Are there beads of liquid on your melt and pour soap, or do the bars look powdery? Are they slippery and wet to the touch? This is a common reaction referred to as “sweating” or “glycerin dew.”
In this example, the glycerin dew is concentrated around the outside of the bars.
Melt and pour soap has extra glycerin added during the manufacturing process. It makes the soap easy to work with and also acts as a humectant. When you wash with melt and pour soap, a thin layer of glycerin is left behind. That draws moisture from the air onto your skin. Learn more about what the bases are made with in this Sunday Night Spotlight.
As melt and pour soap sits on the counter, glycerin draws moisture onto the bars and forms glycerin dew. It’s more common in humid climates.
Glycerin dew has formed around the corners of this bar.
The good news is that it’s easy to prevent with the following tips.
- The Like Cold Process (LCP) Clear and LCP White bases have less glycerin, which means there’s little to no sweating. They’re a good option for extremely humid climates. We also recommend the LCP bases if you’re embedding melt and pour in cold process soap because they don’t morph or sweat as the bars cure.
- Let the soap harden and cool at room temperature. If it’s placed in the fridge or freezer for long periods of time it’s more likely to sweat.
- Wrap the bars tightly with plastic wrap and use a heat gun to shrink it on tightly. This Soap Queen TV video shows you how.
- Run a fan over the soap once it’s out of the mold. This is a good option for moderately humid climates but likely won’t work for extremely humid climates.
- Buy a dehumidifier and use it in your soaping space. It’s a good investment because it creates a dry environment for other products like cold process soap and bath bombs.
- You can also place the wrapped bars in an airtight container with rice or silica packets. Learn more in How to Store Handmade Bath Products.
Rose Quartz Melt and Pour Soap
This post was updated in March 2018.
I make cold process and often have a problem with what looks like glycerin dew. I add salt to my bars as an exfoliant, im curious if that is what’s causing the problem, or if this is something that can happen with cp as well? Thanks!
We’d love to take a look at your recipe – please email us at [email protected] with your recipe and pictures of what you’re experiencing if you have them and we’ll see if we can help you figure that problem out.
Thank Goodness for all the knowledgeable people at Soap Queen and Brambleberry, thank you for all of the videos that you make and all the good people that have all the correct answers and are willing to share. I have bought several books about soap making (not from Brambleberry, me bad) and had it not been for SQ & Bb correcting some of the information and filling in the blanks about MP, I would have been lost and had a horrible mess. I feel that there could be more information about MP than there is, simple stuff to many but MUCH needed by people like me…. again THANK YOU
These are all great tips to prevent glycerine leaking, but I have difficulty wrapping very small, guest size M&P soaps to prevent the dew. I don’t have the problem with larger, bar type soaps.
What can I do with this soap when it is swimming in glycerine? Can I wipe it off or do I have to remake it?
You can definitely wipe them off! A paper towel works pretty well for that purpose.
I am looking individual eco friendly wraps for soap. As a company we are trying to not use plastic at all or at the very least minimize our footprint. We currently store our soap in air tight containers, but still find that our soap sweats a little bit. Any ideas?
Rather than changing your packaging, you may consider using Low Sweat “LCP” Melt and Pour instead: https://www.brambleberry.com/Search.aspx?k=lcp That should keep the pesky soap sweat away without having to get different packaging and labels, etc.
I can’t seem to open the link that you have shared. I make melt and pour soaps and want to start a small business but since it’s I want the packaging to be more sustainable I want to avoid plastic. Is there any other way we can still make melt and pour soap and aboid using plastic? I live in India and really don’t have access to any of your products nfrom the website. It will be really great if you’re u could help?
Thanks
We got a new website. Find the new link for the LCP Melt and Pour soap search here:
https://www.brambleberry.com/search?q=lcp+melt+and+pour&lang=default
It does come packaged in plastic though. We have not made melt and pour soap before ourselves but you could try making cold process soap from scratch with Sodium Hydroxide Lye. If interested in that I would start with this free video series on CP Soapmaking: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAADF6209996265D2
This might be a foolish question. I read about the wrapping in plastic to prevent the soap to sweat. After you have wrapped your soap in plastic as soon as they come out of the mold, they obviously cannot sweat at that moment. But when I give them away and people unwrap them for use (for washing or decorative use), they will start to sweat wright? (in humid conditions). Do I tell everybody that this might happen? For example; I have made 30 pink cupcake-baby soaps for my cousin to give away at her baby shower. When I made them they started to sweat so I wrapped them. But when the time came we had to unwrap them en put them in little organza bags. Now I am worried that they might look nice at first but will start to sweat later on which will not be understood by the recipients. So the trick of wrapping them might be great for storage but once you give them away or sell them it doesn’t help.
Once soap has been given away and opened up, it’s most likely going to stay in the bathroom or near the sink where a little soap sweat won’t really matter, since it will be used right away. You can definitely tell people that it will happen, that’s up to you. Sweaty or not, melt and pour soap will still do a great job of cleansing.
Hi, i made cp goat milk soap and freezed my goat milk soap for 24hours and after taking that out, i decided to unmould after a day. But having a look after half an hour, i noticed too shiny that because of sweating( not sure it is either sweat or oil floating over top).
For the recipe i uesd
Coconut oil, olive oil, palm oil, castor oil, goat milk , lavender fragrance oil, mint powder.
Is that sweating? Will that be a problem? Or it will cure during curing period?
Give me some tips to avoid sweating of cp soaps?
Cold Process Soap doesn’t sweat like melt and pour soap so it sounds like some of your oil or fragrance oil separated out of your recipe. It will most likely dissipate throughout the cure. You can also wipe it away if not.
Thank you so much! Iet me wait until it dissipate. Also i would like to why do oils leak out of my soap? Is that because of my error in recipe? Or its just common? And will that spoil my soap and decrease the shelf life of soap?
It is pretty normal for oils to seep out of your cold process soap. Usually it has to do with an excess of oils or the temperature of your soap. It will not spoil your soap and should not decrease shelf life.
Thanks a lot.😊 as am new to soap making, this is a great information. And means a lot!
hi , im going to prepare education web sit for hand made soap do you let me to use your pictiures in your website
We kindly ask that you do not use our photos elsewhere on the internet.
I make an MP soap the other day and didn’t wrap it after the setting and cooling process. I was told to take rubbing alcohol and a cloth to wipe off the dew. Can I re melt my MP batch and mold it again without compromising the fragrance oil or glycerin? Thanks, Erin!
Hi Erin, as long as you aren’t melting them too much you shouldn’t have any problems with it, but it can dry out if you heat it to much and too often. You can though also fix that by adding a bit more glycerin to the soap when you are melting.
wow this explains a lot I made tiny heart clear melt n pour with essential oil and looked ace until I noticed through the cellophane clear bags I put them in tiny beads of what looked like sweat I thought maybe the essential oil but I am now guessing reading this article it is the glycerin sweat. xxx
Hi bramble berry queens.. Im going to make my first homemade soap.. I got clear soap base n a bottle of glycerin from someone. What is the proportion of glycerin to be put in the soap? I got some clay powder too.. How much i should put in? Is there a percentage limit for every add ons ingredients to a soap base?
In SFIC soaps the max amount of addition oils like glycerin you can add is 1 teaspoon per pound, for Stephenson it is 0.5%. For clays we recommend 1 teaspoon per pound dispersed in 99% alcohol.
I made my 1st two batches of soap and I just dont feel like either moisturized enough. Sort of felt like my hand got a little dry while washing them. What did I do wrong? Did i heat it up too much? I had used a goat milk MP base, lavender (kept rising to the top instead of spreading through soap) and some essential oils, maybe a tiny of bit of jojoba oil but that was it. I am not sure what would cause that.
Hi Brittany, it all just depends on your skin type. Personally Melt and Pour bases are drying to my skin and I always feel like adding lotion after I am done. You might want to try and branch out to a different brand of melt and pour or switch to a different base like Rebatch or even Liquid Soap!
https://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/wildflower-rebatch-soap-tutorial/
Hi, I’m fairly new to soap making and I did a batch of melt and pour soap adding mica to a little almond oil to incorporate for coloring. It had tiny clumps of unmixed mica that just wouldn’t blend leaving specks throughout. What did i do wrong?
I’m thinking it may be the oil. For melt and pour, we recommend mixing the mica with 99% isopropyl alcohol. It helps the color incorporate smoothly and prevents clumping.
99% isopropyl alcohol: https://www.brambleberry.com/99-Isopropyl-Alcohol-16-oz-P5682.aspx
The oil can be tricky to mix into the premade bases and it can make it soft or inhibit lather. Alcohol works best.
same here.thanks a lot for this information.i was so scared when i saw the dew droplets all over my soap.and on my quest to find solution thats how i got here.am totally grateful.
You’re welcome Amy, happy to help.
Hello, with melt and pour soaps, is it ok to mix glycerin and goats milk? Would that allow the bar to stay longer? My husband can shower three times with one bar and it’s gone.
You can mix glycerin and goat milk, that will work well.
As for the bars, there are a few tricks to get them to last longer. Try placing it in a dry part of the shower on a draining soap dish. Get more tips here: https://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/tips-and-tricks/make-soap-last-longer-shower/
So glad I found this page! I am a true outdoor lover, and if the temps are anywhere between 60 and 85 outside I have my windows open. Today however, is a very humid day. I freaked when I went and looked at the soaps I’d made yesterday! Needless to say…windows closed and AC on! lol
Good morning, Christy! You can definitely still keep your windows open if you’d like, but just make sure your soaps are kept in a dry area or run under a fan. The best way I’ve found to keep my M&P from having glycerin dew is to wrap them as soon as they have hardened. I hope this helps! 🙂
-Becky with Bramble Berry
hi yes what makes the soap harden
Khalia Williams, are you wondering about melt and pour or cold process soap?
Hi. I am a new soap maker. I have a large quantity of vegetable tallow. Does anyone have a soap recipe that I can use this in? I don’t know if veg. tallow works the same way as animal tallow in soap making. Any suggestions are welcome.
Thank you
We haven’t worked with that ingredient so I’m not entirely sure. Do you happen to know the SAP value?
I have a question. I ran across something I haven’t experienced yet (and I am still new). My soap came out almost like powdery. For example, it doesn’t seem rock hard like it would be just lye heavy. That doesn’t seem to be the problem, it’s more like I can’t even pick the soap up, it just falls apart like it’s almost powdery. The only thing I did differently was that I waited until my oils were at 105 and my lye solution was at about 98 and mixed at that point. Were they too far apart? What could have caused this?
It sounds like soda ash. It can happen when the soap is cool or thin, and it can be just on the tops or all throughout the bar: http://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/tips-and-tricks/explaining-and-preventing-soda-ash/
For your next batch, try increasing your temperatures to 110-120F and pouring the soap when it’s thicker.
A water discount is really helpful too: http://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/tips-and-tricks/water-discounting-cold-process-soap-how-why/
Funny enough, this happened to me with my first three batches, which I made last month. I couldn’t get the soap to release and a website told me to try the freezer, so I did. My soaps started dewing so I figured it was just condensation since they were colder than the apartment. I let them sit near the stove on some paper towel for a day or two to ‘sweat it out’ and they were just fine. Hm.
I’ll keep these tips in mind if that doesn’t work so well the second time around.
(Btw: just started making soap since mothers day, and my mom, step mom, and aunt love the soap! Thanks for making it so easy to start a new hobby that I’m actually having luck with sticking to)
It can be a happy medium – do shorter freezer time =)
I’m so glad that you are enjoying making soap – it is a great hobby to have and you can even turn it into a small business when you find yourself with friends asking, “How can I get more of that soap!?!” =)
Hi, Anne-Marie! Great post! Thank you for sharing! I have one little tip regarding the glycerin dew: wrap the soap in ceran wrap as soon as you pop it out of the mold. Make sure you cover it all. So far, this has proven to be the best way… at least for me! Good luck!
Sincerely,
Betty
Magic Senses
Hi Betty, can I ask about how long you keep the soap wrapped in plastic Saran Wrap? I am experiencing glycerin dew and want to wrap my soap to combat the problem. Just need to know how long to keep it wrapped before I open it back up. Thank you! 🙂
AmplifyMe,
Thanks for poppin’ in with the encouraging word. I am *so thrilled* that this post helped you and your business out. =)
I’m starting my own shop on etsy.com and I’m going to be making soap. I had the same exact problem only a few days ago. My basement is where I have been storing my finished soap so my sisters wouldn’t get into it but since my basement is very damp all of this crystal stuff formed on my soap.
This made me super frustrated so now i have a lot of soap sitting on my dinning room table and I’m in the process of wiping off my soaps and trying the other methods that you have. I’m just glad I found this article!
Thanks so much,
AmplifyMe shop crew
Erin, FD&C colors can be non-light stable and fade in the sun. It is quite a surprise when it happens though, isn’t it? You can get a “sunscreen” for your soap but it is one added step that isn’t failproof.
Crazy, Crafty, You can usually get away with a little bit of freezer time (10-15 minutes MAX) and speed pop out time up. We do it at Otion with pretty good results but every so often, we leave it in too long or boil the soap and then poof! wet slippery soap. =)
Pajama Mama, It *is* a Monk (possibly pope?) soap. Isn’t it a kitschy scream? I found the mold off of E-Bay and it doesn’t work entirely well but it’ll do for the family joke.
Thank you, Anne-Marie! This was a very timely article for me! I have to make 300 red hats and 300 purple purses for a Red Hat Ladies convention, I live on an island (quite humid), and was trying to use the freezer method to hasten and facilitate the releasing of the soaps. I had the same problem! Thanks, again for the article.
Hi:
Thanks for the tips! I have had really good luck with your No/Low Sweat M&P base.
But, a couple of weeks ago, I was at an outdoor craft sale and didn’t have a tent (BAD IDEA). Some of my Melt & Pour soaps started to sweat and also (something I’d never seen before) several of my pink soaps turned completely white after being exposed to the direct sunlight!
I learned my lesson about not having my products under a covered area at outdoor craft sales!!
Kind Regards,
Erin
Did this seperate the soap .If i leave soap in a glass container airtight, what would happen to the soap?
Would the silica sep. from the rest ?
Leaving your soap in an airtight glass container is going to help your soap from getting that glycerin dew and soap sweat.
-Becky with Bramble Berry
I’ve had very superfatted soaps do that too … but that goo is great for shaving your legs with!
I had this happen recently and I did not know what it was. I thought it was a bad batch of soap. Now I know. Thanks so much for the info.
I live in the desert so its not usually a problem unless I freeze it after I mold it. Then I just wipe it away and that seems to take care of the problem.
The up-close pic looks really cool!
Great tips! I learned the hard way not to put MP soap in the freezer-my soaps were so slippery from the glycerin dew that they never fully recovered.
Very informative post. I don’t have a lot of glycerin dew on goat milk or shea mp….but on clear glycerin, it can happen some.
Did I see Pope soap?