Soap maintenance…

[RicoSuave]

For those of you who, like me, load a brush in the same tub a soap comes in, HOW do you maintain it?

I normally place it upside down on a hand towel after rinsing out any excess lather so that it can (somewhat) DRY out, in the hopes of preventing MOLD from accumulating, but I’m wondering if it’s even WORTH it.

I didn’t major in bio, but something tells me that either the alkali or the acid inherent in any soap is enough to kill any potential MOLD on its own, no?

C’mon, you science geeks out there, tell me if I’m making any sense…

 

[ackvil]

Since I use the same soap multiple days in a row, I maintain it by closing the lid! Even before I stuck to one soap for multiple shaves, I never had a problem with mold, etc.

 

[NorthernSoul]

I like to leave the lid off for awhile to allow air to circulate so the excess water can evaporate. I usually put the container on a shelf outside the bathroom.

 

[PRobots]

Thinking about things like this is what caused me to start scooping soaps and either bowl lathering or “bowl loading” for face lathering. I do this for all but actual hard soaps like tabac or DRH.

Keeps everything nice and tidy and my head on straight.

 

[Senate515]

I used to load with the tub inverted to prevent any excess water in the tub and air dry for 24 hours, but as many of us have more soap then we will use in a lifetime I now scoop and load my brush of an old soap tub lid so no water ever enters the tub and I can seal up the lid right away hoping to maximize my soaps longevity. I have food safe sanitizer I use for making and kegging beer, even if it is prepared with distilled water it only has a 1 month shelf life and will eventfully grow mold due to moisture

 

[Barbarian80]

I never introduce any more water into the tub. Most of the lather builds up along the edge, so after i'm done loading i'll use my finger to scoop it out and add to my face. Then i'll complete my shave. The final step is wipe the inside and outside edge with a towel to get any remaining lather out. Some is leftover around the middle part of the soap but it evaporates quick. Put the cover back on (ensure there is no water inside the cover), store it in the cabinet, and that's all. Never had a problem doing this. No chance i am adding any more water to the tub just to clean out the remaining lather. It's already dry by the end of my shave.

 

[HazMat Shaver]

Im about like the OP. Ive never seen mold grow on my soap but Im not saying it cant as I dont really know if its possible.

If I lather in the tub I will add water to the tub to bloom the soap. Then dump that water into a bowl when Im done blooming to use while making lather or adding to my brush if it gets a little dry.

When Im done shaving I rinse out my soap tub of all lather then pat dry with a face tissue, not toilet tissue as the toilet tissue will fall apart. Then I leave it open upside down until bedtime when I put the lid on and put it with the hundreds of other soaps. Lol .
BTW, I shave at night.
And have never had an issue besides one when I just left a soap open. It dried up and lost a lot of scent. But it was a soft soap to start with. Not a good idea unless your using hard soaps. Then leave open all you want but you will still loose some scent.

 

[luvmysuper]

I have dozens and dozens of soaps. From fairly recent to more than 50 years old. I lather on the puck, in the container.
When I'm done with the shave, the lid goes on and it gets put away.
I've never had any issues with any of my soaps with mold, water, or any other problem.
It's just soap, not a petri dish full of gel designed to promote bacterial growth.
I think sometimes we get so caught up in minutiae here that we focus more on drying our soap, wiping down our razor blades, deciding how many ml's of distilled water to add to the lather, what ingredients we can add to an aftershave to make it "nourishing", babying our brushes, and sanitizing our razors that we lose sight of the fact this is supposed to be an enjoyable experience.
My advice: stop the "maintenance" routines and just have a good shave.

 

[sarimento1]

have never seen any mold on my old shave soaps! many are more than 70 yrs old!

 

[RicoSuave]

have never seen any mold on my old shave soaps! many are more than 70 yrs old!

View attachment 1492328

GOH!

 

[RicoSuave]

I have dozens and dozens of soaps. From fairly recent to more than 50 years old. I lather on the puck, in the container.
When I'm done with the shave, the lid goes on and it gets put away.
I've never had any issues with any of my soaps with mold, water, or anything other problem.
It's just soap, not a petri dish full of gel designed to promote bacterial growth.
I think sometimes we get so caught up in minutiae here that we focus more on drying our soap, wiping down our razor blades, deciding how many ml's of distilled water to add to the lather, what ingredients we can add to an aftershave to make it "nourishing", babying our brushes, and sanitizing our razors that we lose sight of the fact this is supposed to be an enjoyable experience.
My advice: stop the "maintenance" routines and just have a good shave.

have never seen any mold on my old shave soaps! many are more than 70 yrs old!

View attachment 1492328

You guys are KIDDING about usng these OLD *** soaps, right?

How is that even POSSIBLE?

Must be some super-duper, quadruple milled soaps ala MdC or SV…

 

[ShortRound131]

I have dozens and dozens of soaps. From fairly recent to more than 50 years old. I lather on the puck, in the container.
When I'm done with the shave, the lid goes on and it gets put away.
I've never had any issues with any of my soaps with mold, water, or anything other problem.
It's just soap, not a petri dish full of gel designed to promote bacterial growth.
I think sometimes we get so caught up in minutiae here that we focus more on drying our soap, wiping down our razor blades, deciding how many ml's of distilled water to add to the lather, what ingredients we can add to an aftershave to make it "nourishing", babying our brushes, and sanitizing our razors that we lose sight of the fact this is supposed to be an enjoyable experience.
My advice: stop the "maintenance" routines and just have a good shave.

Yeah I do this, maybe I leave em upside down to get some extra water out, but not longer than a few minutes.

/Shrug

 

[sarimento1]

Yeah I do this, maybe I leave em upside down to get some extra water out, but not longer than a few minutes.

/Shrug

not at all; soap is soap is soap.
never any sign of mold on any of my williams pucks, which are 20-50 yrs old.
even in our relatively-humid florida home.

 

[luvmysuper]

You guys are KIDDING about usng these OLD *** soaps, right?

How is that even POSSIBLE?

Must be some super-duper, quadruple milled soaps ala MdC or SV…

Yardley of London, vintage Old Spice and Williams. Old, but certainly not an "elite" soap. These were staples and available everywhere 50 years ago.

 

[timetofly]

GOH!

GOH!?!? What the heck!! This one isn't even in the Wiki Abbreviations / Acronyms.

 

[luvmysuper]

GOH!?!? What the heck!! This one isn't even in the Wiki Abbreviations / Acronyms.

Thanks, I missed that. Probably not an acronym we want to really see around here.

 

[Ron R]

I never lather out of the puck container and have never had any issues. I just scoop some soap with a small metal spoon into my bowl to spread on the bowl base and then add water as needed and that way my main base of soap does not lose fragrance or any preservatives for better shelf life I figure.
I find cleaning a lather bowl so easy and I can make Frankinstein soap combinations or ubber lather. The bowl footprint is minimal, slightly larger than some of my soap pucks. If I want to lather from just the soap I use a stick of soap that works well and have had no problems using that method also. If lathering from a puck a triple milled soap would be hard enough not to allow nasties to start. Croaps are different and are made from distilled water when manufactured and so any water is neutral compared to other water sources.
Another tool that makes cleaning a bowl so easy(10 seconds) is take a worn tooth brush or new one and heat the stem with a Bic lighter to bend it approximately 90 degrees to clean better if you find that a problem with trapped soap in bottom of bowl detail crevice's. (archived photo's of early days of me lather bowl detail experimenting before all these modern fancy bowls were even available nowadays.)

I think a person should regardless look at soap to see if looks normal and give it a smell rancid test sometimes if in doubt, if it does not look normal or smell normal it should be of concern possibly. Some soaps like sandalwood will oxidize a little and look more amber in color I have noticed and seem to be ok. It is always a persons call when to toss it seems and so far after 5 years my hard soap & croaps seem ok and enjoy the different fragrances. Maybe this will help some folks.

 

[Phoenixkh]

Guest of honor? Get outta here?

 

[luvmysuper]

Get outta here

I edited a few letters out!

 

[BigJ]

I like to leave the lid off for awhile to allow air to circulate so the excess water can evaporate. I usually put the container on a shelf outside the bathroom.

+1! Pretty much what I do! Great minds think alike!