Salt bars: question re salt quantity

surf girl · Apr 17, 2009

There's a salt bar thread running that got me wondering. I know some folks prefer to use less than 100% salt (i.e. 1 lb salt for 1 lb oil). I've only made the 100% variety, and love love love the soap. For those who use less, what do you like better about the reduced salt?

Just wondering whether I should try it out given that I'm loving what I've got.

mamaT · Apr 17, 2009

I use 50% salt, I did a lot of reading and the comments that I found lead me to think that the lather would be better. Mine lathers like crazy.

SimplyE · Apr 18, 2009

I am going to try 50% and a huge superfat. My first salt bar was horrible on my skin, sooper itchy and drying for my sensative skin. I threw the entire batch out after trying it. At that time, I just use a recipe that is commonly used. I am excited to try 50% with big superfat...

Guest · Apr 18, 2009

I have made a 50% and an 80%. The 50% bar rocks , the 80% is okay.I use sea salt.

surf girl · Apr 18, 2009

Kitn, when you say the 50% bar rocks, what do you mean? Is it mostly the lather? Anything else noticeably different between the two (hardness, smoothness, etc)?

ChrissyB · Apr 18, 2009

I personally prefer 50 - 60% salt to oils. Mainly for the lather, because the salt cuts back the lather anyway. And I only superfat my salt bars at 5%, again for the lather.

ilovedoxies · Apr 18, 2009

I used 50% salt, 10% superfat. It lathers nicely. However, it is not very pretty to look at.

surf girl · Apr 18, 2009

Cheers, guys. So it's mainly about the lather?

Dixie · Apr 18, 2009

yes, the salt will cut your lather down, that's why you need to add more coconut oil and I added castor oil. I made 100% salt. Mine look great but I am wondering it the fact that I added 300gm of shredded soap had a lot to do with that. I want to make some more at 50% and see how it comes out.

Guest · Apr 18, 2009

How do you work out the percentage of the salt?

I found a recipe and want to tweak it a bit by adding a smidgeon more weight. Should I pretend the salt is something like olive oil and type it in the lye calculator? I use the one on metaphysicalfarms.com

I'll hopefully do this one tomorrow

Dixie · Apr 18, 2009

No don't type it into your lye calculator!

I base it on the weight of my oils.
If I have 5 lbs of oil I use 5 lbs of salt. (100%)
If I want to use 50% that's using 1/2 the equivalant of oils. (5lb batch would be 2.5 lbs of salt) 5 x .50 = 2.5
25%---5 x .25=1.25
Does that make scense?

Someone will come along and explain it better.

Guest · Apr 18, 2009

oh I totally get it now thanks

Guest · Apr 18, 2009

surf girl said:
Kitn, when you say the 50% bar rocks, what do you mean? Is it mostly the lather? Anything else noticeably different between the two (hardness, smoothness, etc)?

the 50 %
It lathers like crazy and feels better on my skin during a bath and my skin feels better after drying off. It feels better too in my hand it is like a polished stone to hold , whereas the 80% doesn't have the same feeling , I don't think the 80% bar lathers as well either.My skin feels dry and tight after using the 80% salt bar . I used the same recipe for both , just different scents. My only assumption is that the higher % of salt is more drying to my skin.
HTH

Kitn

SimplyE · Apr 18, 2009

Kitn said:
the 50 %
It lathers like crazy and feels better on my skin during a bath and my skin feels better after drying off. It feels better too in my hand it is like a polished stone to hold , whereas the 80% doesn't have the same feeling , I don't think the 80% bar lathers as well either.My skin feels dry and tight after using the 80% salt bar . I used the same recipe for both , just different scents. My only assumption is that the higher % of salt is more drying to my skin.
HTH

Kitn

I think you hit that one on the head. I HATED my 80% salt bar so much for that very reason that did not even try one again. I have now been re-intrigued...

Guest · Apr 18, 2009

Pulling my hair out, I was going to start a new thread but this falls into the same category. Salt bar crisis.

Can someone please talk me through this recipe:

Base Ingredients Grams Ounces Percentage
Coconut Oil 504 gr. 17.78 oz. 70%
Castor Oil 72 gr. 2.54 oz. 10%
Grapeseed Oil 144 gr. 5.08 oz. 20%
Distilled Water 237.6 gr. 8.38 oz.
Lye 102.15 g 3.6 oz.
Sea Salt - Fine 576 gr. 20.32 oz.

I put the oils into a calculator:

i n oz Percent
Coconut 76° 17.7 70.24
Grapeseed 5.0 19.84
Castor 2.5 9.92

Total Weight 25.2

I figured to do a 50% salt it would have to be 12.5oz? since that is half of 25oz (weight of oil)

Then I tried to figure out what % of salt was added to the first^ recipe. I think it was a large amount. I HATE DEALING WITH % and Im tired.

:cry:

Please tell me if any of that is right. Tomorrow will be fun.

surf girl · Apr 18, 2009

Kitn said:
the 50 %
It lathers like crazy and feels better on my skin during a bath and my skin feels better after drying off. It feels better too in my hand it is like a polished stone to hold , whereas the 80% doesn't have the same feeling , I don't think the 80% bar lathers as well either.My skin feels dry and tight after using the 80% salt bar . I used the same recipe for both , just different scents. My only assumption is that the higher % of salt is more drying to my skin.
HTH

Kitn

Hunh. Well, the reason I asked the question is that I love my 100% bar so much that I am wondering what advantage I would potentially get with the lower salt %. I'm cool with the lather on the bar (fluffy, generous - not quite as profuse or as stable as my other bars, but better than a couple of non-salt recipes I fooled around with). Also LOVE the polished stone feel of the 100% bar (my second 100% bar does not have this feel because of the added powdered colorant. Won't do that again).

I may give 50% a go one of these days anyway, just to see.

Salt bars: question re salt quantity

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