Salt bars and superfatting - whats going on?

Seawolfe · Jul 2, 2014

A month ago I made yet another salt bar. It was the usual 80% coconut oil, 5% castor, 80% salt - this time I would use Hemp oil for the other 15% and coconut milk for the liquid. I posted about it here in the photo gallery - and was all depressed when I realized I'd left the soapcalc superfat at 5%.

So I went to test a scrap of it this week on some especially grubby hands I had, figuring that's all it would be good for. I was surprised to find that while it cleaned my hands very well, my hands didn't feel all dry.

Feeling braver I tried a bar in the shower yesterday - and came out with no dry skin afterwards! Its not as moisturizing as my usual salt bars, but I've had 30% CO, 5% SF bastille bars make me feel MUCH drier.

Now I AM sensitive to soaps that dry my skin too much. I had to convince hubby to let me up the superfat of his favorite bastile to 8-10% because I found it too drying. I always find myself using lotion after most commercial soaps.

So why is this soap not leaving me all itchy skinned? I know salt neutralizes lather - but does it also neutralize the cleansing? Or did that 5 ounces of coconut milk (a little over half the liquid allotment) contribute?

hmlove1218 · Jul 2, 2014

The coconut milk did up the SF because of the fat content, but i certainly wouldn't think it upped it more than a couple of percentages.. Interesting findings! I can't wait to see what more experienced soapers think.

judymoody · Jul 2, 2014

I calculated the amount of fat in full fat coconut milk for a recipe that I did and it effectively raised the SF by 8%.

Seawolfe · Jul 2, 2014

judymoody said:
I calculated the amount of fat in full fat coconut milk for a recipe that I did and it effectively raised the SF by 8%.

So since I used about half coconut milk in my recipe (4.5 ounces water and 5 ounces coconut milk), that probably increased my SF by 4%, for a total SF of 9%. Is that enough to mellow out 80% coconut oil? or could the salt have done something?

My mind is a sieve, so I cant remember if I read somethign about it from here, but I did find this about the common ion effect:

Sea, brackish and other waters that contain appreciable amount of Na+ interfere with the normal behavior of soap because of common ion effect. In the presence of excess Sodium ions the solubility of soap salts is reduced, making the soap less effective.

Does this apply to soaps made from coconut oils?

Bex1982 · Jul 2, 2014

That salt bar I made a few years back was only 5%. My friends was actually not superfatted at all. Neither dried us out. It's magic, I'm not sure. maybe the salt changes the PH or something.

Bex1982 · Jul 2, 2014

Seawolfe said:
So since I used about half coconut milk in my recipe (4.5 ounces water and 5 ounces coconut milk), that probably increased my SF by 4%, for a total SF of 9%. Is that enough to mellow out 80% coconut oil? or could the salt have done something?

My mind is a sieve, so I cant remember if I read somethign about it from here, but I did find this about the common ion effect:

Does this apply to soaps made from coconut oils?

I'm pretty sure that applies to any soap, any oil. If you notice salt bars don't foam up as well as say regular high % co soaps do. It seems to be a less foamy more creamy lather if that makes any sense. The co oil is not working at it's full strength. It's not the same as taking a 100% coconut bar and washing in salt water, there is way more salt in a salt bar than there is in sea water.