Thread: Probably a silly question about soap storage

Gentlemen-
This is probably a question that does not need to be asked, since what I am asking about has been done since shaving began (give or take a few years) but I will anyway to see if it generates any conversation...

Up to this point I have been storing my soaps in these:

The Container Store > Lock Ups

They work great - I either grate a puck of hard soap or press in a lump of soft Italian soap - the screw top closes tight and they stack and lock together for easy storage. Anyone looking for a way to store soaps, I highly reccommend the 6 oz. size.

Anyway, I recently bought 2 occupational shave mugs from ebay to add to the two traditional shave mugs I already own (the ubiquitous "Old Spice" ship on the front type I inherited from my father). I think I may want to start collecting shave mugs and start storing my soaps in those - a one puck per mug type of thing. Allowing for the fact that storage space will be a possible problem, I have two questions:

-Will there be a noticeable loss of scent in the soaps over time, since they will be stored uncovered?
-Is this a bad idea for the Italian soft soaps? Will they dry out and loose performance (I know you add water
each time you use it, but who knows?) Can the tallow in the soap go rancid?

As I said, I know this is the classic way to store and use shaving soap, but like a lot of us, as my soap and cream collection grows, the time between use of any one soap also grows. Could longer amounts of time sitting around uncovered "damage" the soaps?

This turned out to be a much longer post then I anticipated - sorry for that - but thanks in advance for any and all replies!

Gags

I know that one of my pucks lost it's scent from not being covered..so I made sure to cover them all after that..as far as going rancid that I don't know..but mine should lost the scent and really dried out more..

Hope that helps a little.
Anthony

I have two soft Italian soaps with one stored in an open cup and one in the original container and it does not seem to matter as far as usability goes. There is some scent loss but not much. I don't think I would worry about tallow based soaps going rancid covered or uncovered because the temperature would be the same room temperature either way.

Bob

You don't need to cover your soaps 'tightly', just a loosely-fitting cover that even lets some air in is fine.

Soaps with very mild scents don't seem to lose anything. The ones with heavy scent seem to lose if left uncovered. I suspect those soaps with more natural scents are more susceptible to loss over the ones with chemical or artificial scents.

As long as you allow the soap to dry after use you should have no issues with them going bad. I've found MWF if covered without drying takes on a bad odor.

I bought ten of these aluminum screw top canisters in the 5 oz size.

http://www.newdirectionsaromatics.co...id-p-1729.html

So far every puck of hard soap I have fits into them (inside diameter is 3 1/8"), and the price is reasonable - around 18 dollars US including shipment for ten of them. Print some labels out (I used Avery return address labels) and you should be good to go for a while.

I have a Navy coffee cup with a cake of Williams in it that's been hanging on for about 15 years now...

ikea sell a pack of 3 with clear lids very cheap

Originally Posted by essentialnaturaloils

link edited out

Thank you for joining this forum. Your post, however, has nothing to do with shaving soaps and creams. If you are a vendor, the forum offers you the opportunity to post in the appropriate section.

If you leave soaps uncovered, they will lose moisture and the volatile scent oils will evaporate over time. Whether that is good or bad depends on the soap.

For example, Williams Mug soap is a hard puck (low moisture) that has little scent. Thus, uncovering it it going to have little effect on the soap. It will keep for years.

I hated the smell of Tabac when I first unwrapped the puck. However, after leaving the soap open for several weeks, the scents to which I objected dissipated leaving a reasonably pleasant scent behind.

If you leave the top off some of the softer soaps and croaps, you are likely to impact both the performance and scent of the soaps, so I do not recommend that. If the soaps are made with some polyunsaturated fatty acids, exposure to oxygen over time will allow the soap to turn rancid. Most artisan soaps avoid using preservatives that might prevent that occurring.