Store soap in cotton muslin bag?

[dragonmaker]

I have been storing soap on my curing rack, but I'm running out of space and also wanting to keep dust off of them so I can gift them to people later. I saw someone trying to sell cotton muslin drawstring bags for soap storage extoling all the virtues of cotton bags breathing, but I'd love to hear the opinions of someone who isn't trying to sell me something. Has anyone put soap in muslin bags before - either during cure or after? I'm wary of packaging them in plastic for gifting them because I want them to breathe in this humid climate, and I can't trust my people to use the soap soon after receiving it. I've heard wrapping in plastic is a recipe for DOS. True?

 

[DeeAnna]

I don't think muslin or cotton is magic, but cloth bags can do a good job of lengthening the shelf life of soap.

As far as plastic wrapping "being a recipe for DOS", that's not true in my experience and from what others have said. I've shrink wrapped my soap for some years now with good results. But rather than rely on other people's assumptions and ideas, you should test it and see for yourself -- it would be easy to do.

And on the theme of testing, Soapsmith did a test some years ago where she stored soap in muslin bags and other soap "naked". They were all kept in the same clean indoor environment.

The naked soap was really gnarly looking with shrinkage and rancidity. The soap in the bag looked really good -- only a small area of DOS.

She also tested whether the chelator EDTA was helpful and (no surprise) it was. But the bag did almost as good a job as the EDTA did.

http://soapsmith.blogspot.com/2015/09/soapsmith-dos-experiment.html

 

[Angie Gail]

What about storing them in a plastic bin with a lid? I'm storing some HP soaps that way and each soap is packaged in an organza bag and I also have some silica (desiccant) packets in each bin. They've only been stored that way a couple of months and they seem to be okay.

 

[dragonmaker]

DeeAnna, that's good to know about the shrink wrapping! I'll read through Soapsmith's experience. I will have to run some experiments here on storage and see what happens.

 

[DeeAnna]

I want to add that I shrink wrap soap only after the soap has cured for at least 4 weeks. I don't shrink wrap any earlier than that. I didn't say that earlier and thought I should point that out.

 

[dragonmaker]

Thanks!

 

[The Park Bench]

After I cut mine I let them sit in the open air for 2 to 3 days. At that time I put them in harvest style baskets to finish curing for 6 weeks. I then shrink wrap them and put them on the display shelves in my soap shack until I either take them to the farmers market to sell, ship them out as online orders or customers come and purchase them. I have never had a problem with DOS or any other issues.

 

[CatahoulaBubble]

They do make perforated shrink wrap. I just bought a shrink wrap system that uses bio-degradable perforated plastic. I still won't wrap until after cure. I cure my soap in covered shoe racks so they don't get fur and dust on them. My house has critters so fur gets everywhere. The covered shoe rack is a life saver.

 

[xavalyss]

I package my soap in muslin bags so after they reach four weeks I put them in, but don't tighten until about another two weeks and add the label.

 

[earlene]

Someone here at SMF (not sure if they are still here or not) had a curing system where she/he had attached muslin like a curtain above and around the curing rack to keep out dust and animal hairs (I think).

Others here store cured soaps in cardboard boxes (both naked soap and soaps already packaged).

Some soapers use fabric as their packaging material (I was gifted some by one or our members once & really liked it.)

I use shrink wrap & it has not been a recipe for DOS in my experience, either.