Good Bloke Co.

You purchased a few bars of soap, left them in the bathroom storage or vanity cabinet. There comes a day when you need to start a new bar, you reach out for one and you realize that it has water on its surface – it makes the soap sticky and even smell rancid.

What did go wrong?

To quickly answer it – NOTHING is wrong with this. Soap makers call it soap sweating.

Is it good or bad to have moisture collecting on the soap surface when it’s dry?
I’d like to start with the good part of this situation – you got a good bar soap that contains a lot of moisturizing ingredients in it. One of the main ingredients that is responsible for soap sweating is glycerin, it attracts water from air to form on the surface of the soap. (One of the reasons why commercial soaps don’t have this happening to them is because they remove the glycerin to use in cosmetics that will be sold to you separately at a higher price.)

Another good thing about this situation is that water on the surface is not damaging the soap in any way. There might be a side effect if you leave the soap like this for a few months, then water will be attracting bacteria that can cause the soap to smell bad. The smell will go away once you start using the soap though; so don’t throw it away!

What’s bad about sweating bar soap?
There is nothing bad directly to the soap but it indicates that you have a high humidity in the place where you store it. To avoid soap sweating, store the bar soap in a dry place. Preferably not in a cabinet near a sink or up in an open shelf in a shower.

To conclude… there will be time when you find your bar soap collecting moisture on its surface and as you just learnt, there is nothing wrong with it. You can wipe it clean and dry it out or rinse it in water and dry it out after.

Think Sustainable.
Good Bloke