Bumpy Soap

A couple weeks ago, Erin at Inner Earth Soaps posted about the problems she had with her new soap cutter causing what looked like air pockets in her soap. As I read her post, I realized that my soaps had experienced the same problems, but I hadn’t linked it to the soap cutter (we have the same one from SoapEquipment.com). I don’t remember this happening with the soap cutter from For Craft’s Sake. The wires were thinner on that cutter which might have made a difference. Anyway, most of my soaps that I’ve cut with the new cutter have a textured surface from the wire, like the Peppermint:

Textured Peppermint Soap

This is simply a cosmetic issue that I am willing to live with for now. It’s a small price to pay for the time saved in cutting 12 bars of soap at a time. However, I’ve also had issues with what looks like air pockets in the soap as well.

Nizzy, a fellow soapmaker, gave Erin a bit of advice which I thought I would follow. He commented, “From my own experience with the ‘raised bumps’ is from cutting too early. If I leave the logs for a couple of days to ‘settle’ The bumps don’t appear…Do a test cut on a log by cutting a couple of bars from the log over a few days and observe any changes.”

Of course, I had to do a little experiment! Unfortunately, I picked the wrong soap to start my experiment with. Here is a photo of two bars of Creamy Castile soap. The one on the left was cut just under 24 hours after pouring it into the mold. The one on the right was cut three days after the soap was made:

Creamy Castile soap - cut 2 days apart

Castile soap is a finicky sort of soap. It really, really does not like to wait in the mold! As you can see, the soap on the left has the bumpy, air-bubble look, but the one on the right is worse. The wire seemed to rip a layer of soap off as it cut. Not pretty!

I tried this experiment one more time with my Oatmeal, Milk & Honey soap. This is a new batch, made with a natural blend of essential oils with a honey almond scent, instead of the synthetic fragrance I have always used. I let the whole thing sit in the mold for 3 days before cutting – partly because I was too busy to get to it, and partly to see if the soap would be less bumpy when I finally cut it. The soap seems smoother – that is, if you can see with all that oatmeal in there!

Oatmeal, Milk & Honey soap, cut after a 3-day vacation in the mold

Both soaps are the same, cut at the same time. It’s not conclusive yet, but I think I will continue to let my soaps rest in the mold for a few days before cutting from now on. All except the Creamy Castile, that is!

Anyone else have bumpy soap issues? What have you done to resolve this?

Page with Comments

  1. I have no idea that these cutters could produce bumpy soap. I was thinking of getting a nice cutter (I’m using a mitre box now) but now I’m not so sure . . .

  2. I have definitely experienced this with my new cutter. I am really fed up as it means I have to do more to finish the soaps nicely once cured, more work, more time which actually does away with the point of a soap cutter. Curently I am back to the old knife routine, its gives a better finish but am going to try putting thinner wire on my cutter, when I get the time to do it I will let you know.
    Ish

  3. @Linda – Well, I would recommend the one from For Craft’s Sake if you don’t want bumpy soap. Just be sure you want your soaps cut 1″ wide, otherwise get one custom made. That’s why I ordered a different one – so I could get one that cut 1.25″ wide without getting a custom size.
    @Ishbel – Definitely let me know if the thinner wire works better!!

  4. Awww, Amy, your poor castile soap! I would have thought that one (if nothing else) would benefit from cutting a few days later.

  5. I have this issue too, what I do is gently rub my finger (clean of course!) over the soaps and it eases the bumps out. Works fine and makes for a nicely smoothe soap. I do demould 24 hours after pouring and then allow the loaf to sit for at least another 24/48 hours to let the air at it.. dunno if that helps at all?

  6. Amy, you are a wealth of information (in addition to making awesome, beautiful soap). Thank you for sharing your expertise.

    I’m curious as to why you ordered a specific width. Is that because of your labels or because you wanted a specific weight for your soap?

    I don’t know why I have such trouble cutting my soap evenly with a mitre box. Maybe it’s because the soap loaf is moving when I cut it, or maybe it’s because I use those Crafter’s Choice green silicone loaf molds and maybe they are bowing and bulging which would create different widths of soap – which would cause the finished bars to end up varying a lot in weight.

    Either way I’ve got to do something differently. I hate to replace my silicone loaf molds because they don’t require a liner and they are so easy to clean up. I have a long wooden loaf mold but I find I don’t use it much because I never seem to have time to cut the liners.

  7. @Erin – I should have known that the castile wouldn’t do well waiting. It’s one that gets hard quickly, so I’ve always had to cut it as soon as possible.

    @Celine – Great advice! I’ll have to try that too.

    @Linda – I wanted a specific weight for my soap. I realized that my soaps had gotten under the 4 ounce mark when I used the 1″ cutter. As for consistency with your bar size, is there some way to put your silicone mold inside a rigid mold or bread loaf pan? I’ve been thinking about doing a video on how I line my soap mold. It’s a pretty easy process.

  8. Always…always…I learn so much from all of you. Since my soap business is small (no ETSY, no ON-Line store just sell about 10 bars a week in my little farm store) I can “afford” to be cheap. My mold is a diaper wipe box and I cut with Mitre box and knife. No bubbles but it does take a little time as I can only make 8 bars in each mold. Mitre box does cause imperfect bars with a small weight variation but my customers don’t seem to mind. Or maybe they are too busy watching our pet turkeys jumping up on their car hoods.

  9. Hi Amy,

    I have the same soap cutter as you from SoapEquipment.com and I haven’t had the bumpy problem, but can see linear lines, in the soap, from the cutting
    wires. That really doesn’t bother me. I make my soap in a 24lb. block mold and always release the very next day and cut 4 even logs, which I then put on the cutter for slicing. Even if I did get a little bumpy, it wouldn’t bother me! I’m definitely not going back to cutting ONE BAR AT A TIME!! Each of my large recipes is 64-66 bars. I have 27 recipes, not to mention all the other ones that crop up from time to time. I already have osteoarthritis in my hands, besides isn’t the point of all of us making “Homemade Soaps” to have them not look like “Commercial Soaps”. I think people really like the “homemade loof & feel” of our soaps??? What cha think? Just saying!

  10. Interesting, I always have air bubble going on when using my cheap cheese slicer to cut my soap, and thought it’s because I trapped too much air in the batter! Never thought it was caused by the wire! I will have to do that experiment too, cut right after unmold and cut a couple days later and see for myself if that makes any difference.

  11. I am very small too – no Etsy, no real web site – just a Facebook business page. Over the last few months I’ve been making about four small soap loafs per weekend just to get my inventory up for Christmas. That’s a lot for me.

    I did have one client mention to me that she thought the first bars she previously got from me used to be bigger than the last few bars she got. I was horrified because I don’t want anyone to think they’re getting cheated, so I gave her a free bar. But now I’m very paranoid about the sizes not being uniform, so that’s why I’ve considered going to some other cutter or different molds.

    Being a small soapmaker, I hate the thought of spending so much money on a new cutter when I don’t make nearly the amount of soap that some of you make, but I’ve really got to figure out how to get bars that are more uniform. I don’t have any metal loaf pans to put my silicone molds into to see if that keeps them from bowing. I would try duct tape to see if that would reinforce the sides of the molds, except that I would think that would start to be a sticky mess pretty quickly since it would be hard to clean the molds with tape on them.

    Hmmmmm . . .

    Personally I love the smooth look of soap slices, so I don’t even use the wavy cutter knives. As a soapmaker, I think the bumps would annoy me after spending so much on a cutter, but I guess that’s just a personal preference; I doubt that most clients would even notice bumps or linear lines 🙂

  12. I have the same cutter and have noticed the same bumpiness on some of my batches. Honestly, I noticed it but didn’t bother about it. But you may be on the right track with the cause. Could it be that soaps that gelled are firmer right away and don’t get bumpy? Going by memory only, I think that’s what I noticed with mine. I still love the convenience of my cutter!

  13. Thanks so much Amy, I thought I was going mad LOL, I’ve been cutting my soaps with a cutter my Hubby made me for the past 6 years with not a problem, but I was totally sick of cutting one bar at a time and thought it I’d treat myself to a cutter. I bought one from SoapEquipment.com too and I really love that it can cut so many at the one time, BUT I’m getting the bumpy thing going too, especially with my Goat’s Milk soaps and wavy lines in some of them as well.
    I tied leaving a batch for a extra 24 hours and had the whole lot do the castile thing, big chunks taken out of the edges:( Am I sorry about buying it? no, I really don’t want to go back to cutting one at a time. Anyhows:) I agree with Joanne, don’t people expect handmade soaps to look a bit different?

  14. Hmm I can’t say I have paid that much attention to my soap. Might be time for a second look! I use a cutter built by my dad so would be interesting to take a better look.

  15. So it seems like those of us with the cutter from SoapEquipment.com are having the same issue. And we aren’t all that concerned!! LOL!

    @Misty – I think you would notice if you had bumpy soap – you’re probably safe!

  16. Glad I’ve read this as I’m planning to get one from ForCraftsSake sometime in the New Year.

  17. Hi
    I know this is a very old post, but I’d like to know if you ever got a way to minimize the bumpy appearance? I just got myself a cutter and the wire is not the thinnest and my Beeswax and Honey soap looks exactly like your Castile soap after cutting after being in the mold for 24 hour. Do you have any suggestions? The cutter is removing a whole layer off each side of my soaps!

  18. @Zikhona – The best way I found for my Castile soap was to CPOP it. Put it in a warm oven (set at 170 degrees) for 2 hours, then turn the oven off and leave it in there overnight. Cut first thing in the morning while the soap is still warm. Hope that helps!

  19. Sorry if this has already been said…I didn’t read through all the comments:) Simple solution that really improved the bumpiness: tightening the wires on the cutter. I tightened them until there was very little give and this seemed to help a lot. Still not as shiny and smooth as when cut with a knife, but perfectly fine.

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