Hobby & Craft Forums

Hi,

We make a range of HP & glycerin soap.

For our glycerin soap, I recently switched over to a new bio-degradable soap wrap that was supposed to be air tight as well as eco-friendly.

The reality unfortunately is somewhat different

I've had a customer come back complaining that their Green Clay soap has developed a mould on the surface and understandably wants to know what this is and more importantly, whether this poses a health threat.

On closer inspection of other soap batches we've used the new wrap for, I've noticed beads of moisture developing on the surface. We never had that problem with our previous wrap.

Apart from the frustration of being misold on the wrap (glycerin soapers beware! If you use a cello wrap and want to try a new one for whatever reason, double check it is "high barrier" and will keep your soap airtight), I'm worried that the soap is unfit for purpose & potentially harmful.

Does anyone have any experience of this happening to them at all? Do you have any advice? If it's just a case of the mould being unsightly, that's one thing, but if the mould has potential health risks that's altogether something else.

I've also gone back to my supplier of green clay but in the meantime any advice would be really appreciated.

Antony

Hi Anthony! I'm no expert but I've read stuff about mouldy soap many times over the time I've been researching making soap myself and it seems to be common problem people find with their packaging. Packaging should be breathable as the soap still holds moisture even when cured (especially hot and cold process and even melt and pour) and should never be wrapped in air tight packaging as the condensation will cause mould to grow. This is why most people use a simple band of paper for packaging. I did read somewhere however that you can get a kind of shrink wrap which has tiny holes in it which allows the soap to breathe as well as the added bonus of letting your customers smell the scent of the soap through the packaging. There's some more information about this here http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art42059.asp

Hi Nickie,

Thanks for your reply. Appreciate that CP & HP soap need to lose excess moisture during cure (CP) and for a week or so with HP.

However, glycerin soap (especially good grades with higher a glycerin content), being a humectant, attracts moisture, which makes it essential that it is tightly wrapped away from external moisture. Although the soap looks like it is sweating when left out it's water vapour in the air condensing on the bars (so it happens especially when the soap is cold).

We never had a problem with our previous wrap but this new wrapping appears to allow moisture in.

Ho hum!

What is different about the wrap you're using now as opposed to the new stuff? Is it heat sealed?

It's actually thicker @ 40 microns than our previous wrap (35 microns) and may be a little more brittle.

Hmmm, I'll try to have a little bit more of a look around for you later on today and try to find out what might be causing the problem as I'd be interested to know myself! Seems strange if it's thicker that it should be letting air and therefore moisture in doesn't it. Does it seal in the same way as your old packaging?