Curious about salt bars, want to try one before making batch

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Dragonkaz said:
I leave my salt soaps for 3-4 months to allow them a good cure time.

Wow. After such a lengthy cure, what does the soap feel like? Does it bubble and suds up really good? Does the salt last longer. I've never given my salt bars that long a cure. I bet that makes a heck of a difference.

Also, I admire your patience and some of the others on this board.
 
I could never use a salt bar on my face because of redness and acne and just general sensitivity. Even my own mildest soap stings lately.
 
Salt is soothing!

It's recommended that women have salt baths after giving birth, especially if they've been cut, torn or ripped. Salt has healing properties and is great to gargle with if your have a sore throat, mouth sores or gum problems.
 
I'm guessing you don't want a water discount when making these because you want them to not be bricks when you cut them, right? Full water, and cut after a few hours?
 
I make mine in individual moulds due to the need to watch it the soap carefully, so as to cut at the right time. I think I cut mine after about 4 hours prior to using the individual moulds. You need to cut while the soap is still geling and before it's set too hard.
 
Here are my first salt bars! I scented them with my lavender blend since it seemed the nicest for a facial bar.

I used 20% superfat, 97.4% CO and 2.6% oil infused in pure alkanet root. I did not get an answer to my question, so I am posting my results. The color transfered from the alkanet is very light, lighter than I would get with regular soap. I think I can double the amount of alkanet infusion next time, but I don't mind this color either.

I used 46% sea salt weight percentage of total oils weight, which is somewhere in between 24% and 80% that I have been reading here. The rectangular bars will probably cure to be 2.5 oz and the hearts to be 3.5 oz. I am very pleased with both the look, feel and scent. I appreciate the help I got here!

Since these take a while to cure, I might do a lower and higher salt percentage in a couple more scents. Any other favorites essential oil blends for salt bars?


DSC01464 by rosetalleo, on Flickr
 
Beautiful salt soaps!! Bravo!
I noticed the color is always lighter than regular soap and you can use a bit more scent, too. Perhaps salt absorbs these things??
 
beautiful soaps, congratulations!

i make several varieties of salt bars and market them as facial bars 'cuz have had really positive feedback for facial use. matter of fact, they're the only thing i can use on my own face without breakouts.

as for stinging, think how your skin feels after getting out of the ocean -- a little stinging at first, then really soft and clean. for me, zits and other problems seem to heal faster. i have a number of acne-prone customers who also like salt soap for this.

i use about 80 percent co, 15 percent shea and 5 percent castor. i superfat at 20 percent and use about 80 percent sea salt or himalayan pink salt per total volume oils.

i always add clay -- kaolin plus french pink for mature, dry or sensitive skin, canadian glacial, french green or others for oilier skin. plus activated charcoal for acne bars. i sub out half the liquid for some kind of milk, added at trace.

i do a swirl in the pot and pour into individual molds. yes, they are heavier than other soaps, and they last a very, very long time. that's a selling point.

for eo blends, i often use lavender/eucalyptus/grapefruit; tea tree/lavender; i love sweet orange/grapefruit. there are endless possibilities.

in short, i ADORE salt soaps!
 
Dragonkaz said:
Salt is soothing!

It's recommended that women have salt baths after giving birth, especially if they've been cut, torn or ripped. Salt has healing properties and is great to gargle with if your have a sore throat, mouth sores or gum problems.

OMG- don't do that after birth. Ask me how I know....LOL- it burns bad...Salt will burn anything open.

Salt is very healing on skin though in general as long as there aren't any open abrasions.

As far as the difference between facial bars and bath soap- there isn't too much of a difference other than maybe some oils.

I try to use oils in facial soap that won't clog pores and give it a higher superfat so it won't dry out the skin. I don't put fragrance in but on occasion EO's to benefit the face like Tea Tree.

Generally, I make my facial soap milder than my bath soap.
But I have used "bath soap" scented with EO's on my face as well with no issues.
 
I think I would consider acne and winter chapped areas to be open abrasions and salt hurts them.
 
Stinkydancer said:
Dragonkaz said:
Salt is soothing!

It's recommended that women have salt baths after giving birth, especially if they've been cut, torn or ripped. Salt has healing properties and is great to gargle with if your have a sore throat, mouth sores or gum problems.

OMG- don't do that after birth. Ask me how I know....LOL- it burns bad...Salt will burn anything open.

Salt is very healing on skin though in general as long as there aren't any open abrasions.
You poor thing, how much salt did you use? Bathing in salt is highly recommended for people with injuries ... and sore spots like after giving birth or surgery for hemorrhoids and the like. It's important to be careful with the amount you use. I think it's about one cup of salt in a bath. For mouth washes, when you have sores (open sores) in your mouth, it's a pinch of salt ... probably less than 1/4 tsp.

When we lived in Fiji I swam in salt heavy sea water most days ... no sore survived that. I fell at the market and skinned my knees, feet and hands. These felt so much better after a swim in the sea and healed n a very short time.
 
Diotto what Dragonkaz said. I don't live near the ocean anymore :cry: , but it always healed our wounds quicker.

My hubby purposely uses my salt soap to wash with whenever he gets cuts and scratches. It does sting, but he notices that it heals his wounds quicker.

My dentist says nothing heals the mouth better after tooth extractions and other dental procedures than warm salt water rinses.

IrishLass :)
 
I made a batch of GM salt bars last week with 80% salt to oil. I, of course, have no patience with any soap and took a bar into the shower after about 3 days.

I find that it dries up a zit in no time. If I get a PMS breakout, usually I have a stubborn zit that will not dry up for 2-3 days. I used my salt bar, and the next day it was dried.

I find that it does sting a teeny bit if you hold the bar onto a zit or a cut, which I did, because I didn't get much lather with that short of a cure. But I could already tell that I prefer it to regular non-salt soaps.
 
I was just wondering: How coarse is the salt you use? Here, we have fine grained (like sugar or a bit finer), coarse (1-2 mm diameter) and chunky (even larger). Which one would you use for a salt bar?
And does it matter that regular table salt has added iodine (13 mg/kg)?
 
Camilla the size of salt will determine what you want the salt bar to be used for. I sell my soap and pitch my salt bars for facial washing, therefore I need to use fine salt, as I don't want the bars to be scatchy, only a little exfoilating. I sometimes dye a small amount of rock salt and sprinkle them on top of my salt bars for decoration.

I use plain table salt ... and can't answer your question about the iodine.
 
CamillaHB said:
I was just wondering: How coarse is the salt you use? Here, we have fine grained (like sugar or a bit finer), coarse (1-2 mm diameter) and chunky (even larger). Which one would you use for a salt bar?
And does it matter that regular table salt has added iodine (13 mg/kg)?

I buy kosher salt--no additives!
 
sometimes I use the iodized salt, sometimes I get non-iodized. I've never found a difference in the soap or it the shelf life of the soap, so I don't know why I bother.
 

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