How long to cure?

I expect that everyone is a bit different here, but is there any consensus about when soap is ready? I've heard 4-6 weeks, but recently tried some of mine even before 3 weeks and found it to be pretty much ok. Is it just too dependent on recipe, racks, air movement, temperature, humidity, etc, etc to pin down a more accurate length of cure time?

It's not just that it's ready to use. 4-6 weeks allows for evaporation, milder and longer lasting bar. You can use it anytime after saponification is complete and no zap. I choose to cure at least 4 weeks but prefer 6 or more. I've found that evaporation occurs after 4-6 week window too depending on the amount of liquid/lye concentration. I've wrapped soap at 4 weeks and had to zap them with the heat gund a time or two afterwards due to shrinkage.

If your soap is pretty much okay at 3 weeks, take notes about it, then try it again at 6 weeks. You will be surprised at the difference.

I hot process and I cure my soaps for a minimum of 6 weeks, and usually for 8. I find the difference between 6 and 8 weeks worth waiting for.

Curing is about so much more than water loss. Even water discounted soaps still need to cure!

I don't mind using my soaps after 2-3 weeks. The only difference I notice in a longer cure is the hardness. I like the soaps when their scent is nice and strong more than I'm concerned with a super hard bar.

6 - 8 weeks or so. CP soap does get milder as it cures, and the longer it cures, the harder it gets. Plus, it lasts longer.

It depends on the soap really. I have one base recipe that takes 30 days till I would consider ready. I have another base that is 50 days. I have experimented with some bars that have taken 90+ days. It takes about 180 days for a true castile soap (as in 100% Olive Oil). So really it's ready when it's ready. But I think the above statements are all very true, most soap is pretty good off in 4-8 weeks.

*I have used bars at 2 weeks even. They worked well enough but dissolved much quicker.

I've always been curious as to whether/how long commercially made soap is cured.

Great, thanks everyone!

wetshavingproducts said:

I've always been curious as to whether/how long commercially made soap is cured.

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http://www.madehow.com/Volume-2/Soap.html#b

But commercial "soaps" pull the glycerin out during the process. Many are detergent bars, not true soap, so you have to take that into account. There is a chart somewhere showing which commercial bar soaps are true soap and which are detergent bars, but for the life of me, I can't find it. I will keep looking and edit if I find it.

Susie -- Here's a list that might be helpful. The "irritation index" is a score from a dermatological test that shows how likely the product is to irritate sensitive skin. (About 80% of us don't have sensitive skin, by the way.) The higher the number, the higher the likelihood of irritation. Products with scores over 3 or thereabouts (speaking from memory) are not recommended for people with sensitive skin.

Hi DeeAnna,

Thank you for sharing the irritation index. It makes sense now.

Recently, to my surprise, my father in law kindly confessed to DH that my soaps badly irritated his face and he does not use my soap and I've been sending my soaps to him over five years! :sad: Well, my mother in law likes them though. He said he is very happy with his Dove bar. I am glad that he told DH about it. This gives me an opportunity to learn about syndet bar and why it works for those who have sensitive skin(20%).

So....If you have sensitive skin, is it better to use a syndet bar? But my CP soaps have been helping those who have eczema and dry skin. Why? Thank you, as always!

Nevada said:

http://www.madehow.com/Volume-2/Soap.html#b

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Interesting read, but doesn't deal with cure time.

Note that a soap with a pH of a whopping TWELVE POINT FOUR has a much lower irritation index than soaps with pH 9.9 or a syndet with a pH of 10.

wetshavingproducts said:

Interesting read, but doesn't deal with cure time.

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While it doesn't reference it directly, it says that after the milling process the soaps are cut and wrapped, which suggests no cure - commercial soaps made by the usual factory process are milled to finish, rather than cured as we consider it

I water discount and CPOP, I also track the weight of my soaps as they cure. If I get to 3-4 weeks and they haven't lost at least 7 or 8%, back on the curing rack they go. Which has happened when we had long periods of atypical humidity here this summer. My soaps when fully cured lose anywhere from 8-13% weight. It depends on the recipe. It took many months and batches to establish these percents for my soaps but I find it a very useful tool.

I recently had a batch that was water discounted and Cpop'ed and cured 4 weeks. So I took the soaps and weighed them before wrapping...and they had only lost 1g in water. So they went back on the shelf in an airier location for another week. Checked weight again, down 4g. Another week. You get the picture. If I weren't tracking weight, I would have assumed those soaps were good-to-go at 4 weeks and they would have melted away in use.

"...So....If you have sensitive skin, is it better to use a syndet bar? But my CP soaps have been helping those who have eczema and dry skin...."

I don't think it's true across the board that a syndet bar is automatically the best for sensitive skin. I think each person has to decide that for him/herself. There are many reasons why a person's skin is sensitive, so there are many folks for whom some types of lye soap might be fine, but others who cannot tolerate it.

From what I've read about eczema, there are many triggers for that, including allergy issues. Handcrafted soap with just a few classic ingredients might be just the ticket especially for some eczema sufferers allergic to ingredients in commercial soaps.

Getting back to the OP's question, I track weights too, like Coffeetime. I've found most of my basic soaps lose 8% to 10% of their cut weight by about 4 to 8 weeks. By that time, the bar size is also fairly stable, so I'm pretty comfortable packaging the bars at that point.

Before 4 weeks, the soap is still losing enough weight that I do not feel it is ready for "prime time". Have I used soap before 4 weeks? Sure, lots of times especially when I had less experience (and less soap). But I don't give it away nor would I sell young soap -- it will not last as long, IMO, nor may it lather as well.

I have found that a longer cure time does affect lather quality. For example, I made a mostly lard soap that had a below average lather at 4-6 weeks, but the lather was unexpectedly and dramatically better when I tested it some months later. I'm not too sure a regular person would be in a position to see the difference, however, so I enjoy monitoring these changes but I try to not get too "purist" about it.

To be honest, most of the soapers who get overly concerned about rushing their soap through its cure are newer folks. With enough experience, it's not too tough to have enough batches of soap moving through "the pipeline", so there is time to let the soap cure properly before using it, giving it away, or selling it.

The "cure" for anxious hands is to just make another batch.

Thank you DeeAnna for answering my questions !

DeeAnna said:

Susie -- Here's a list that might be helpful. The "irritation index" is a score from a dermatological test that shows how likely the product is to irritate sensitive skin. (About 80% of us don't have sensitive skin, by the way.) The higher the number, the higher the likelihood of irritation. Products with scores over 3 or thereabouts (speaking from memory) are not recommended for people with sensitive skin.

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That's the very chart I was looking for! Thank you so very much!