A few salt bar questions...

[LJA]

Hi kids.
I'm gonna try making a salt bar soap for the first time <cue horror music> and I have a few questions.

1.) I'm assuming I have to soap very cool as not to melt the salt, no?
2.) If I normally use 60 oz. of oils in my mold, do I still use that much or do I have to do 30 ounces oil and 30 ounces of salt, or...what?
3.) Can I swirl salt bars? ITP? Or is it just too solid with all that salt in there?
4.) I'm thinking this needs to be at least a medium trace before adding the salt, right?
5.) Gel or no gel? ( I sound like Howie Mandel)

If there are any great tut links out there, I'd appreciate them, and if there are any other tips that'll help not make this a total crash 'n burn, I'd love ya forever for those too.
Thanks guys!

 

[Guest]

Hi LJA
These are the notes I have on my salt bars.
Made my lye about 45 minutes before I started.
I used 60 oz of warm oils (the salt really cools it down fast).Some people warm the salt in the microwave . I didn't.
I only used 25% salt , I have since made a 50% and I like the texture of the 25% better.That's just me.
With the recipe I used and 25% salt, I had time to swirl it.I am not sure that you will with 100% salt. No reason not to try it though.
I added the salt at just a hair past the thin trace stage.
I am not sure what to say on the amount of oil to use , I had about 2 pounds of extra soap to put in another mold ,just adding 25%. I think if you went 30oz oil and 30oz salt , it would be the safest way not to have a mountain leftover. Do you know how to figure out the max volume of your mold?
If you went 40 and 40 I am pretty sure you would have more than you need for 1 mold.you could always get a smaller mold ready , I put my extra in a small lined box (instant slab mold) .lol.
The most favored way , to cure the salt bars is in an oven heated to 170 and turned off when you put your mold in.Leave it 2 hours or until firm enough to cut. I would check it in 1 hour , it can move very fast. Cut while the bars are warm .
I don't know if they gel or not ,it definitely doesn't look like regular soap as it does it's thing , I watched mine but could not tell. It is rough looking when you first cut it, let it dry well and it will polish up and be smooth as glass.
I can't find any tut's on salt bars.

There you have it in a very large nutshell.

Good luck making your salt soap.

Kitn

 

[LJA]

Thanks, Kitn. I have one in the mold now. I did a bastille though and it never got very thick so I'm hoping it'll be okay. :? I'm also not gelling. I hope that isn't a mistake. LOL.

 

[Guest]

I think it will be fine , I don't think they can gel with all the salt.Can't wait to see pics :wink:

Kitn

 

[artisan soaps]

..

 

[surf girl]

No expert on salt bars here, but I'll give you my 2 cents based on my minimal experience. (I see you have already made your soap but anyway...)

1.) I'm assuming I have to soap very cool as not to melt the salt, no?

I did not measure my temps for either of the two batches I made. The lye would have been pretty hot, the oils not so much.

2.) If I normally use 60 oz. of oils in my mold, do I still use that much or do I have to do 30 ounces oil and 30 ounces of salt, or...what?

The salt taks up space, but not that much space. Not sure exactly, but I would say somewhat less than 1 1/2 times the usual recipe.

3.) Can I swirl salt bars? ITP? Or is it just too solid with all that salt in there?

Yes, you can swirl. Here's my swirled batch, just a little test batch as a potential swap soap:

For this one, I followed the "Angry Clown" tutorial by Grumpy Girl. I think it's on craftserver.com, if I remember correctly.

4.) I'm thinking this needs to be at least a medium trace before adding the salt, right?

For the ITP swirl, I added salt at very minimal trace as per the tutorial instructions. I was a naughty diary-keeper for my first batch, and did not record the quality of the trace when I added the salt, but if I remember correctly, it was medium-ish.

5.) Gel or no gel? ( I sound like Howie Mandel)

Neither of my batches gelled. I don't have an oven, so I couldn't have done the oven thing even if I'd wanted to. I cut batch #1 at 1 3/4 hours; batch #2 quite a bit later, but only because I was out partying. It was a bit crumbly at the 6 hour cutting.

 

[vivcarm]

Sorry if this question has been asked before, it is table salt, sea salt or rock salt you use?

 

[Guest]

I use fine sea salt. Has anyone used coarse sea salt? I have a huge tub in the cupboard but I haven't tried using it yet.

 

[MsBien]

I've seen people use Morton's Kosher Salt with success, but I haven't tried it yet myself. I'm getting the courage to try it.

Stacie

 

[LJA]

Hi. Thanx guys. Okay so I found the Angry Clown tut yesterday, and all the pix weren't coming through. but it did help somewhat. I found one more on The Soap Bar blog that was so- so too.

I just took it out of the fridge. It's been in there all night and it doesn't look like salt bar...it looks like a loaf of regular soap. I used a fine grain - maybe that's why. I soaped at room temp, so it didn't melt on me....(did it?) Hmmm. I have a "thing" I have to go to in an hour too, so I can't deal with cutting it until I get back either. (Why are you supposed to cut it after an hour???!!! <gasp>.

My colors suck. It's a lovely shade of Gross because I used avocado and cuke puree as my liquid (probably shouldn't have done that) and trace was on the thin side, so my green and teal sorta all mixed together on top of the natural snot color of the veggies.

Oh well...I don't have time right now to deal with it, so we'll check it out later. Thanks for the help, as always.

 

[eucalypta]

Hi
here are my experiences with salt.
I say beforehand that opinions differ and I respect that

- in general it is advised to use at least 80% coconut oil to get a decent lather.
- mostly 80 - 100% of your oils is you r salt measurement
- normal table salt is great - bigger crystals may be a little rough on the skin
- salt batches get real hot!!
- you have to cut them when still hot, otherwise they become rockhard, and you can shake normal cutting and end up with rocks
- swirling is absolutely possible.
- don't use epsom salt

see pics below

enjoy

 

[LJA]

Hi
here are my experiences with salt.
I say beforehand that opinions differ and I respect that

- in general it is advised to use at least 80% coconut oil to get a decent lather.
- mostly 80 - 100% of your oils is you r salt measurement
- normal table salt is great - bigger crystals may be a little rough on the skin
- salt batches get real hot!!
- you have to cut them when still hot, otherwise they become rockhard, and you can shake normal cutting and end up with rocks
- swirling is absolutely possible.
- don't use epsom salt

see pics below

enjoy

Ahhhh..I did a 80% OO and 20% ccoconut, so..you know....first mistake. LOL! I cut it just now (I have a an hr. to kill before I have to leave) and it's suuuuuuuuuper soft. I can't even trim it up yet. I probably won't get any lather. I'll have to go searching for a recipe to start with. I'll let this thing harden up some and see what happens. Thanks for the advice! Maybe I'll try again tonight with a regular recipe, high coconut. Won't it be drying?

 

[LJA]

Eucalypta, those are AWESOME!!! The orange and white one especially!!!!

 

[surf girl]

I agree with the high coconut for lather (I use 75%). I do not find it drying at 5% superfat - possibly because the salt "softens" the whater? I dunno. I don't use this high a coconut % in any other recipe except the 100% CO with 20% superfat.

I'm not sure re your softness issue. If I had to guess, actually, I would suspect it might be the high % of olive oil, which is unusual in a salt bar recipe as pointed out above. I don't imagine the purees would add to the softness of the bars . I used 50% water and 50% coconut milk for one batch, and added buttermilk powder to another batch, and both were hard very quickly.

- don't use epsom salt

Have you tried Epsom salt? I'm curious because someone asked the question either here or in some other forum, but I don't believe any of the responders had experimented with that kind of salt. Several, however, had had the misfortune of trying a salt bar with Dead Sea salt or mud or whatever the heck that stuff is, and had very disappointing results.

 

[LJA]

I agree with the high coconut for lather (I use 75%). I do not find it drying at 5% superfat - possibly because the salt "softens" the whater? I dunno.
.

Thanks, Surf Girl. When I try it again, I'm gonna do the high coconut.

 

[Guest]

I don't think you made a mistake LJA .This salt bar has about 6% coconut and it is a favorite .It has a great creamy lather. I can't use coconut at a high percent it really irritates my skin.

Kitn

 

[LJA]

I love that soap, Kitn. That's actually one of the colors I was going for...lol. It ended up a limey green, which I guess is okay because I scented with Lime and coconut.

 

[surf girl]

Hey Kitn, that's good to know re the CO %. I may have to branch out! Beautiful bar, BTW.

 

[LJA]

I found this too. (Her soaps are awesome, BTW...)

http://www.soap-making-essentials.com/s ... -soap.html

 

[Guest]

I love her site, spent many an hour drooling over her soap , when I first started making soap.
I used chrome green oxide and TD.
Kitn