A soft-ripened cheese typically starts out firm and rather chalky in texture, but has a white mould (Penicillium candidum, camemberti or glaucum), yeast or yeast-like fungus (Geotrichum candidum) added to the milk or sprayed over the wheel of cheese. This quickly starts to blooms like tiny flowers on the exterior surface. Over time, these patches of yellowish white fur are patted down to form a cohesive soft white skin (rind) on the cheese's surface. This live rind breaks down the fats and proteins of a cheese, causing an increasingly creamy, runny or gooey texture over time, starting just beneath the rind ('creamline') and progressively moving inwards.

Once a wheel of cheese has been cut into, it no longer continues to ripen.

Well-known soft-ripened cheeses are Camembert and Brie, which are aged for around 1 month. Goat's milk cheeses are often treated in a similar manner, sometimes with white moulds (Chèvre-Boîte) and sometimes with blue.

If a cheese is not categorised as soft-ripened, then it is either a fresh cheese (meaning that it does not have a rind at all), washed rind cheese or natural rind cheese.