First Time Salt Bar

[Zen Pretzel]

Hello

I tried making a salt bar for the first time today. The breakdown is as follows:

380g distilled water
144g lye

800g coconut oil
150g olive oil
50g castor oil

800g various salts (mix of pink Himalaya, Celtic sea salt, and kosher salt)

No additional fragrances or additives.

The soap was prepared in the usual cold process method. I ended up with more soap than normal, probably on account of all the extra salt. Other than that, there were no issues.

I was planning on waiting 24 hours to cut my soap into bars. Normally, I wait 24 hours, remove the soap from the mold and then wait another 24 hours to cut it. However, I'm worried that my bars will be too hard to cut if I wait too long. I'm seeing suggestions to wait 3-4 hours.

How long should I wait before cutting my soap into bars?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Obsidian]

It depends, 3-4 hours sounds about right but I've had them take 6+ hours to firm up enough to cut.

You really have to watch your loaf, give it a gentle poke every hour. Once its firm enough to unmold, do so and get it cut.
Wear gloves, it will still be caustic. Be gentle, the bars will be fragile.

I really suggest cavity molds for salt bars. Makes it so much easier not having to baby sit your soap and get the timing right.

 

[Rsapienza]

Hello

I tried making a salt bar for the first time today. The breakdown is as follows:

380g distilled water
144g lye

800g coconut oil
150g olive oil
50g castor oil

800g various salts (mix of pink Himalaya, Celtic sea salt, and kosher salt)

No additional fragrances or additives.

The soap was prepared in the usual cold process method. I ended up with more soap than normal, probably on account of all the extra salt. Other than that, there were no issues.

I was planning on waiting 24 hours to cut my soap into bars. Normally, I wait 24 hours, remove the soap from the mold and then wait another 24 hours to cut it. However, I'm worried that my bars will be too hard to cut if I wait too long. I'm seeing suggestions to wait 3-4 hours.

How long should I wait before cutting my soap into bars?

Thanks in advance.

You should cut as soon as it's cool enough to cut.

 

[Steve85569]

Watch every batch of salt bars!!
I made the mistake of waiting overnight to cut my first salt bars. Cut the batch with a hack saw.
Not doing that again!!!

 

[Zen Pretzel]

Wonderful. I'll keep an eye on it and cut it when it's ready in a few hours. Thanks for the help.

Update: I just went to cut the soap and it's crumbling. Sometimes it feels like it's okay, but getting to the ends, even cutting slow, it crumbles. Research suggests I used too much lye. If you believed this was the case, how much would you adjust for your next batch? I wrapped it in a towel like I do with my other soaps and now I'm wondering if it overheated. Is my soap still any good? Can it be salvaged or is it worth keeping?

 

[KiwiMoose]

Update: I just went to cut the soap and it's crumbling. Sometimes it feels like it's okay, but getting to the ends, even cutting slow, it crumbles. Research suggests I used too much lye. If you believed this was the case, how much would you adjust for your next batch? I wrapped it in a towel like I do with my other soaps and now I'm wondering if it overheated. Is my soap still any good? Can it be salvaged or is it worth keeping?

Salt bars can crumble. It's still OK - but next time as @Obsidian has suggested - just use cavity molds. makes it so much easier.

 

[cmzaha]

Your salt bars most likely crumbled because you waited too long to cut them, usually, if they are cold it is too late. I cut my salt bars within 45 minutes and they are still quite warm. I would like to recommend using plain table salt instead of Himalayan or Celtic salt. Both of those salts are quite scratchy. Plain old table salt makes lovely salt bars.

Why does research tell you they are lye heavy? If your recipe was run through a lye calculator and you weighed everything correctly then they are not lye heavy. Salt bars naturally crumble when they are too hard to cut. Also, they benefit from a cure time of 6 months or more.

 

[Zen Pretzel]

So not as bad as I thought. Thanks for helping me understand. In the future, I'll use molds and stick to the cheap salt. I'm going to keep experimenting with salt bars. Future variations will include a similar recipe with a lower salt volume and a different one that uses coconut milk.

 

[Dawni]

With individual cavity molds the danger is getting then out too soon. I could be just me, but I had crumbly edges when I tried to pull out the first ones, and smoother edges on the last ones I unmolded. Just something to think about, just in case.

 

[TheGecko]

So not as bad as I thought. Thanks for helping me understand. In the future, I'll use molds and stick to the cheap salt. I'm going to keep experimenting with salt bars. Future variations will include a similar recipe with a lower salt volume and a different one that uses coconut milk.

I’m on my third Salt Soap recipe. This time I used too much salt and It just fell apart when I tried to take it out of the molds’ I tossed it. Second time I used 50% salt and...it looked slightly diseased (all spotty) with a rough texture after eight weeks and it crumbled when I went to use it. Third batch different recipe...full Coconut Milk, Avocado Oil and 45% salt (I use Sea Salt). This batch is looking so much better. It weeped for a few weeks, but is drying out now.

Oh...I still have some of the second batch and it’s over four months old and has really smoothed out though it is still kind of spotty looking. I’ll give six months and then will try it again. And I wait six months before I try the third batch.

 

[Obsidian]

@TheGecko salt bars are often spotty and rough looking, nothing to worry about.

Its odd that your 50% salt fell apart, that shouldn't have happened. Was the salt lumpy looking? I'm wondering if it wasn't mixed in enough.
I always us the SB to thoroughly mix in the salt.

 

[TheGecko]

@TheGecko salt bars are often spotty and rough looking, nothing to worry about.

Its odd that your 50% salt fell apart, that shouldn't have happened. Was the salt lumpy looking? I'm wondering if it wasn't mixed in enough.
I always us the SB to thoroughly mix in the salt.

The 50% was the second bar. The first bar, if I remember correctly, was closer to 100%. I used 'equal' amount of oils and salt; so 16 oz of oils, 16 oz of salt.

 

[Obsidian]

The 50% was the second bar. The first bar, if I remember correctly, was closer to 100%. I used 'equal' amount of oils and salt; so 16 oz of oils, 16 oz of salt.

Did it crumble when you cut it or was it just a unstable mixture? Even a 100% salt bar shouldn't crumble.
I've made many salt bars, from 100% to 25% and never had any crumbling unless I cut too late.
I've found 35% salt to be my sweet spot, enough to make it a proper salt bar but not enough to inhibit lather in my hard water.

 

[cmzaha]

I use up to 110% salt and mine do not crumble. I usually use fine grain Pacific Sea Salt and plain table salt mixed. 85% CO or CO/PKO split with 10% castor and 5% liquid oil of choice.

 

[TheGecko]

Did it crumble when you cut it or was it just a unstable mixture? Even a 100% salt bar shouldn't crumble.
I've made many salt bars, from 100% to 25% and never had any crumbling unless I cut too late.
I've found 35% salt to be my sweet spot, enough to make it a proper salt bar but not enough to inhibit lather in my hard water.

To be honest, I think it was a combination of things; bad recipe, bad colorant, bad fragrance.

 

[Zen Pretzel]

With individual cavity molds the danger is getting then out too soon. I could be just me, but I had crumbly edges when I tried to pull out the first ones, and smoother edges on the last ones I unmolded. Just something to think about, just in case.

I used silicone molds for the overflow, which I had a lot of with this recipe. I popped them out 24 hours later with no breakage or problems of any kind. So far they've held up better in the molds than the normal soap that I make.

 

[Kcryss]

I've seen a few threads referencing salt bars. What Is the purpose of a salt bar? Just curious.

 

[Dawni]

I've seen a few threads referencing salt bars. What Is the purpose of a salt bar? Just curious.

Lol a lot of those threads would also mention why people like salt bars

Here's one that's several pages long
https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/what-do-you-like-about-salt-bars.72711/
And another one..
https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/benefits-of-a-salt-bar.76805/

 

[Zen Pretzel]

UPDATE: After letting my bars cure, I've been using one of them for the past couple of weeks. Tbh, I'm not thrilled about how they turned out. They're too hard and I can't feel the salt when I use it. I did some research and it turns out that I should be doing something closer to 20% superfat, where as my original recipe uses a 5% sf. I'll try it again at 121g lye and let you know how it goes.

 

[cmzaha]

Zen I use 17% SF with at least a 6 month cure for my salt bars and they are great. You really do not feel the salt, but saltwater is a natural exfoliant.