Weird “Worms”

I checked on my soaps today (they’ve been relaxing in some wax paper) to make sure everything is still going fine after a few days. Unfortunately I found one of the weirdest things that I’ve seen since first experimenting with bath stuff years back. I knew that there was a risk of an air bubble around the shads in the Dirt soap when I decided to keep them upright and the tippy top breached the surface. Yesterday there was the tiny hole, but today it’s as if the soaps completely changed. I suspect that the shads dried out and shrunk a little, because there is an air bubble completely surrounding each shad. That is kind of understandable and although the presentation won’t be as nice, it’s an easy fix with just laying them down when I embed them and using these for shreds or whatnot. The weird part is that each of them sweated.

We’re still experiencing winter temperatures and I work in a room away from the woodstove, so the temperature doesn’t get overly warm during the winter, and it hasn’t been a long time, so I’m a bit puzzled right now. A soap “sweat” is not pretty to look at, but is still completely useable. Glycerin is a humectant, which draws moisture from the air, so the surface gets a bumpy white or a beaded surface texture. I realize that the sweat around the shad is because of the soak and apparently not enough time to dry out, although they sure seemed like they were. I’m just absolutely puzzled over it having stripes of sweat. *shaking head* Thankfully it’s only the one variety of soap, but I need to do some research obviously. I guess it’s good that I have been waiting a few days to check on it before posting to my site. I’m going to experiment with a difference base and see if that’s what went wrong. Cross your fingers please!