{"id":7228,"date":"2011-11-22T06:43:30","date_gmt":"2011-11-22T12:43:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.greatcakessoapworks.com\/handmade-soap-blog\/?p=7228"},"modified":"2022-10-19T12:24:12","modified_gmt":"2022-10-19T18:24:12","slug":"bumpy-soap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greatcakessoapworks.com\/handmade-soap-blog\/index.php\/bumpy-soap\/","title":{"rendered":"Bumpy Soap"},"content":{"rendered":"

A couple weeks ago, Erin at Inner Earth Soaps<\/a> posted about the problems she had with her new soap cutter causing what looked like air pockets in her soap. As I read her post, I realized that my soaps had experienced the same problems, but I hadn’t linked it to the soap cutter (we have the same one from SoapEquipment.com<\/a>). I don’t remember this happening with the soap cutter from For Craft’s Sake. The wires were thinner on that cutter which might have made a difference. Anyway, most of my soaps that I’ve cut with the new cutter have a textured surface from the wire, like the Peppermint:<\/p>\n

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Textured Peppermint Soap<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This is simply a cosmetic issue that I am willing to live with for now. It’s a small price to pay for the time saved in cutting 12 bars of soap at a time. However, I’ve also had issues with what looks like air pockets in the soap as well.<\/p>\n

Nizzy, a fellow soapmaker, gave Erin a bit of advice which I thought I would follow. He commented, “From my own experience with the ‘raised bumps’ is from cutting too early. If I leave the logs for a couple of days to ‘settle’ The bumps don’t appear…Do a test cut on a log by cutting a couple of bars from the log over a few days and observe any changes.”<\/p>\n

Of course, I had to do a little experiment! Unfortunately, I picked the wrong soap to start my experiment with. Here is a photo of two bars of Creamy Castile soap. The one on the left was cut just under 24 hours after pouring it into the mold. The one on the right was cut three days after the soap was made:<\/p>\n

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Creamy Castile soap - cut 2 days apart<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Castile soap is a finicky sort of soap. It really, really does not like to wait in the mold! As you can see, the soap on the left has the bumpy, air-bubble look, but the one on the right is worse. The wire seemed to rip a layer of soap off as it cut. Not pretty! <\/p>\n

I tried this experiment one more time with my Oatmeal, Milk & Honey soap<\/a>. This is a new batch, made with a natural blend of essential oils with a honey almond scent, instead of the synthetic fragrance I have always used. I let the whole thing sit in the mold for 3 days before cutting – partly because I was too busy to get to it, and partly to see if the soap would be less bumpy when I finally cut it. The soap seems smoother – that is, if you can see with all that oatmeal in there!<\/p>\n

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Oatmeal, Milk & Honey soap, cut after a 3-day vacation in the mold<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Both soaps are the same, cut at the same time. It’s not conclusive yet, but I think I will continue to let my soaps rest in the mold for a few days before cutting from now on. All except the Creamy Castile, that is!<\/p>\n

Anyone else have bumpy soap issues? What have you done to resolve this?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A couple weeks ago, Erin at Inner Earth Soaps posted about the problems she had with her new soap cutter causing what looked like air pockets in her soap. As I read her post, I realized that my soaps had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[703,632],"class_list":["post-7228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-making-soap","tag-bumpy-soap","tag-handmade-soap-cutter"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t