How Soap Changes During the Curing Phase

People sometimes ask me why I don't make my soap available for sale right away. There are a few reasons, the simplest of which to explain is that because most of my soaps are made using the cold process method, the first few days of curing, the soap is still potentially going through the saponification process. This is the chemical reaction between the Lye, Water and Oils that creates the soap. It's important to not use the soap too soon because if this process is not complete, it can lead to chemical burns and harsh soap that can be irritating to skin. The longer soap cures, the more gentle it will become.

Another factor in this is the water used to create the soap. If you start using the soap too soon, before the water has had a chance to fully evaporate, the soap will be softer and will dissipate faster when being used.

To give you a good visual, I took these photos today. In the photo above you will see two bars of my last batch of Smooth-N-Soothe soap. In the photos below you'll see a comparison between one of those bars (that is fully cured) and a bar that was cut today from a batch mixed up last night.

In this first image you can see the difference in the width. The edges camera right are lined up together and both batches of soap were made in the same soap mold, so were originally both the same width.

Here you can see a top view, showing the size differences

In this photo you can see the difference in the depth of the two bars.

These size differences are 100% related to the fact that the smaller bar has been curing since December 11, 2015, which means at the time of this photo, it had been curing for nearly 4 months, which is twice as long as my minimum curing time of 6 weeks, so by this time it is fully cured, dehydrated and the bar will be much longer lasting when it's being used.

After the 6 week curing period, I weigh my soap bars every few days to be sure that all of the water has completely dehydrated, and then the soaps are made available for sale.

I hope this helps you to understand why when I post a picture of the latest soap that I've made, that it won't be available for at least a month and a half :)