How to live with a handmade bar

Handmade soap fails in one place: the puddle.

Commercial detergent bars are full of salts and hardeners that let them sit in a wet well and still look like a bar on Friday. Ours are oil, soap, and glycerin. Glycerin loves water. If the bar sits in a puddle of water, it will give up.

Three habits fix almost every complaint we hear at market.

Keep it dry. A dish with ridges, a rope, a magnetic holder — anything that lets water run off and air get under the bar. After you use it, set it down and walk away. Do not cap it in a travel tin while it is wet.

Use it like soap, not like a sponge. Work a lather in your hands or on a cloth, then wash. Grinding the bar over your whole body every morning spends it for no reason.

Give your skin a week. If you are coming off a sulfate wash, the first few days can feel “not clean” because you are used to stripped. That feeling usually passes. If it does not, switch to a milder bar from the Lady Collection or a Castile, and tell us what your skin did. We would rather trade you than have you decide all handmade soap is the same.

Store the backups in a closet, not the steamy bathroom cabinet. They are still losing a little water even after the official cure.

That is the whole manual. Real soap is simple. The care is simple. The only complicated part is unlearning the bottle.

— Cheryl, Lady B