I'm a little confused why you say the soap never saponified. What basis are you using to say that? Photos? Recipe?
It feels like there's information missing that is critical to understanding your troubles. That may be why your post hasn't gotten any responses until now.
What people normally do is freeze the water-based liquid and then add solid NaOH. Is that what you did?
If so, the heat created by dissolving the NaOH should have thawed the frozen liquid just fine. Even if this lye solution was quite cold, it still should have saponified okay, especially since salt bars are normally very high in coconut oil and heat up pretty fast.
Or are you freezing the lye solution after it's made up?
