Is there a method to testing soaps early?

[JayJay]

I am still an impatient soaper. I find myself testing bars way too early.

What I usually do is grab my sample bar (i.e. The ugly or irregular looking one) and wash my hands with it. If the soap is really new, I wash with gloves, just to see how it lathers and smells. Then I dry the bar off with a paper towel or washcloth and put it back on the soaping rack. For a couple of weeks until I try it again.

The thought has crossed my mind that I could be messing with the curing process by wetting the bar. Would it be better to cut a slice off of the tester bar each time instead?

I like testing whith the whole bar because the little pieces don't feel as representative.

If anyone has an opinion, please share.

 

[not_ally]

I think the little pieces are as representative, really. When I soap I cut off the ugly bits from each end of the loaf (in thicknesses that are good enough to lather up a few times) and cut those into quarters, so that I have 8 teeny testers from each loaf. I stick those into an open baggie and keep them w/my curing bars and recipe/note printouts so that I can test without using a whole bar.

Those little bits are actually pretty good testers in some ways, they have a better surface air/interior ratio than bigger ones, so in some ways (IMO) are better about showing some stuff - eg., evaporation/hardness - in the end result than the bigger ones from the same batch might be. Not sure what effect the baggie method of storage has, but I don't have the space to do otherwise

I have so many curing loaves that I don't end up testing most of them before a good cure period (8 wks or so), but I still like having the little testers so that I can do it if I want to, I like to make notes (or at least have the option) on the differences in the way they feel at the various stages between just poured and cured.

 

[JayJay]

Thanks Not_Ally for the reply. I could certainly try this method. It makes sense to me that they could dry out faster cut into little bits.