As anyone who’s ever used natural handcrafted soap will tell you, your gorgeous scented bar of nourishing soap will take a little bit of extra looking after in between washes.
Natural soap bars, have a tendency to attract water because of glycerine, which is a humectant. You will also find that in humid weather or when loads of glorious rain comes down to earth, your natural soaps will tend to sweat. This is normal, but you may be concerned if you’ve only ever used commercial factory bars of soap.
Commercial bars usually have all their natural glycerine removed (they sell it on to cosmetic companies for various applications and make a double sale from the same initial product). That is why commercial soap is quite harsh on skin and it also contains chemicals used in separating the glycerine from the soap batter.
Our natural bars, on the other hand, have all their lovely glycerine still intact (it’s part of what makes them so moisturising for your skin)
Glycerine works by drawing water into the outer layer of your skin. But this also means that it will draw water into your soap bar too, resulting in that little puddle of mush in the shower or side of the bath.
Now you’d think that those little dips in your soap dish would be the best thing for soap drainage (they’re literally designed for the job). But the truth is they’re pretty much the worst. Either your soap never seems to quite fit into it, or it does and ends up sitting in a pool of water.
Keep Your Soap Dry Between Uses
The point is that your handcrafted soap loves water, but if you love your soap, you want to keep it away from water as much as possible, or at least prevent it from swimming in it.
Drying out your soap between uses is the best way to keep it happy and prolong its life.
