Why could this be happening

DaRoman · Nov 20, 2017

When I use my cold process cured soap for the first time, each bar doesn't have the 'slip' when I use it. I doesn't glide over my skin easily. It lathers ok and it only happens the first time I use it. The next time, it slides across my skin and lathers up nicely.
Does this happen to others?
What can be causing this?
My latest formula has
coconut milk powder mixed with distilled water and is used making the lye solution
colloidal oats
sugar
Lard
olive oil
coconut oil
castor oil
Don't k now the exact percentages (at work and my recipe is at home).
but i know its 50% lard
Thanks

MorpheusPA · Nov 20, 2017

I call that "priming" a bar, and it happens pretty much every time with mine, too!

I can't tell if it's water penetrating the bar for the first time and loosening it up, or getting rid of an invisible layer of sodium carbonate that's gumming up the works a bit, or just that the outermost layer simply doesn't saponify the same way the inside does due to drying out a bit more in hours rather than weeks.

Regardless of why it is, it certainly happens, and you and I are not the first people to complain about it!

It happens with every recipe I use, gel or no gel, CPOP or no CPOP (although I have to say, I think it's a bit better on CPOP soaps). So high olive, high lard, or high tallow, it's always the same.

DaRoman · Nov 20, 2017

Thanks MorpheusPA

cmzaha · Nov 20, 2017

I tell my customers that are new to handmade soap to not judge the soap until at least the second use

DaRoman · Nov 20, 2017

Thank you cmzaha.

BattleGnome · Nov 21, 2017

To try and help the glide, I try to wash my hands with a bar at least 1/2hr before my shower. With some recipes it works to saturate that first layer and do its thing, sometimes it doesn’t work. I have seen youtubers dip a bar in water then let it dry before packaging it for sale - supposed to be the same theory.

Zany_in_CO · Nov 21, 2017

I hear what you're saying... I've experienced the same thing. Once I started using a bath pouf, tho, the problem vanished. :thumbup:

jcandleattic · Nov 21, 2017

Zany_in_CO said:
I hear what you're saying... I've experienced the same thing. Once I started using a bath pouf, tho, the problem vanished.

I was going to say, I have never had this phenomenon, however, I use a loofah pouf and have for probably at least the last 20 years, so yeah, that must be why.

SparksnFlash · Nov 21, 2017

I had that, and F&Fs mentioned it as a negative for handmade soap. Now I steam all my bars before use/packaging and it seems to solve the problem. A benefit I wasn't expecting as it was only meant to make the soap prettier.

seven8soap · Nov 24, 2017

Get some tussah silk. It’s $ 3.00/ half ounce and you only need a teeny tiny bit. Place a piece the size of your pinky nail in the water before you add your lye. I won’t soap without it. It literally makes the bar “silky” and extra slippery.

DaRoman · Nov 25, 2017

Thanks for all the replies. I thought maybe it was something I was doing wrong.

Why could this be happening

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