If you did it as I mentioned in the previous thread, then no, you didn't do it wrong. Think of it this way, if you don't remove the amount of liquid used to dissolve the lye, you're over saturating the remaining liquid with salt and the salt won't dissolve. So if you're doing a 2:1 lye concentration (numbers made up for easy math) and 100g water is used to dissolve your lye, you have 100g water left to dissolve the salt. Depending on water temps the saturation level can be between 23-28%. So assuming somewhere in middle at 25%, you can dissolve 25g salt in water. More salt than that and it won't dissolve properly. So if you calculated using the full 200g water amount, you would be dissolving 50g - and leaving 25g salt undissolved. Remember, the 100g that has dissolved the lye is fully saturated with lye and can't be used to dissolve anything else.
is the amount of salt different when making a brine soap vs a salt bar? What oils can be used to super fat, or just CO? Can I use olive oil to super fat?
Yes. For brine soap (often called soleseife) the salt is dissolved before combining with the fats/oils/butters. For this type of soap, you can only use as much salt as will dissolve in your free liquid solution.
I am confused by this question. Superfat is determined by the amount of lye in your recipe, not the oils you choose.
I have been making salt bars all this time, and I started to question if I was making my salt bars right, I became confused on the super fat and what it actually is. I was adding the SF oils into my batch rather then discounting the lye in my receipe; the last batch I made didnt looked too good and the lather was weak, I will be making soleseife. Thank you for the websites, I will check them out too.
I would think that lower would be more like saline water, which would help your septic system...would soap do that to a septic system?
If you're using a soap calculator, the calculator will adjust the lye based on the SF you enter, so no changes needed from the recipe.
I have dry skin, so when I use a soleseife (brine) I typically modify my recipe (RBO, tallow, CO, shea, cocoa butter, castor) to slightly increase the CO and up the SF to 10%. I use 15% salt in my lye solution (just to be on the safe side of getting the salt correctly dissolved). I like how much cleaner I feel, but these can only be used for me during the summer. In the winter it's too drying. My husband does not like soleseife as much, but he has very oily skin so he finds the higher laden salt bars to be better for him. He doesn't get oily through the day.
A combination of both. CO in soap will be drying, with addition of salt more so.
I tried 7% and it was too low. I had to cure them for a month longer before I could use them. Keep in mind though I have very dry skin, ymmv.
There's a few threads relating to this experience. We've found that when needing to dissolve things in lye solution (such as sugar or salt), it does indeed work better to dissolve before adding lye. Typically there will be some precipitation out of the solution when the lye is added, which I think is what you're seeing with the creamy white solution. It should come back together as you make the soap (this is my thought, so if someone debunks me - thank you!). Also, on a safety note, please don't mix your lye solution in glass. The lye will etch the glass over time, increasing the risk of the glass shattering.
I was just trying to show that Brine Soaps are made with a salt solution, which can vary somewhat, but also that they can be made with various oils as well. So I included a few examples to show that. There are many more examples if one wants to search.
Correct! What makes soap last longer is based on the fatty acids in the oils used. Soaps made with high percentages of oils high in Lauric and Myristic acids will wear away quickly, as will soaps high in Oleic acid. Soaps made with higher percentages of oils higher in Palmitic and Stearic acids tend to last longer.
