Shipping soaps in winter (frozen soap)

[soap_rat]

I'm wondering which is better advice to avoid condensation marring the soap's appearance: for the receiver to open the box right away and put the soaps in front of a fan, or to let the box stay closed and warm up slowly, much like paper manufacturers recommend? (but do paper manufacturers recommend it for the same reason?)

I'm sort of thinking that the air in the box will be drier than normal inside air since that is the effect we experience when we bring cold outside air into our house and heat it (thus giving us super low humidity in our homes). So keeping it in the box, there will be less moisture to form on the soap as it warms up.

But then I think that there may not be much air exchange (since I'm taping up the box pretty well) therefore it's not super-dry outside winter air at all, so it's better to take the soaps out right away.

What do you think?

Maybe I need to just need to pack the box outside in the cold!

 

[pamielynn]

Never experienced a problem shipping soap in the winter.

 

[soap_rat]

Thanks for your reply, Pamielynn. Have you shipped to cold states, or mostly in the South?

I have frozen my soap in order to get it out of molds, and there was a lot of condensation as they thawed. It affected my salt soaps especially, but I figured that amount of moisture developing inside the packaging of any of the soaps would not be a good thing.

 

[kazmi]

Soap_rat, you bring up a good point! Since I've never shipped soap in the winter especially in this crazy bitter cold that we're having I haven't thought about freezing and moisture (other than worrying about my FO orders sitting on my front porch waiting for me to get home from work). You can't avoid the freezing but maybe try some of those moisture packs inside your shipping box (like the ones inside of a box of new shoes or in some other products to keep moisture down).

 

[jcatblum]

When doing craft shows I am always cautious to not put any of my product in the car the night before on cold nights. I too worry about the product freezing & what customers may think.
I would tell them to let the package set at room overnight to ensure the soap has time to thaw. It they live in a cold climate they will understand.

 

[shunt2011]

I don't leave my soaps in the car for shows overnight in cold weather either as there is condensation. I just tell my customers to let it sit out and pat it with some papertowel if needed but it's never yet been an issue.

 

[pamielynn]

I have a lot of customers in New England and a couple in Colorado, Upstate NY and Washington State - now that's not as cold as say North Dakota, but I ship all year and nobody's ever said their soap was frozen or covered in moisture.

I find that heat affects soap more so than cold.

ETA: what I would do to test your soap is to package it up as you would for shipping and leave it outside in the cold for a couple of days. Bring it in, open it right away and see if anything negative is happening.

 

[Lindy]

I ship all year as well and this is often in Canada. There has never been an issue.