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Is it Best to Cover Shaving Soaps or Leave Them Open Between Uses?

Hi everyone. Curious as to what you find works best for storing your shaving soaps between uses. Do you keep your soaps in a resealable container or do you leave it uncovered once you start using it?

In my case I have a primary rotation of three soaps stored in two open apothecary mugs and an open ceramic soap cup. Each of these soaps is used roughly every 2-3 days and the system works well. Additional soaps, that are used occasionally (once every two weeks to a month) are allowed to dry overnight after use and then covered back up. These are generally kept in their original containers. Note that most of my soaps are hard soaps. Focus here is on how best to store shaving soaps once we start using them.

Do you keep you soaps covered or uncovered and does this vary with your usage pattern and/or type of soap?
 

ajkel64

Check Out Chick
Staff member
I leave mine open for 24 hours to dry out and then place the lid on and use the next soap. This works for me, I have not had too much drama with mould in my soaps. I have a large ice cream container under the bathroom sink which contains the soaps that I use the most. The regulars get used once a week and the rest whenever I feel like it.
 
Im thinking i have 50 or 60 soaps and they all have come on a sealed container/tub.

When im done with one i use tissue to pay the soap dry after i rince out the tub to get rid of excess lather. Then close it up. Ive always done this as it keeps the soaps looking clean and nice when i open a tub. And ive never had an issue.

Ive read that mdc is made to be left open but i just cant do it. I dont want dust or hairs in my soaps.
Just my way that works and keeps my OCD in check.
 
Somebody asked this same question yesterday. You might find some helpful insight here:

 

Steve56

Ask me about shaving naked!
Martin de Candre recommends leaving it open. The only problem with that is the scent will dissipate and MdC scents are not strong to begin with. So I usually replace the lid after the soap has dried.

My jar of vintage Tabac in the milk glass tub is still too potent for me to use regularly alter almost 10 years, and I keep it covered or I wouldn’t be able to smell anything but Tabac in the house, lol.
 
I use Pre De Provence#63 which is a hard soap and I also use Cella which is a croap (not soft but not hard). They both come in its own container. I clean the threading on the container and cap them right after use. I haven't had any problems doing this. I don't have any soap pucks, but if I did I'd probably just drain as much water from my bowl and leave open.
 
I don't usually worry about leaving lid off to dry out, but now am using MdC which I find gives the most luxurious lather when I bloom for a minute, soak up the water with a well squeezed brush , load and then face lather. This leaves the puck slightly damp but a quick blast of a warm hairdryer leaves the soap in showroom hardness.
 
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AimlessWanderer

Remember to forget me!
I have lost soaps to spillage before the were finished. Part of that problem for me, is how long soaps last, as I use so little per shave. The rest of the problem, as I see it, is that a well hydrated soap lathers AND spoils easier than a dry soap.

With hard soaps that come as a refill, I keep them in a lidded - but not sealed - soap dish. Periodically, I will tip/knock the soap out, clean it off, removing and discoloured areas (usually on the faces it has been sat on), and put it back in. So far, this is working very well for me.

With softer soaps, I keep the tub dry, and away from the bathroom. I have a second pewter soap dish, and just serve up a teaspoon or so of the soap into it. The lid them goes back on the parent soap, and back in the drawer. That serving might give me 30 shaves, and then I'll serve up another portion of something else. The soap in the tub never comes in contact with any water.

IMG_20210330_125000(1).jpg

If I have a tub of cream too, I will scoop put what I need for a single shave, and get the lid straight back on. I then load the brush - but not build the lather - in a shaving bowl.
 
I wipe the edge of the tub dry with a towel and put the lid back on. It's the very last thing I do after cleanup. I haven't had any issues doing this yet. The soap is damp but I don't leave any standing water droplets so I think it's fine covering up. Soap containers aren't air tight so as long as there is no standing water it's going to dry on its own- assuming you don't live in the jungle.
 

Star_Wahl_Clipper_Treker

Likes a fat handle in his hand
I only leave the top off while I am shaving, to allow the excess surface moisture to dry. But once the shave is completed, I put the top back on. I don't think its a good idea to completely let a soap puk dry out. Because then you will have to rehydrate it, and that will be time consuming, blooming of the soap all over again, and the possibility of might needing the microwave. So I say, when your done with the soap, put the lid back on.
 
Huh. I’m new to this thing, but I poor the water off the top into my bowl, load the damp brush from the tub, and lather in the bowl. By the time I’m done shaving the tub is no longer very wet. I put the lid on the tub and clean up my bowl and brush. Done. But I also don’t rotate through 50 soaps 😂 just 2.
 
Not all soaps here have containers with lids. But, those that do, I don't put the lid on until the excess moisture from shaving has dried out. Zero harm and zero impact on performance doing this. Long ago I had issues with some soaps that got put away 'wet', so after one turned into soup I decided to keep things drier. Like shower soap in a soap dish, gotta drain the water out of the bar can turn into grease. Mold is a possibility but I am more concerned with not turning a puck of Yardley into face cream.
I keep a few soaps in mugs with no lids, they just dry out until the next use; maybe tomorrow, maybe in a couple months.
 

Phoenixkh

I shaved a fortune
I bowl lather... and I scoop out a snurdle of soap and the harder creams with a small spoon... one I used for grapefruit for years, so this question is moot for me.

There so many ways to make lather.. and to get it on our faces. ;)
 
Wherever possibly I will scoop or scrap a small amount into my lather bowl. When that’s not possible I will let the soap dry out before replacing the lid.

The one exception is MWF. That one gets the lid replaced straight away after the shave.
 

Marco

B&B's Man in Italy
What I ALWAYS do with all my soaps (no matter if hard or soft) is to leave them air dry after use and, once there's no more moisture on them, put the lid on. No problems whatsoever in the last 30 years...
 
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