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?

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.

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?).

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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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