# salt bar - what kinds of salt can and can't be used?



## dixiedragon (Oct 30, 2014)

I was inspired by the starry night soap on the Christmas thread.

http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?p=464006

But my soap making salt is pink! Can I use some kosher salt?


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## snappyllama (Oct 30, 2014)

The only difference between kosher and table salt is the crystal structure/size (kosher is flakier), and table salt sometimes has small amounts of stuff that keeps it from sticking together.  

I'm assuming that your pink salt is Himalayan. The only thing different about it is the trace minerals that give it the pink color. Most folks cannot taste anything different about any of them - especially once they are in food. I proved this to my foodie sister in law with a blind taste test one wild and crazy New Year's Eve (we do know how to party hard)! 

I think you would be fine to use any of them but might have scratchy issues with the larger grains.


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## Seawolfe (Oct 30, 2014)

I would use the smallest grains possible - so like iodine-free canning salt or such like for a salt soap. Some people have luck grinding coarse grains finer, others say it makes smaller scratchy grains, so I dunno.

If you want a riff of the starry night, perhaps make the main part of the soap salt soap, don't color some of it for the snowy white bottom, color the sky part dark blue (perhaps heavy on the indigo and a little charcoal?), and use grated up light colored soap confetti for the stars (or is that snow?).


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## new12soap (Oct 30, 2014)

Hopefully IrishLass will chime in and let us know what kind of salt she used, what size, because it does look like it may have been more coarse so it would show up so beautifully.

Table salt is fine, even tho it usually contains iodine most people have no problem with it. Kosher salt is not iodized and would probably also be fine. If yours are very large, you can blitz them in a spice or coffee grinder. I buy non-iodized fine sea salt for a buck and it works beautifully. Those pretty colored salts also work well, but yes you do want to avoid anything too coarse so it isn't sharp or scratchy.

You don't ever want to use dead sea salts or epsom salts in soap, they are loaded with other minerals and draw moisture and tend to turn your soap into a weepy mushy mess.

HTH


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## cmzaha (Oct 30, 2014)

Dead sea salt will actually make a very waxy non lathering soap. I do find they weep anymore than any salt bar in humid weather. 
I see IrishLass did what I would do, she ground up a salt soap and added it into her soap batter. I do not think it is a full salt bar, she just added in the ground up salt bar. A ground up soap will not absorb the color like salt will. You could really just very fine grind up any hard soap, but you want hard for a heavy powder type grind. 
Grinding salt in a grinder will make sharp scratchy salt unless you powder it and sift out the larger pieces. Table salt or fine sea salt works fine in salt bars. I have also used table salt with iodine without problems. I also have one 3 salt blend which contains DSS and it works, but the one from San Francisco Bath Salt Company does not work


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## JustBeachy (Oct 30, 2014)

I tend to make a lot of salt soaps, it makes me think of the ocean.   I've experimented with a bunch of different salts to see what they would do. Most Kosher salt, like say Mortons Coarse Kosher salt also has Yellow Prussiate of Soda (anti-caking agent). Which is actually *Sodium ferrocyanide. *Sort of funny because the MSDS sheet on Sodium ferrocyanide actually states that it's a skin irritant and is not to be ingested.  So what's it doing in salt. Yet I made some soap with it to see what it would do and didn't notice any problems. Didn't keep the soap though because i later found some data that said the the compound can release a cyanide gas when interacting with acids. haha. Nice. 

I experimented with some regular iodized sea salt and it didn't effect the process except for possibly morphing some colors. 

When i'm not experimenting I use only 100% salt. Whether it's Sea Salt, fine salt or medium. There's plenty of choices at the grocery store, you just have to read the label.   My opinion would be to stay along these lines.


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## girlishcharm2004 (Oct 30, 2014)

I used some pink Himalayan sea salt from Brambleberry. It was so scratchy; it scraped my skin.  I'll never use it again.  Next time, when I work up the courage to make a salt bar again, I'm using finely ground kosher salt.


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## shunt2011 (Oct 30, 2014)

I make a lot of salt soap.  They are my personal favorite.  I use sea salt, kosher salt, Black Salt you can even use regular table salt.   I like sea salt and fine kosher salt personally.  I get my sea salt from Costco, or the regular grocery store.  WSP also carries sea salt.  I use 50% salt in my bars most times. Never go over 75%.  I love my salt bars.


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## cmzaha (Oct 30, 2014)

San Francisco Salt Bath Company has lots of salts at good prices and most run from extra fine to coarse. I use the extra fine or fine. Usually they run free shipping. If anyone lives near a Winco they sell pacific fine sea salt for around $0.10 per lb. Fine Himalayan is great salt if you want to make a pink bar


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## Ellacho (Oct 31, 2014)

girlishcharm2004 said:


> I used some pink Himalayan sea salt from Brambleberry. It was so scratchy; it scraped my skin.  I'll never use it again.  Next time, when I work up the courage to make a salt bar again, I'm using finely ground kosher salt.



Sorry to hear about your Himalayan sea salt bar. Did you get fine grain type of salt? I bought it from Amazon(edible) and I never had any problem of scratchiness. I often make Himalayan sea salt bar. I just add a little bit of pink clay and it makes a pretty pink salt bar .


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## The Efficacious Gentleman (Oct 31, 2014)

I use plain table salt.  Had the problem that pretty much ALL salt here has added iodine, but a cheaper brand seems to have a lot less (or at least "less enough") that I can use it with no issues.  So some iodine is okay, but not too much.


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## girlishcharm2004 (Nov 3, 2014)

Ellacho said:


> Sorry to hear about your Himalayan sea salt bar. Did you get fine grain type of salt? I bought it from Amazon(edible) and I never had any problem of scratchiness. I often make Himalayan sea salt bar. I just add a little bit of pink clay and it makes a pretty pink salt bar .



I was following a Soap Queen tutorial (since I had never made a salt bar before) and "added to the cart" the ingredients that were linked to it.  I didn't pay attention to the grain of the salt they shipped me.  It wasn't "fine" that's for sure.  It was either "medium" or "small" salt.  Anyhow, I'm starting to find that the tutorials aren't necessarily well thought out.  It seems like they try to add as many different oils and ingredients as they can so you buy more... It really turned me off to salt bars.  I'm thinking about buying one from someone so I can at least know what it *should* feel like because everyone else's description of what an amazing salt bar feels like is definitely NOT like the Soap Queen tutorial.


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## seven (Nov 3, 2014)

girlishcharm2004 said:


> I was following a Soap Queen tutorial (since I had never made a salt bar before) and "added to the cart" the ingredients that were linked to it.  I didn't pay attention to the grain of the salt they shipped me.  It wasn't "fine" that's for sure.  It was either "medium" or "small" salt.  Anyhow, I'm starting to find that the tutorials aren't necessarily well thought out.  It seems like they try to add as many different oils and ingredients as they can so you buy more... It really turned me off to salt bars.  I'm thinking about buying one from someone so I can at least know what it *should* feel like because everyone else's description of what an amazing salt bar feels like is definitely NOT like the Soap Queen tutorial.



do you have food processor? if so, you can use it to make your current salt a finer cut. i do this all the time as i have a big pack of salt with coarse cut. 
the salt doesn't have to be smooth, but fine enough so it won't scratch the skin. i think you'll be able to feel when it's the right cut with your hands.


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## girlishcharm2004 (Nov 3, 2014)

You are giving me the courage to try it again!  It's a scary world I live in -- I need a lot of courage.


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## cmzaha (Nov 3, 2014)

seven said:


> do you have food processor? if so, you can use it to make your current salt a finer cut. i do this all the time as i have a big pack of salt with coarse cut.
> the salt doesn't have to be smooth, but fine enough so it won't scratch the skin. i think you'll be able to feel when it's the right cut with your hands.


If doing this I recommend straining it through a strainer and grinding your salt to almost a powder. Believe me it will sharpen the salt when it is ground in a food processor or coffee grinder. Not sure how a burr grinder will do since I will not run salt through my burr grinder.


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## The Efficacious Gentleman (Nov 3, 2014)

girlishcharm2004 said:


> You are giving me the courage to try it again!  It's a scary world I live in -- I need a lot of courage.




Using one of the bars from my latest batch of salt bars and all I can say to you is this - do NOT give up on them. They are fab


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## cmzaha (Nov 3, 2014)

Long aging is also a big factor in salt bars. I am using one now that is a year old and the lather if unbelievable. If salt did not sting it would make a great shaving bar as it has a heavy thick lather with lots of cushion. I also have discovered palm oil is not good in salt bars. I was doing some testing of different oils in salt bars and discovered palm will greatly affect the lather. Not in a good way


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## JustBeachy (Nov 3, 2014)

girlishcharm2004 said:


> You are giving me the courage to try it again!  It's a scary world I live in -- I need a lot of courage.



I tend to make a lot of soap bars and I have to say, it gets a whole lot easier the more you do it. Don't give up.


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## Saponista (Nov 3, 2014)

If you have really course grain salt you could try soleseife (search on here there's a fairly extensive thread about it) it involves dissolving your salt into the water so the big grains wouldn't be an issue. It's one of my favourite soaps to make.


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## cmzaha (Nov 3, 2014)

Saponista said:


> If you have really course grain salt you could try soleseife (search on here there's a fairly extensive thread about it) it involves dissolving your salt into the water so the big grains wouldn't be an issue. It's one of my favourite soaps to make.


It does make fantastic soap. Soleseife has become my hubbys favorite! I make it with 30% coconut oil 8% superfat, lol big superfat for me. I usually make my water the night before starting with hot water so I can dissolve the 25% sea salt before adding in the lye the next day. This is the only time I soap with full water and only water. I also dump any undissolved salt into the soap


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## Chefmom (Nov 3, 2014)

I have made a couple of salt bars now and I use fine sea salt that I buy at a bulk grocery store run by the local Amish.  I have also used canning salt.  It is found in the grocery store in the boxes on the bottom shelf with the Kosher salt etc.  It's basic fine grain table salt with no additives, iodine etc.  Already a nice fine texture.  It does clump in my salt pottery dish, but breaks up easily with a spoon.


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## cmzaha (Nov 3, 2014)

My favorite salt bar recipe is 90% coconut oil, 10% castor 18% superfat. It gives a beautiful thick lather after 4 wks and just keeps getting better. Thought I would give in and share...:-o I have been playing with some different combos and they are not as nice as this simple recipe, in fact for the first time in several yrs of making salt bars I actually dumped some in the trash and went back to my tried and true. I use up to 120% fine salt


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## Obsidian (Nov 3, 2014)

I use pretty much any salt I have on hand. Usually its canning salt but I've also used 100% kosher and regular table salt with iodine. I'm switching to cheap  sea salt for the mineral content though. I've used pink sea salt and I don't like it much, not pink enough to make pretty soap but pink enough to muddy up the bars.


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## Michele50 (Oct 21, 2019)

Saponista said:


> If you have really course grain salt you could try soleseife (search on here there's a fairly extensive thread about it) it involves dissolving your salt into the water so the big grains wouldn't be an issue. It's one of my favourite soaps to make.



I made some Soleseife soap about a year into beginning making our own soap. I don't know why this forum didn't pop up in my *searches *for info on how-to-make; it would have saved time and I *didn't *find much about it on the web at the time. I became interested in German Brine soap because I knew salt helped acne and I wanted to see if it would help as an additive to CP soap. I was surprised to find there was a soap made from a brine.....lol.....like I brine my Thanksgiving turkey before roasting it.

Literally hours after washing my face it purged, which I would have expected if I were one to have issues with acne (lol). I guess I had a few pimples under the skin that were lying dormant . I washed one area of my lower arm near my wrist (one arm only) and it had a few small ones pop up also. Rarely do I ever have pimples but when I do they are deep and painful. It's nice to know that if I "were" one who suffered from acne on a regular basis that with regular use Soleseife would possibly keep bad breakouts at bay. 

I ground my Pink Himalayan Sea Salt to a powder and then dissolved in hot water and there was no sediment. I had one container of water for my lye to dissolve and one for my salt and then combined them once things cooled to my desired temp. I love how hard and smooth these were; the only thing I didn't like was that I made such a small amount. Note to self: make more sooooon.


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## shunt2011 (Oct 21, 2019)

Michele50 said:


> I made some Soleseife soap about a year into beginning making our own soap. I don't know why this forum didn't pop up in my *searches *for info on how-to-make; it would have saved time and I *didn't *find much about it on the web at the time. I became interested in German Brine soap because I knew salt helped acne and I wanted to see if it would help as an additive to CP soap. I was surprised to find there was a soap made from a brine.....lol.....like I brine my Thanksgiving turkey before roasting it.
> 
> Literally hours after washing my face it purged, which I would have expected if I were one to have issues with acne (lol). I guess I had a few pimples under the skin that were lying dormant . I washed one area of my lower arm near my wrist (one arm only) and it had a few small ones pop up also. Rarely do I ever have pimples but when I do they are deep and painful. It's nice to know that if I "were" one who suffered from acne on a regular basis that with regular use Soleseife would possibly keep bad breakouts at bay.
> 
> I ground my Pink Himalayan Sea Salt to a powder and then dissolved in hot water and there was no sediment. I had one container of water for my lye to dissolve and one for my salt and then combined them once things cooled to my desired temp. I love how hard and smooth these were; the only thing I didn't like was that I made such a small amount. Note to self: make more sooooon.



This post is from 2014.   You'd be much better off starting a new thread and linking to this.


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## Michele50 (Oct 21, 2019)

shunt2011 said:


> This post is from 2014.   You'd be much better off starting a new thread and linking to this.


Thanks . I knew it was an *old *thread (lol) but I still like reading the older ones for the helpful info; I like reading anything 'soap.' I'll have to figure out how to link a new thread to older ones. I'm a new member so so not up on navigating within it; however, I've read a lot of things on this forum before becoming a member. 

You're sweet in informing me of this; I love this forum!!


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