Why Does Handmade Soap Have to Cure for So Damn Long?
So you make soap. You cut it. It looks like soap, smells like soap and, for all intents and purposes, appears to BE soap....and then you put it on a shelf and wait four to six weeks before anybody gets to use it.
Which seems a little ridiculous, doesn't it?
There is actually a reason handmade soap needs all that time, though....and it isn't because it takes four to six weeks for the ingredients to turn into soap. That's one of those things that gets repeated a lot, but it isn't quite how it works.
When I make soap, I'm mixing oils and fats with lye, which starts a chemical reaction called saponification. That's the part where those ingredients actually become soap, and most of that happens pretty quickly. The weeks afterward are the cure, and that's a different thing entirely.
Freshly made cold-process soap has a LOT of moisture in it. Over the next several weeks, some of that water slowly evaporates out of the bars and they get harder....which might not sound terribly exciting, but it makes a pretty big difference once that bar lands in your shower.
A harder, properly cured bar holds up better. It doesn't dissolve as quickly every time it gets wet, it lasts longer, and the lather and overall feel of the soap can improve as it sits. There's more happening inside the bar during cure than just water evaporating, too....the structure of the soap itself continues to change over time.
Basically, soap gets better when you leave it the hell alone for a while.
Which is occasionally harder than you'd think.
There is something VERY satisfying about cutting into a new batch, especially when I've tried a new fragrance or color and it came out exactly the way I pictured it in my head (which, trust me, does not always happen). I want to wrap it. I want to photograph it. I want to put it on the website and say LOOK WHAT I MADE.
But....nope.
Onto the curing rack it goes.
Four to six weeks is pretty typical for most of the cold-process soaps I make, although some recipes benefit from even more time. And this is part of the reason I can't always immediately replace something when it sells out. I can make another batch tomorrow....but I can't make it ready tomorrow. Soap does not give a shit about my inventory situation.Handmade Soap
It has its own schedule.
I suppose there is probably some profound life lesson in there about patience, slowing down and allowing things the time they need to become what they're supposed to become....
I have absolutely no intention of learning it.
But apparently my soap has.
While you're waiting for me to make more....you can browse the goat milk soaps that have already served their time. 😂
