# recipe for Dead Sea salt bar?



## franinfrance (Feb 20, 2015)

Hello
I want to make a soap for my sister who, following a broken foot, now has psoriasis on her feet!  
I have bought some Dead Sea salt to make salt bars but I am aware that too much washing of the damaged skin is not advised.  So the idea I had of using coconut oil which would lather with the salt is not such a good one as it can be drying.  Has anyone made salt bars for skin problems please or do you have any suggestions? :?:

Many thanks


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## The Efficacious Gentleman (Feb 20, 2015)

You can't use dead sea salt for too high a % of a salt soap as the minerals cause issues.  Would a salt scrub maybe be a better idea?


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## IrishLass (Feb 20, 2015)

Ditto what the good Gent said. Dead Sea salts have a different mineral makeup than other salts and therefor do not make for great salt bars. I second his idea of making a salt scrub out of them instead, though (which I've done myself).

For salt bars, I like to use either regular sea salt or regular table salt.

IrishLass


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## hmlove1218 (Feb 20, 2015)

It's been recommended to me to use no more than 10% Dead Sea salt as your salt mix in a soap. As others have mentioned, the high mineral content causes the soaps to weep and not set up propperly.


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## Ellacho (Feb 20, 2015)

I learned the hard way. I made this soap in 2012.  It crumbled like a piece of a cake after 6 months or so. I am curious to know how others are able to make and sell  the Dead Sea soap :think: because I only added 2T of Dead Sea salt in my 2 pound batch of soap. By the way, I also made Dead Sea mud soap(no salt) and that was totally fine.

In case, you'd like to know my recipe, here it is:

27%  CO
28% Palm,
40% Olive oil
5% Castor. 
2T Dead Sea mud
2T Dead Sea salt


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## Seawolfe (Feb 20, 2015)

Typically, if you add enough salt to call it a  salt bar, you need  to use  quite  a lot of coconut oil in the recipe. Salt inhibits lather, saponified coconut oil is one of the few (only?) fatty acids that can lather in salt. That's why salt bar recipes are often 80-100% cocnut oil. 

Nobody has reported much luck with anything but simple salt in significant amounts that I can tell, but perhaps salt and some other clay would work?


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## hmlove1218 (Feb 20, 2015)

Ellacho said:


> I learned the hard way. I made this soap in 2012.  It crumbled like a piece of a cake after 6 months or so. I am curious to know how others are able to make and sell  the Dead Sea soap :think: because I only added 2T of Dead Sea salt in my 2 pound batch of soap. By the way, I also made Dead Sea mud soap(no salt) and that was totally fine.
> 
> In case, you'd like to know my recipe, here it is:
> 
> ...



How long before you cut it? When I used 2 T of salt it became a brine soap and acts much like a salt bar meaning that it needed to be cut within a few hours. I didnt know that the first time and mine crumbled just like yours.


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## Ellacho (Feb 21, 2015)

hmlove1218 said:


> How long before you cut it? When I used 2 T of salt it became a brine soap and acts much like a salt bar meaning that it needed to be cut within a few hours. I didnt know that the first time and mine crumbled just like yours.



I cut it after 1 day and it was nice and firm then, like a normal CP soap. It was over a period of time that it started to crumble. We don't have a humidity issue in N.Cali and I don't think it had anything to do with humidity. I'm surprised to see your soap turned out like a brine/salt bar. Hmmm... I added the DS salt at trace. When did you add it? I am thinking it made a difference when the DS salt is added. I haven't tried making the DS brine soap yet. If it does not crumble, I'd love to make a brine soap with the DS salt.


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## franinfrance (Feb 21, 2015)

Thanks so much for all your replies.  I knew I had read somewhere about the minerals maybe being a problem in Dead sea salt.  Maybe I should give her some of my normal sea salt bars and just hand her the bag of DS salt to  use in a bath.  So glad I didn't start it before asking!!


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## hmlove1218 (Feb 21, 2015)

Ellacho said:


> I cut it after 1 day and it was nice and firm then, like a normal CP soap. It was over a period of time that it started to crumble. We don't have a humidity issue in N.Cali and I don't think it had anything to do with humidity. I'm surprised to see your soap turned out like a brine/salt bar. Hmmm... I added the DS salt at trace. When did you add it? I am thinking it made a difference when the DS salt is added. I haven't tried making the DS brine soap yet. If it does not crumble, I'd love to make a brine soap with the DS salt.



OK that makes sense. I added my salt to the lye water


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## Ellacho (Feb 21, 2015)

hmlove1218 said:


> OK that makes sense. I added my salt to the lye water



I just bought some Dead Sea salt, I'm going to make the DS Soleseife soap soon! Thank you for sharing !

Btw, did you use regular CP recipe?


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## hmlove1218 (Feb 21, 2015)

Yes it was a regular CP recipe with I believe 22% CO. It bubbled wonderfully


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## Ellacho (Feb 21, 2015)

hmlove1218 said:


> Yes it was a regular CP recipe with I believe 22% CO. It bubbled wonderfully



Sounds great! I've made several batches of brine salt soap successfully but I was hesitant to use the DS salt. Now, I'll give it a go. Thanks again!


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## HappyHomeSoapCo (Feb 23, 2015)

I want to make sure I am understanding correctly. When adding the salt to the lye solution, you dont need to use a high % of coconut oil? I want to make salt bars but I dont want to use a high % of coconut oil. I'd prefer to use my regular recipe which is 25% coconut, 25% olive, 20% shea butter, 15% tallow, and 15% castor. How much salt do you add to the lye solution?


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## Ellacho (Feb 23, 2015)

HappyHomeSoapCo said:


> I want to make sure I am understanding correctly. When adding the salt to the lye solution, you dont need to use a high % of coconut oil? I want to make salt bars but I dont want to use a high % of coconut oil. I'd prefer to use my regular recipe which is 25% coconut, 25% olive, 20% shea butter, 15% tallow, and 15% castor. How much salt do you add to the lye solution?




Yes, it's called the brine /salt water soap or Soleseife and you can read over these threads:

http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=48447&highlight=Soleseife+soap

http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=44266&highlight=Soleseife+soap


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## cmzaha (Feb 23, 2015)

HappyHomeSoapCo said:


> I want to make sure I am understanding correctly. When adding the salt to the lye solution, you dont need to use a high % of coconut oil? I want to make salt bars but I dont want to use a high % of coconut oil. I'd prefer to use my regular recipe which is 25% coconut, 25% olive, 20% shea butter, 15% tallow, and 15% castor. How much salt do you add to the lye solution?


I use 30% coconut in my soleseif soaps with a sea salt & DSS mix at 25% or whatever I can get dissolved, go light on the DSS. My Dragon's Blood Soleseif soap is my hubbys favorite. If all the salt does not completely dissolve I still dump it into the soap. Soleseif soaps can really mess with color. My last batch of DB came out extremely light colored


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