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Soap Puck Won’t Dry Out...HELP!

Hi All-

I’ve been a wet shaver for over seven years now and I’ve had really good luck with my shaving routine and soaps.

I bought a few pucks of St. Charles Shave soap and have shaved with two (2) of them, producing excellent, great smelling lather. I love SCS products!

I used my first soap puck last week, and lathered straight from the tin it came in. After my shave, I ensured that all liquid water and moisture was drained from the container, and set it out to dry overnight, like all my other soaps following a shave.

I usually check the exposed soap surface after 24 hours to ensure that it has dried adequately. This time I checked after 24 hours, and the top 1/16” of the puck was mushy and felt “wet”, with a consistency of cold cream of wheat, or uncured soap. I decided to give it another 24 hours...The next day it felt the same. Over the weekend I put a fan on it and left it going for another 24 hours. No luck.

It has now been almost a week, and the top of the puck still feels soft and mushy. In fact, when a press a little harder, it almost feels as if the entire puck has become soft, almost like a croap.

I decided to try another SCS puck, but this time a different scent. Same results.

Questions:

1) Do you think the soap is ruined? It does not smell like it’s gone bad - In fact it smells amazing.

2) If not ruined, do you think I should set it out for as long as it takes to “dry”? It make take ‘weeks’ to do at the rate I’m experiencing.

3) Do you think it would be safe to reseal in the tin if it remains “mushy”?

Help! :)

Any advice, or recommendation is much appreciated. Thanks, and Shave On!

-jeremy




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Did you bloom it? Perhaps it's a puck that doesn't react well to blooming? I'm sure it's fine after air drying for awhile.

No blooming...it was dry when I took my wet brush to it.

So weird! I’ve never experienced anything like this in a hard soap puck.

Thanks for your feedback!


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My SV soaps dry in an hour or less with the lid on. Fitjar remains moist on the top unless I leave the lid off, and LPL turned to mush. Maybe some makers add something to make the soap harden quickly.
 
Have had a similar experience with other glycerin based soaps. Even after drying a few days, there will be small beads/drops of fragrance oil or glycerin that leech from the puck. Not sure if the soap base is the issue, but would recommend leaving it uncovered for a long period of time, although not positive it would work since i have a few samples that never recovered from that tackiness.
 
I believe glycerin is hygroscopic and will absorb moisture. So, it may not dry out. Someone with more chemistry knowledge may be able to answer more definitively.
 

ajkel64

Check Out Chick
Staff member
I have not experienced that with the soaps that I have used but as someone mentioned it might pay to contact the manufacturer and see if they might know what is going on. Good luck.
 
What is the humidity level in the area in which you stored the soap with the top off? Many soaps are quite thirsty; that means they love moisture, either in the form of liquid water or water vapor. If you leave such a soap in a high-humidity environment, the soap may can absorb moisture from the air.

Many places in the USA have had a lot of rain in the past few weeks, so humidity levels are higher in many places than normal. I live near Chicago and the humidity is currently 74%, much higher than normal. Bathrooms are even higher in humidity that other places in your home.
 
I live in tropical, humid Florida. My SCS rose soap is always croapy, soft, never a hard soap.
Perhaps a result of the high load of fragrance oil.
Performs great and scent is amazing.
What scents do you have and which is favorite?

scs rose henckels trumper thayers harris pink september 9 2014.jpg
 
The soap which didn't dry out with me was Fitjar hard soap. Beads of water formed on the surface.
It had a small puck and didn't fit the larger tub I had put it in . I grated the soap, pressed it into the tub, no gaps. Apart from it loading the brush better, it has dried out and remains hard .
 
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