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I keep reading that article and looking at its photos...like a train wreck from which you can't turn away. I don't understand how such a seasoned soaper would write such an article. Surely this isn't what they wanted written or how they make soap for their business...
 
I didn't notice this sentence on the first reading, but...

Saipua’s bars are perfumed with unusual and ever-changing combinations of essential oils and other natural elements like dill and clary sage, nori and sea salt, French green clay and vetiver and coffee and mint.
 
I probably wasn't disparaging enough. Our moms teach us “We don't talk to them. They use the same unit with different meanings depending on what they measure.” 🤣

Joke aside. If a unit system didn't work, people would have died from hunger. Unit systems are about consistency, and each has their strengths and weaknesses (except the pre-1971 £sd system, that had only weaknesses). The only really stupid thing to do is being inconsistent.

I asked because I have no idea how the ambiguity of “ounce” is handled in practice of US households. We have measuring cups too, and they have multiple graduations for grams of flour, sugar, salt, oil etc. (i. e. implicit assumptions on density), but that's about it with “mixing up weight and volume measurement”.


Sharp eye!
Fluid ounces are really confusing and stupid. I recently bought some powdered oxides that were supposed to be 4 ounces each, but weighed about 2.5 ounces. Then I saw that they measured their powdered oxides in fluid ounces. Ridiculous. I was so irritated I returned them.
 
Hey, @Peachy Clean Soap, what about something like this? A bit spendy, but I'd bet you could find similar for a reasonable price. :)
https://www.amazon.com/BeeBae-Premium-Beeswax-Alternative-Reusable/dp/B07P9MTBV7
I found a site where you can make these yourself. I did ask my "greenie" daughter in Hawaii how she liked them as I knew that she had purchased some. She said don't bother, that no matter how hard you try, air still gets into the container and dries out what is there or leaves it subject to mold. However, if you are looking for a waxed paper(rather than cloth) I would imagine that there is a DIY video out there or use one for the cloth wraps to try it out with paper. There are so many lovely papers out there for scrapbookers.
 
I found a site where you can make these yourself. I did ask my "greenie" daughter in Hawaii how she liked them as I knew that she had purchased some. She said don't bother, that no matter how hard you try, air still gets into the container and dries out what is there or leaves it subject to mold. However, if you are looking for a waxed paper(rather than cloth) I would imagine that there is a DIY video out there or use one for the cloth wraps to try it out with paper. There are so many lovely papers out there for scrapbookers.
Wouldn't they be a reasonable alternative to cling film (plastic wrap(?)) though? I.e. not totally airtight but good enough to wrap/cover in the short-ish term? That seems to be what they're aimed at.
 
Wouldn't they be a reasonable alternative to cling film (plastic wrap(?)) though? I.e. not totally airtight but good enough to wrap/cover in the short-ish term? That seems to be what they're aimed at.
She said as much as she hated using plastic wrap, she would use it rather than these. Her fridge smelled horrible after wrapping a few items...onions, melon and berries, as if they had all been mixed up together...and drying out to boot. She tossed them and I never bothered to try out the DIY type.
 
It's a pity they also say you can use the soap in a week or two or even sooner, after making it. They obviously don't cure any further than 2 weeks.:eek:
I've seen this advice touted by Kenna at Modern Soapmaking as well. She says that if you're curing your soap longer than two weeks you're wasting valuable time and space. I heartily disagree with this advice and have not been afraid to say so. I get that part of why she recommends this is because she uses less water in her recipes, but there's so much more that goes on in curing than water loss. I have a fairly tight schedule for curing (4 weeks for aloe and beer soap, 5 weeks for milk soaps), but I also don't have a quick turnaround on freshly made soap and in some cases if I think the soap doesn't "feel" ready I'll let it sit longer. This is one of the many reasons why when I shop other soap makers at markets I look for loose wrappers and never buy naked soap. If the wrappers aren't loose, I ask how old the soap is.... and I'm always shocked by how many makers are eager to tell me "it's fresh made". No no no! Teach your customers that soap is like wine! It gets better with age. I always act disappointed and ask them for their oldest soap and ask if they'll give a discount because it's old lol. I guess if they want to play that game (or be that uneducated about what they're selling) I'll play along with it too. 😈
 
I've seen this advice touted by Kenna at Modern Soapmaking as well. She says that if you're curing your soap longer than two weeks you're wasting valuable time and space. I heartily disagree with this advice and have not been afraid to say so. I get that part of why she recommends this is because she uses less water in her recipes, but there's so much more that goes on in curing than water loss. I have a fairly tight schedule for curing (4 weeks for aloe and beer soap, 5 weeks for milk soaps), but I also don't have a quick turnaround on freshly made soap and in some cases if I think the soap doesn't "feel" ready I'll let it sit longer. This is one of the many reasons why when I shop other soap makers at markets I look for loose wrappers and never buy naked soap. If the wrappers aren't loose, I ask how old the soap is.... and I'm always shocked by how many makers are eager to tell me "it's fresh made". No no no! Teach your customers that soap is like wine! It gets better with age. I always act disappointed and ask them for their oldest soap and ask if they'll give a discount because it's old lol. I guess if they want to play that game (or be that uneducated about what they're selling) I'll play along with it too. 😈
Okay so I don't sell but... I would assume a loose wrapper should / would only happen as the soap shrinks from water loss. I wouldn't think to wrap soap until after it was cured though. So a wrapper would, if I ever sold, likely to never be loose. I'm thus confused why you only look for loose wrappers? Am I just approaching the idea of soap packaging incorrectly?

I get the concerns with "fresh made". Do you ask them what their cure time is? Do they seem to be uneducated or is it possible they are simply responding to the "expectations" from customers that "fresh = best" and don't want to take the time to explain curing? And thus to them "fresh" is the same as "recently completed cure."
 
Okay so I don't sell but... I would assume a loose wrapper should / would only happen as the soap shrinks from water loss. I wouldn't think to wrap soap until after it was cured though. So a wrapper would, if I ever sold, likely to never be loose. I'm thus confused why you only look for loose wrappers? Am I just approaching the idea of soap packaging incorrectly?

I get the concerns with "fresh made". Do you ask them what their cure time is? Do they seem to be uneducated or is it possible they are simply responding to the "expectations" from customers that "fresh = best" and don't want to take the time to explain curing? And thus to them "fresh" is the same as "recently completed cure."
Soap continues to shrink over the course of it's existence, it just does it more slowly after a few weeks. So, once you wrap your soap, no matter how cured, the wrapper will loosen over time as the soap within it shrinks.
 
So a wrapper would, if I ever sold, likely to never be loose. I'm thus confused why you only look for loose wrappers? Am I just approaching the idea of soap packaging incorrectly?
Incorrectly, no, perhaps just inexperienced. Soap will continue to shrink as it ages. When I first started selling I would tighten the wrappers on all my soaps and after several months I would have to go back and tighten again. I have a large box filled with my own soaps and other people's soaps - some dating back to 2017! - and all have loose wrappers. This is also why I generally don't worry tightening my wrappers anymore - I have too much soap to do it with for every market and I have customers who are educated enough to look for the loose wrapper.

Do you ask them what their cure time is? Do they seem to be uneducated or is it possible they are simply responding to the "expectations" from customers that "fresh = best" and don't want to take the time to explain curing?
I generally don't as I find too many makers get defensive if you start asking them knowledgeable questions. I can ask enough questions without getting specific to find out if someone knows what they're doing or just makes for the sake of making. [I hesitate to call them "hacks" unless they truly act like it.] When my customers ask, I explain as much as they are willing to listen to - it's never a wasted conversation, and any maker who thinks it is is short changing their customers [imo].
 
I just opened a soap I made 6 years ago, and although wrapper was loose, it wasn't excessively loose. But how old was the wrapper, one might ask? Well, it was hand-written, which I haven't done for quite some time (probably 2017 would have been the last time I hand-printed a label. Was it ever re-wrapped? Sure, when they get too loose, I do tighten them if appropriate. For example, if it's a cigar-band type wrap, I don't want it to fall off, so I tighten it. However, it it's shrink wrapped, which several of my soaps are, I'll just run the heat gun over them for quick tighten.

Incidentally, this 6-year-old soap is one of my first egg soaps and it lathers and bubbles so nicely, as I find egg soaps tend to do. No real fragrance, although I really don't recall if I was adding fragrances yet at that point. No rancidity, in case anyone is wondering.
 
Hi there! I know this is over a year later but I thought I’d ask. Has anyone tried their soap? I have a bar and have to say I was underwhelmed. How close do you think this article recipe is to their proprietary recipe? What could be tweaked to get more lather?
 
Hi there! I know this is over a year later but I thought I’d ask. Has anyone tried their soap? I have a bar and have to say I was underwhelmed. How close do you think this article recipe is to their proprietary recipe? What could be tweaked to get more lather?
Refer to this blogpost, as the solid soapmaking part of the business has been outsourced, apparently. SAIPUA
 
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