Brine soap in loaf mold

[cascarral]

Hello all!

I made this bar of soap with brine water (15% as weight of water) and it cracked when I tried to cut it, however it wasn't rock hard, it was soft enough for me to make little soap balls out of the cracked pieces.

My path through brine soap has been a nightmare and I haven't had a successful batch yet so I'm not sure if this is normal for brine soap or there's something else wrong with my recipe/method.

So for all of you who have experience with cutting brine soap... when you cut through and it cracks, is it because it's super hard making it very difficult to cut? or just kind of brittle?

I'm being very stubborn about making brine soap in a loaf mold, I know everyone advices against this but I just don't like individual molds!! Maybe I should try with a lower salt %? Has anyone tryed 10 or 5%?

 

[KiwiMoose]

Hola! I just made a brine soap with a 25 solution as only part of the water. You'll have to do the math - the water total was 475g, 300 of which was aloe juice. So it was 25% of 175g. I think that's a tad more than 9% salt? Anyway - it cut no problem at all, however i used only 28% lye concentration, and 45% of my oil content was OO. It gelled.
I have had trouble cutting a very weak brine solution ( about 3%) when i didn't gel - it was brittle like yours.

 

[cascarral]

Hola! I just made a brine soap with a 25 solution as only part of the water. You'll have to do the math - the water total was 475g, 300 of which was aloe juice. So it was 25% of 175g. I think that's a tad more than 9% salt? Anyway - it cut no problem at all, however i used only 28% lye concentration, and 45% of my oil content was OO. It gelled.
I have had trouble cutting a very weak brine solution ( about 3%) when i didn't gel - it was brittle like yours.

Thanks for your comment I will try 10% tomorrow see how that goes... Do you think your lye concentration had something to do? I used 33% for that one... would you recommend trying 28%?

Interesting about the gelling! I've never gelled my soaps since I mostly make milk soaps and put them in the freezer. Do you have any advice on how to promote gelling? I'm making small batches (400 gr) since I've had so many mistakes and wasted so many ingredientes! I feel that because of this the soap batter gets colder sooner and it's harder to gel.

One last thing... At this % of brine how was your soap color? Were the colors tuned down as in any other solesiefe soap?

 

[KiwiMoose]

Do you use cow's or goat's milk? I don't think you are supposed to gel those. I gel my coconut milk and oat milk soaps though.
Just cover it and put it on the roof on a sunny day! It will gel. A lye concentration of 28% also promotes gelling too. Maybe someone else can chip in here who does milk soaps for some advice?

 

[cascarral]

Do you use cow's or goat's milk? I don't think you are supposed to gel those. I gel my coconut milk and oat milk soaps though.
Just cover it and put it on the roof on a sunny day! It will gel. A lye concentration of 28% also promotes gelling too. Maybe someone else can chip in here who does milk soaps for some advice?

I make coconut milk, didn't know that you could get them! but it's not that I want to gel them I was just saying that that's the reason I have no experience with gel since I try to keep temps low because of the milk.

I will try 28% concentration then Thank you! it's very cold over here right now so might have to try a different gelling technique!

 

[KiwiMoose]

I make coconut milk, didn't know that you could get them! but it's not that I want to gel them I was just saying that that's the reason I have no experience with gel since I try to keep temps low because of the milk.

I will try 28% concentration then Thank you! it's very cold over here right now so might have to try a different gelling technique!

Have you tried CPOP?

 

[Dawni]

Don't know if you can still call it soap with just 5% salt.. I was under the impression it's called brine because there'd be lots of salt?

Anyway, here's what a loaf looks like if it's cut too late. Really brittle, and it cracks on its own too from the pressure of the cutter. That post will also show you raw soap batter and how much it faded. Could be cheap mica or could be the salt but I think it's both. Used 33% lye and 30% salt.

This one took longer to fade but fade it did. Such is the nature of natural colorants. This was cut when it was still very warm nd very soft. Saturated brine (process in the post) and 37% lye.

Sorry to say though, I don't take temps nor do I force or prevent gel. I soap when my oils and lye are at room temp and I just let it do its thing.

 

[cascarral]

Hello! I tried yesterday with 10% salt, forgot to insulate at first, covered with a cardboard and a towel one hour after pouring with Soap Queen's instructions, have no idea id it gelled, how does gel look in a brine soap anyway? I cut it 7 hours later and it was perfect! very hard at touch but the knife cut through like cheese! Love how smooth and white it looks! I use no other additives and it looks as if I used TD!

I did notice some tiny whiter specs, not sure if you can see them in the picture but they look like undissolved TD. Could this be a sign of over heating? it reminds me to the little bubbles that appear on tom of overheated soap. I'm afraid it could be lye, or maybe tiny salt particles? Any ideas appreciated!

Thanks for all your advice! I think I'm finally getting to what I want.

Also, I realized I'm using my base recipe which has 10% cocoa butter because I don't use animal fats or palm oil, maybe such a high % of cocoa has something to do with the cracking?? I'll try again 15% salt but this time replacing 5% of the cocoa with shea, see what happens!