tsa & bar soap
 

Hi, I did a search, but didn't find the answer to my question. I know bar soap is allowed in carry on, but does anybody know if it looks like explosives on the xray?

Last week I flew out of ORD with a pound of fudge in my carry on and found out that it resembles explosives on the x-ray. Triggered a bag check and delayed me for a few minutes. No big deal except TSA guy took my bag out of my line of sight to run it back through the x-ray sans fudge. I now have some bar soap that I'd like to carry on my flight tonight, but I'll leave it behind if it's going to cause the same hassle. (I'm not checking a bag.)
Thank you!
Virginia

The small hotel-sized bars of soap, even several stacked together, have not triggered a bag check for my carry-on bag.

As I always end up returning home with more soap than I left with, I can say that bar soap does NOT cause any problems with the TSA.

You're basically running into one of the numerous shortfalls the TSA x-ray equipment has.

Bars of soap are large, opaque items (as well as fudge). I regularly bring my own soap with me, and what I have learned through trials and tribulations is to isolate the bar of soap away from your other toiletries and especially away from wires in your bag (cell phone chargers, for example).

My suggestion to you is to put the bar of soap in an exterior compartment/pocket of a rollaboard (or your other carry-on luggage). Again, isolation with those opaque items is key.

Whatever you do, don't drop the soap.

I carry a full size bar of soap, and have never had it trigger a bag inspection.

A bar of soap triggered a bag check once in SEA for me. The screener said it was something organic, if I remember correctly. Happened a year ago.

Thanks for the quick replies. I'm still not sure if I'm going to bring the soap. It's 3 bars still in their packaging, so I suppose I could take it out of my bag & put it in the bin next to my shoes & kippie bag. That way if it looks suspicious on the x-ray they wouldn't need to re-run my bag. On the other hand I may just leave the soap here. I'm visiting my parents so it's not like I'd be throwing it away and it's not some rare expensive soap either.

The fudge was an interesting experience. The image on the x-ray required 4 different screeners to look at it and they all became a bit tense. One asked who's bag it was, I identified myself & told the guy it was probably the fudge. I told him where in the bag to find the fudge and he took it out and visually inspected it. It was in it's original package and clearly marked fudge. He didn't test it in any way other than visually. Didn't open outer box. He put it separately in a bin and told me my bag would have to go through the x-ray again. He then took my bag out of my sight to put it back through the x-ray. I wasn't happy with that because I had put my purse inside my carry on to consolidate things. He waited for a couple of other bags to go through before putting mine in so it was out of my sight for about 5 minutes. Bag and fudge came through x-ray and the guy said I was clear to go. Nothing was taken from my bag, but still makes me nervous to have my things out of my view. I don't ever travel with excessive valuables, but I did have a bit of cash and of course credit cards in my purse.

I arrived here in FLL and gave Dad the fudge and told him I hope it's good because it's the last time I'm bringing him any!

It should be fine until someone in the chain of command watches Fight Club.

Fudge and peanut butter show up as suspect items because of the density. I never saw soap triggering anything but then it's been a while since I was at an x-ray machine.

Happy travels.

I’m glad to hear I’m not the only one who hates those little bars of hotel soap! I always carry a full-size bar with me; it’s never triggered a search (yet). The key is to keep things with mass apart from each other so a screener does not see a big blob of something unidentifiable on the x-ray.

I actually don't mind the hotel soaps; I don't use them myself, but my wife loves them, so I bring a bunch back for her every time I'm on a trip. I know soap's not costly, but it saves buying them, too. ;)

I carry liquid body wash soap in my kippie bag for myself.

You see, what you do when leaving Amsterdam is you get a regular size bar of soap, then you get a sharp knife and cut in half. Then you hollow out the inside of the soap and pack as much um, stuff, into is as possible. You then wet the cut edges of the soap and press it back together. You then run your wet finger around the outside of the bar of soap. Now the dogs can't detect your um... non-soap items.

Wirelessly posted (Motorola DynaTAC 8000X / NCSA Mosaic v 1.0)
Yeah, I don’t like coming out of the shower smelling like a girly-man, and what’s the deal with that soap that has little flakes of oatmeal in it? I hoard those little shampoo bottles, though.


I’ll have to award you Artful Concealer Gold status for that one.

Might work but I'm not willing to risk my freedom giving it a try.

Perhaps a little note to TSA inside just in case they figured it out.

And you do know that Blogdad Bob is going to be in a nervous fright trying to get the word out on "Soap, the next big catch!"

No. Opaque would be the change in this here example photo from an Israeli company. The soap would be classified as an orangic mass. Like that giant blob of explosive material sitting right next to the change.

And generally, I don't usually have a problem with soap... only once in a while is it hard to tell.

I actually collect the hotel soaps and lotions when I travel and donate them to our local Lutheran Social Services center to give out to people who need it. And if you have dry skin the oatmeal soaps are great (like Aveeno).....^

My 2nd cousin's girlfriend had given me a couple of bars of soap that I put in my carry on and I threw in some sort of electronic gizmo on top of everything in my carry on- not thinking- my bag got pulled to be hand checked- of course they used the explosive indicators on it. The TSA guy was really nice about it- I told him I didnt think about what it looked like under xray. and I did not tell him what it looked like- not using those words! so yeah ,it can get checked.

Just to update, I did bring the soap through FLL tonight. I made sure I packed it away from my phone charger & ipod, the only electronics I traveled with. It didn't trigger a bag check. A TSA lady did run off with my shoes before I could put them back on and swabbed them. I've never had that happen before, but they seemed to be swabbing random items that were loose in bins. Cellphones, shoes, etc. They must've been overstaffed or something.:rolleyes:

This didn't happen in the US, but I feel it's related enough to comment.

Last week, returning to SJU from GUA (via PTY), the Guatemalan TSA equivalents (not sure what their agency name is) took away my bar shampoo and soap I've been traveling with for some time. No explanation, nothing. She let go of the cologne I had deeper in the bag, but took away my bars of soap/shampoo stating that they were liquid (even though they were clearly solid).

I didn't bother to fight it, since I didn't (and still don't) know what power the Guatemalan TSO equivalents have.

Funny thing though, they have crappy photocopies of US TSA 3-1-1 flyers and posters at the checkpoint,

I just returned from Guatemala to the US this past Saturday. At the carry-on baggage security check they took out the little hotel bar soaps I was going to bring back as souvenirs, and did not return them. They also confiscated two small pump spray containers; one was insect repellent and the other was "Afterbite", a treatment for insect bites. Was this legit or a small-time scam? (such as for the baggage handlers to keep or resell them)

That happened to me in GUA with medicated soap.... it left me quite livid.

Can I bring bar soaps to the US? If yes, what's the volume or how many pcs of bar soap can i bring? Tnx in advance....

This triggered a search on a recent trip:
http://www.lushusa.com/Dragon%27s-Eg...gid=bath-bombs
Apparently, the x-ray machine noticed "something organic", so my wife's bag was searched.

I'm glad she didn't buy this: http://www.lushusa.com/Blackberry/02...gid=bath-bombs

Welcome to FlyerTalk! :)

I've never had a problem with a full-size bar from home. How many do you want to pack? The only issue I could think of is them showing up as a big solid mass on the x-ray and perhaps customs thinking you may be trying to artfully conceal something in the bars or cover up a smell.

I am carrying certain herbal medical soap.

Would a 4-5 bars of soap cause any issues with TSA in a carry on?

If they question it as a liquid or gel, you can declare it as medication - http://www.tsa.gov/traveler-informat...essary-liquids

I donated a whole bunch of soap bars to a shelter recently, and they really appreciated it! :) Oh, and a few little bottles of shampoo, conditioner, etc. that I "forgot" about and were loosely floating around in my rollaboard. :p


Lay them flat in the bottom of your bag, or otherwise in a fashion to not show up as a big solid blob on the x-ray.

They are hardly 1.5/2" x 1" each and 5 or 6 of them - So whats best?

CARRY-ON:
Gray - Square-ish Duffle Bag (Should I be concerned about Overhead Space?)
L W H
24 11 14

- Stacking them up together on a "side" or "side pocket"
- Spreading them on the side wall
- Spreading them flat on bottom - TOGETHER in LINE/ MATRIX? SPREAD OUT? at CORNERS?

Bag Shape most similar to this:
- Squarish: http://www.evo.com/imgp/1500/69394/3...ndependent.jpg
- Side & End Pockets similar to this: http://www.4discounttravel.com/conte...duffel-bag.jpg

Just spread them out evenly on the bottom of your bag. Note that most of the posts in this thread are from 2009, so the x-ray machines in use should be able to discern a non-threat, TSA predictable unpredictability duly noted.