# Sodium Chloride [salt] in soap? Advice?



## danjpiscina (Jan 27, 2011)

Does anyone use salt with their CP soap? if so, why? and how much? 

I often see it in commercial soap ingredients, but I'm not sure what it's there for. How could I incorporate it into a recipe? Thanks!


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## soapbuddy (Jan 27, 2011)

The salt that you see on a commercial label is most likely from saponification ie: tallow=sodium tallowate.


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## BakingNana (Jan 27, 2011)

Are you referring to soap in general, or salt bars?  Salt bars are wonderful.  I don't see any reason to add salt (sodium chloride, as you mention in the subject line of your post) to soap, other than specifically making salt bars.  I like 100% coconut oil with a 20% lye discount, and add sea salt at 75% of the oil weight.  As Soap Buddy said, the word "sodium" on commercial soaps refers to the saponified oil; sodium tallowate is saponified animal fat (usually beef), sodium palmate is saponified palm oil, sodium cocoate is saponified coconut oil, etc. etc.  Ingredients are usually listed this way in an attempt to avoid listing sodium hydroxide among the ingredients.  (Forgive me if I'm telling you something you already know!)


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## falldowngobump (Jan 27, 2011)

I use about a teaspoon ppo of non iodized salt in most of my soaps.  The train of thought is that it helps make a harder bar...not sure if it does or not...but I'm new, and I figured it couldn't hurt.


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## Araseth (Jan 29, 2011)

falldowngobump said:
			
		

> I use about a teaspoon ppo of non iodized salt in most of my soaps.  The train of thought is that it helps make a harder bar...not sure if it does or not...but I'm new, and I figured it couldn't hurt.



I tried the same with my last batch to increase hardness, I found it was ready to cut within 6 hours. I hear it won't make a harder bar in the long run but you can cut it quicker.


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## danjpiscina (Jan 31, 2011)

Thanks for all your replies, guys! 

BakingNana; your post was very helpful. It explains a lot. It's funny, because I can swear I've seen 'sodium _cloride_" in many commercial soap ingredient lists. I guess it's just to make the soap harder? 

With regards to the salt bar. I don't think I've ever heard of that before. Is it still soap? Does it clean? Is the salt good for your skin? I think I'll try making a batch at some point!

Thanks again,

Dan P.


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## Vaibhav Jain (Jul 8, 2019)

Yes ..I.have same question. One thing I want to add is I see citric acid along with sodium chloride. So what do they do and how much quantity we should use to make a hard soap bar like commercial bars.


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## Relle (Jul 8, 2019)

Vaibhav Jain said:


> Yes ..I.have same question. One thing I want to add is I see citric acid along with sodium chloride. So what do they do and how much quantity we should use to make a hard soap bar like commercial bars.



This thread is from 2011, so is 8 yrs old. Plese start a new thread to get your question answered. The people in these posts are no longer here. I'm locking this.


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