Mike's Natural Soaps Containers.

I love Mike's Natural Soap. It gives me stable slick leather with great volume. I'm working my way through a puck of Coconut soap and would by by another...but the containers suck! They rust! Has anyone seen this? What was your solution?

One word..... Plastic.!

Those Grundtal (sic) containers from IKEA work very well

I only buy refills and put them in 2 cup Pyrex containers.

Buy his soap in shaving bar form, and press it into your own container. I would recommend a plastic jar with some width and depth to it. Width, for ease of loading your brush, and depth for minimizing messes.

Wow, I've gone through 5 or 6 of Mikes soaps with his containers and never seen rust. That was a couple years ago, maybe they have changed?

Container aside, he makes a darn fine soap.

Buy Mike's in bars only and form or grate them into the finest jars available today...Maggards 6oz PETG jars.

I take the Mike's bars, cut them in half, then form (they're dense but pliable) the half bar into small glass bowls or mugs. I prefer the mugs these days.

Agree with all who buy bars. It's easy to press Mike's into other containers. Saves $$, too.

I prefer to buy the Mike's bars and press them into a shave stick container. Best shave stick ever!

Hmm... I don't have any problems with rusting on Mike's containers, and I love that they're not threaded. Maybe its a water thing?

I love the soap too, but the containers were a problem. When I first started, I had not committed enough to press in my own container, or to mtransplant. I wanted soaps in a tub. Mike were amazing soaps, but the problem I had was they got damaged in shipping. Mine were shipped in envelopes and 3 out of 3 came bent. 2 bent so bad soap was exposwd. Didn't hurt the soap, just sucks when you want something nice that your able to seal shut. He sent me new lids twice, but it became a hassle, so I moved on. NOW though I'm a sick pup and bought these airtight pyrex dishes from Marshall's, which I've taken to filling with my favorite soaps and once again, I have a Mike's soap in the rotation.
But I do not understand why he keeps using them. This exact thread pops up in one form or another every once in a while. Your far from alone.
Personally I love Phoenix Artisan Acc. Tubs. They are cool and durable.

Great ideas, everybody!
Will buy Mike's in bars and repackage into my own containers.
I do hope they find something better for their soap than these rust buckets.

I'd imagine he can't change til he runs out of tins . Until recently ppa soaps came in similar tins. Seems most artisans are moving to plastic though.

Rust proof tins are 30 cents more a piece and waterproof stickers are around 5 cents more each. Looks like Mikes is saving 35 cents per soap by using normal tins and stickers.

vtmax said:

Buy Mike's in bars only and form or grate them into the finest jars available today...Maggards 6oz PETG jars.

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This. I've already tranferred 3 CRSW pucks to the Maggard containers because I was getting rust on the steel containers.

I didn't think CRSW tins rust, I guess I just haven't used them enough. The CRSW tins is one of my favorite, I guess this would be the same with WSP tins.

I don't mind transferring them to plastic containers but I usually use the labels that they come with and tape them over the new plastic jars.

I wish some would provide sticker labels if they don't come with a container or maybe some sort of template to print their logo easily.

I tried to print a label for one of the SV soaps that doesn't come with a case and it just doesn't look right even if I'm using a nice case for it.

I would have to get a nice glossy waterproof labels, use a nice color printer and have a template for the particular soap if I want to try to make it look nice it would just get too costly and attempting to do this with the different brands of soaps would just take too much time.

I'm guessing most of the sticker labels the artisan soap makers use are done professionally through a third party with probably a few that print their own labels.

You should not have to get a different container or sticker with your soap. Artisan soap makers should by default use rust proof tins and waterproof stickers. The cost is only around 30 pennies more. Any Artisan that does not use rust proof containers and waterproof stickers is shooting themselves in the foot in my humble opinion as I would never do business with them again over 30 pennies!
Dr. John one of the most well-known vendors here uses rust proof tins and waterproof stickers, I think this is the bare minimum we can expect when we are paying over $10 for soap don't you think?

Stirling doesn't even bother and uses plastic and passes the cost savings on to us...smart.
CRSW uses rust proof and waterproof
WSP uses rust proof and waterproof
Barrister & Mann uses rust proof and waterproof
Sudsy Soapery uses rust proof and waterproof
Etc.

Actually the Sudsy Soapery uses the same vendor for their tins as Dr. Jon.

Jopete said:

I didn't think CRSW tins rust, I guess I just haven't used them enough.

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They do, or at least mine do. All the soaps I have in metal containers - CRSW and two from Dr. Jon's - rusted.