Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Soap Making 101: A Soap Mold Release Tip

The above photo shows melt and pour soap that has been poured into a plastic mold. In this case, it's Mold Market's star mold (which BTW is pretty cool). As you can see, we did not pour the soap all the way to the top of the mold. There's a reason for this. You need to have some "finger space" to release the soap from the mold. Some of you may be scratching your head and asking, "What's finger space?"

Finger space means you leave room for your fingers to grab the sides of the mold when releasing the soap from the mold. If you pour the soap right to the top, it becomes difficult to release fromt he mold. Fingernails tend to dig into the soap when trying to release. Sometimes, you can smooth out those (fingernail) areas, but not always.

I recommend allowing some head-space for the release process. If you don't pour the soap all the way to the top, you have room for your fingers to pull on the sides of the mold (without digging your nails into the soap). Once air is introduced between the mold and soap, you're home free and the soap will pop right out (without nail imprints) when gentle pressure is applied to the face of the mold.

2 comments:

Wonder Turtle Soaps said...

Great tip! It helps soooo much to have some space so you can pull the sides of the mold away from the soap. Once I see that air bubble, I know that everything is going to be okay :)

Denise said...

Thanks for the feedback. Yes, those air bubbles are a definite sign you're on your way to a good release.