Teach Soap

I hope the topic title got some attention, because I'm here to beg an answer to my mysterious sweating problem. I sent soaps home for Mothers Day months ago, and on a recent trip home, I was horrified to find that all the soaps I sent her had a crystalish, wet sweat on them. They were all 100% shrink wrapped.

Their house is pretty hot and humid compared to other parts of the country, as they are in the South with a sub par air conditioning system. But the soaps were in a dark bathroom the entire time and not exposed to sunlight.

I thought perhaps it was just the humidity, or humidity combined with heat?

Then I come back to my home in Alaska, and am surprised to find that some soaps I left in open light by a window were sweating terribly too. It's Alaska, so obviously not too hot, but right in the window the sunlight definitely was hot and beating down on the soaps.

I then pulled out the soaps I've made so far for my wedding, which were kept out of the sunlight on a dark, cool shelf. They are ok, fortunately. So far.

So, why is the soap sweating so bad? Does this always happen when M&P is exposed to heat and humidity??? Is it something I'm doing wrong?? Is there a way to stop this?
I mean, the sweating is "kind of" cool looking, but overall, I'm absolutely horrified.

Thanks!
Soapiopath

Heat and humidity will do this. BrambleBerry has a low sweat base that might work out better for you.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

Ok thanks for the confirmatory explanation. I feared that's what it was, and unfortunately that means all soaps I've sent to various people for birthdays or other occasions in SC have failed and are probably sitting on bathroom sink counters just sweating away.

Next time I will have to go the low sweat route. Unfortunately, I just bought a flat rate box of plan old clear, so I'll be working through this new box for the next year now.

And I thought I was fine and would never have to worry about sweating as long as I never put them in the fridge or freezer. Oops.

did you use saran wrap ( like SoapQueen) or go with the more costly shrink wrap? I found that the saran wrapped soap sweated more . I've just started with a real shrink wrap system this month so I have no idea if its lower the sweating of my soaps... I'll let you know.

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now know as Gwenann's Sudz...

I went with the kind of shrink wrap that goes around baskets. I cut the shrink wrap bags into squares and used a blow dryer to shrink them around the soaps so that 100% of the soap was covered and wrapped.

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now know as Gwenann's Sudz...

I use the goat milk, shea butter, hemp oil, and honey bases from BB, and I've never had any sweating problems. I live in Texas, and it's as hot as hell down here. I did an outside market today, and while I was covered in sweat, my soaps weren't. However, I shrink wrap immediately after they're ready. I've never "dried" them out first. I use 4x6 shrink wrap bags offered by another supplier.

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www.facebook.com/Semplice-Naturals

Well I don't know why my goats milk soaps are sweating so badly in comparison, other than perhaps that both of my locations are much more humid than Texas.

I do let them sit open for awhile before wrapping, often up to several weeks.

All of them are sweating profusely. At least they still are last time I checked. It's not a minor bit of sweating. It's so much that it totally degrades the quality of the product.


I don't know if it has to do with fragrances or colorants?? Or if it's just the particular humid environments the soaps are in, or if it has to do somehow with shrink wrapping?

Just as an update, I broke into a new box of plain, clear melt and pour and made some new soaps. I've noticed sweating already, but fortunately, so far, it's just a little bit. These will be my wedding soaps that go to Vegas.