First ever batch, cut it at 24 hours and tried a sliver at about ten days because I couldn't wait. It felt drying and a bit squeaky, and left my hands tight. Recipe was a fairly standard beginner one with 30% coconut. Is this what an under-cured bar feels like and does it genuinely change, or have I made something that's just going to be harsh forever?
Squeaky is worth separating from drying, by the way. A clean squeak is normal for real soap and isn't the same as the tight, stripped feeling. Most commercial bars avoid the squeak with added ingredients, so it feels alien at first.
Also worth doing a zap test rather than judging by feel. Touch the bar to your tongue briefly — a sharp battery-like sting means there's still free lye and it needs more time or has a real problem. No zap means it's safe soap and what you're feeling is just cure and recipe.
Bump the superfat to 7% if you're mainly making hand soap. It's the simplest single lever for a gentler bar and it costs you a small amount of lather. Above about 8% you start getting a slightly greasy bar and shorter shelf life.
Try it in a hot shower rather than at the sink when you retest. Hard water at the sink makes almost any handmade bar feel worse than it is, and if your water is very hard that's a variable worth knowing about.
@levain_lorna · last mo. · 3 replies
It genuinely changes, and ten days is far too early to judge. A bar at ten days still has significant water in it and the crystalline structure is still organising — early bars feel harsher, dissolve faster and lather less than the same bar at eight weeks. Try the same sliver at week six and it'll be a different product.
That said, 30% coconut is at the upper end for a hand bar. Coconut is where the big bubbly lather comes from and also where the stripping feeling comes from. Most people settle somewhere around 20-25% for a bar that still lathers well without the squeak. If your finished bar is still drying at eight weeks, that's the number to change, plus maybe going from 5% to 6-7% superfat.
So: wait it out, and if it's still harsh in six weeks, adjust the recipe rather than concluding soap making isn't for you.
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@levain_lorna · last mo.
That's the part that surprises everyone. Cure isn't just drying, though drying is most of it. Keep one bar from every batch uncut for six months and you'll see it keeps improving.
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@newborn_noob · last mo.
Tried it again at week seven and it's genuinely different — much creamier and my hands don't feel tight. Would not have believed the same bar could change that much.
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