Adding Salt to your soap

[ikindred]

I was thinking of adding salt to one of my soap recipes and was wondering when to add it. Should I do this at trace and how much? I saw a post about this previously but can't seem to find it.

 

[bombus]

Hi ikindred-
Are you making salt bars? or do you want to use just some salt to soften the water?

 

[ikindred]

Just wanted to use salt to soften a little. Not sure of what salt bars are.

 

[bombus]

o.k. I add 1 tbsp of salt ppo to the water before I add the lye.
At the same time, I add the same amount of sugar (granulated) to up the
suds a bit. Be sure to dissolve both in the water before adding the lye.

Sugar WILL NOT dissolve once the lye has been added. I'm not sure about
whether the salt will dissolve after lye, but since I was burned with the sugar,
I haven't pushed it.d

 

[Sunkawakan]

I do cphp and add both sugar and salt to every batch regardless of recipie. I add the 1 tsp salt to the lye water and dissolve completly before adding the lye. Caution - adding more salt will make your bars really hard like hockey pucks (don't ask ) but does make for nice HARD soap.

For the sugar, I made up a gallon of 1:1 sugar/water syrup and cooked it down until it thickens to a syrup that is on the thin side of medium thick. I keep this in my fridge so its there when I need it (can't take credit for this idea, someone here recommended it and it works great). While the soap is cooking, I mix my coloring and any scent with about .5 oz +/- sugar syrup and let it warm to room temp, nukeing it for 5 sec or so if necessary to keep it from seizing. Just before molding I mix it in throughly (or not, depending on if I want marbeling). I've done about 50 batches or so and have never experienced any problems.

I'm not sure how you would translate this to cold process.

 

[dolly777]

I use salt and sugar in all my batches also. I do both CP and HP and never had problems when using the correct amount. Just make sure you don't add too much salt. I did this once and my bar's where crumbly and oozed the oil or mabe glycerin for days. They where hard as a rock in record time but not the best bar of soap.

o.k. I add 1 tbsp of salt ppo to the water before I add the lye.
At the same time, I add the same amount of sugar (granulated) to up the
suds a bit. Be sure to dissolve both in the water before adding the lye.

Sugar WILL NOT dissolve once the lye has been added. I'm not sure about
whether the salt will dissolve after lye, but since I was burned with the sugar,
I haven't pushed it.d

the salt will dissolve after the lye is added, but it's just better if you add the salt before the lye.