Do you love your handmade soap but you’re not sure how to make it last? The best thing to extend the life of your favorite soaps is to make sure they are in a soap dish that completely drains and never allows the soap to sit in puddled water.
The wooden soap dishes or soap decks that I prefer, and sell, are all-natural and handmade in the US. These decks allow the water to drain off completely from your soap.
Handmade soaps are different from commercially-produced soaps in that they retain all of their glorious naturally-occurring glycerin. Glycerin is a humectant and helps to ensure a gentle bar. Commercially made soaps often are stripped of their glycerin; this glycerin is then sold as a by-product. This glycerin in the soap helps to keep your skin conditioned. However, the glycerin also pulls moisture from the air and if your soap dish doesn’t drain well you are often mess with a gloopy mess.
Top Tips for Extending the Life of Your Soap
1). Always use a well-draining soap dish.
2). If you use a shower and share it with others, store your soap outside of the shower so it can dry out in between uses. Or, make sure to prop open the shower door or curtain so the shower stall has fresh dry air.
3). Keep the soap out of the stream of water from the shower.
4). Store unused bars in dry locations, such as a linen closet and not under a sink. Your linens and closet will smell fabulous, too.
5). It preferable to store the soaps in a wooden or paper boxes, rather than plastic boxes. This allows the soap to breath. While all my soaps are properly cured, soaps can continue to lose water weight for up to a year in general.
