Teach Soap

Hi again,

As you msy notice, I have a ton of questions! I appreciate all of your advice & guidance...it makes the soaping process much more enjoyable! One of the reasons why I make soap is for the health benefits (lack of chemicals). My concern is what I have been using to line my wood molds. I line with plastic wrap, although I know some of you use freezer paper, which I believe is coated with plastic. Some molds come with silicone liners, but again, I'm looking for a material that does not leach chemicals. Any words of advice?!

Are you using a wood, log mold? If so, can it be disassembled so the sides come off? I've used freezer paper (waxy side towards soap). Then I painted the mold with several coats polyeurathane (sp). I would then lightly coat it with crisco. I know that crisco saponifies so I would limit how much I used and only pour when it was at a thick trace. The log would come out clean when I split the sides....after I took it out of the freezer. I now use Kelsei molds and don't have to use any lube because they're well seasoned. They're hard plastic.

I'm not sure freezer paper would leach chemicals. I know for sure that plastic wrap does....but it's miniscule. Taking soap to a lab and asking for a TCLP sample on "before & after" freezer paper would let you know but it would cost and arm & leg to find out.

Perhaps you could look into molds made of a different material. A crafty friend of mine made me a nonstick mold for christmas out of some countertop material he had left over from a project. I wish I could tell you how it worked out but the mold is about 4 lbs and I haven't made a batch that big yet. If you'd like, I could ask him if he'd make one to sell to you...?

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ween rules

How about HDPE molds from SoapHutch? You don't need a liner and just as long as you don't use it in the oven, it should work fine. Technically you can use them in the oven on low, but I'm just not sure about the material degassing.

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

Thank you for your advice, I'll look into the suggestions.