that riced and therefore developed DOS as the result of ricing. It seems soaps are drying way better in cooler and dryer weather, as summers here can be quite hot and humid.

 

[Dennis]

Someday that CocaCola fridge will be worth a fortune to a collector, working or not.

 

[shunt2011]

I have 2 shelving units similiar to the previous pictures. I purchased 2 more and just used the shelves. I line them with either needlepoint plastic or that hook rug stuff. I cure and store them there wrapped and labeled until I need the space then move them into baseball card boxes.

 

[Sagebrush]

I have the same sort of shelving unit as yadonm that my husband got me for Christmas, and I recently bought the shallow stainless steel pans that go with the unit. Even though the stainless is probably fine, I line the pans with freezer paper to store my curing batches.

 

[songwind]

I'm curious if anyone has cured soap in their garage in a northern climate in the winter, like MN, Wisconsin, Canada, Alaska, etc?

 

[btz]

Does anyone know what would happened if you sun-dried your soap? Was watching tv yesterday and saw people fermenting food under the sun, so I though what about soap? Can they cure under the sun?