Your favourite way to wrap soap

[breathenatural]

I know I have to shrink wrap my Melt and Pour Glycerin soap...

just wondering if anyone has a tried and true method to do it...


just saran, heat shrink??

 

[breathenatural]

oh...and I already have a heat gun, can I just use my own SARAN or PVC and wrap and use my heat gun?

 

[Tabitha]

If you want it to shrink you have to buy specific shrinking wrap. Saran won't shrink.

 

[breathenatural]

right...what do you suggest---shrink wrapping or saran?

I was thinking saran and then putting my label where it gathers??

 

[sunflwrgrl7]

I'm a saran fan, but that being said, I haven't tried shrink wrap on soap. I wrap in saran then drop into a sealable poly bag and staple on a hang tag.

 

[Tabitha]

I must have read your post wrong. I thought you were thinking about trying to shrink the saran .

I prefer saran.

The shrink gun can melt M&P soap, people often damage the shape of the M&P soap when trying to get it out of the shrink wrap & I think shrink wrap leaves an odd smell on the M&P soap.

I find the downside to saran is that because the saran is so thin, the soaps can get scratched or dinged easily through the saran. I wrap in saran then drop that down in to a cello bag for extra protection. Some would say that is over kill but I find it holds up longer term for soaps that may be sitting on shop shelves or be handled quite a bit at shows, etc.

 

[Bret]

I wrap in saran with a label.

 

[sunflwrgrl7]

Tab - I've also noticed it ensures that extra "freshness protection", just in case I got a little sloppy with the saran or the saran's too thin, etc. I opened up one of my poly bags with a soap in it, that I packaged back in November. I got a strong good smell of the soap the moment I tore open the poly bag, made me glad for choosing the double wrapping.

 

[Tabitha]

Sunflower, your siggy is funny! A lot of people call me Samantha - LOL!

 

[sunflwrgrl7]

Oh man, all they hear is the "tha" in your name, then come up with the name THEY think the "tha" should go to, LOL! In college, I shortened it to Mel for awhile. People never got my name wrong then, as long as they stuck with the shortened version.

 

[Tabitha]

With me it's the fact that they remember it's a name on Bewitched, they just don't remember which one.

 

[pjb31apb]

My sister's name is Joylynn, yet she gets daily calls from solicitors who are looking for Joscelyn! I also get calls from folks looking for Nancy, I'm Angie! LOL

 

[sunflwrgrl7]

LOL, Bewitched, I get it now!

 

[IanT]

Does saran make the soap smell like saran?? I know Ive wrapped food items in it and they would eventually end up tasting like the saran i wrapped them in. havent made soap yet but I am trying to work out how i would package it should i turn it into a business...I think the idea i like the most would be to wrap the individual bars in recycled brown waxpaper or deli-type paper and then insert the wrapped soap into a small burlap sack that I could make by stitching the sides together with hemp?? a real rustic-looking type thing, possibly with a draw-string and incentives for customers who recycled these bags back to the business when through with them...such as 10% off their order if they send back the same bags to use with their order (i would pay shipping...)


what do you think??


Ian T

 

[sunflwrgrl7]

I've never had any soap smell like saran. The reason for using saran is to seal it up airtight, so that it doesn't lose moisture and shrink, warp, etc. I'm not sure how well your waxpaper idea would work, cuz it doesn't sound like it would be airtight enough, but it probably wouldn't hurt to try and test...

 

[IanT]

I agree that it would probably be best to get the packaging air tight but I would like to try to stay away from using plastics... any other alternatives you could think of that would be air-tight and eco-friendly??

I would really still like to use burlap for the outer packaging but for wrapping the individual soap Im still up in the air... will probably conduct tests on anything and everything i can find but I would really like to stay away from using plastics (trying to steer towards the 'green' route)

thank you humbly for the reply!


Ian T

 

[Laurie]

Ian...if you are making cold process soap you may want to stay away from plastic wrap anyway. Some do use shrink wrap here but often leave an opening at each end.
Myself I just use paper bags but I don't sell, just provide for friends and family.
My understanding is that melt and pour soap has to be completely wrapped (hence plastic wrap) to avoid shrinkage of the bar.
Hope this helps.

 

[IanT]

oh it does thank you very much... do you experience any shrinkage or negative side effects from using a brown paper bag?? initially ill be doing this as a hobby but if it turned into a business that would be awesome! do you ever experience the bag wicking the oils out of the soap bar?? if there is any moisture?


also...if you were to use wax paper for wrapping it would the wax transfer onto the soap??
i dont know why i like burlap so mutch...maybe it reminds me of when i was a kid when i used to do those races in gym class where you get in a burlap sack and hop to the finish line!?? haha...anyone remember that?

 

[sunflwrgrl7]

Ian, for some reason I thought you were doing melt and pour soap, but if you're doing cold process, you don't need to keep it airtight, there are lots of different options for wrapping CP soap. Sorry about that, I got confused, cuz the opening poster was talking about melt and pour!

 

[Tabitha]

sunflwr, the person who started the thread was making M&P, but the thread had meandered since then. I had to go back & look too.