Insights on facial bar soap

[shunt2011]

So, as originally stated, different things work different people. It's just a matter of finding what works best for your skin. I made some Aleppo type soap that's almost 6 months old now and I've kept a bar at the sink and try it out periodically on my face. It's very similar to 100% Olive oils in my opinion and it's got kind of a snotty factor to it. Though it's getting better. It does leave my skin feeling soft afterwards.

 

[shunt2011]

PMed. You're indeed a nice bud. ;-)



So salt bars are good for acne prone skin? Will pink himalayan salt work well?

They work for some folks. I've not used pink Himalayan salt. But, imagine as long as it's a really fine grain it would work great. I use sea salt myself.

 

[fuzz-juzz]

I currently use tallow, olive, shea butter and castor oil bars. Percentages: 55/30/10/5. 0% SF.
I prefer lard to tallow but I just can't fight DOS that lard brings.
This recipe is lovely, it's mild on my skin since there is no CO but it still does decent job cleaning oily areas on my face.

 

[dixiedragon]

I made a pink Himalyan salt bar and worked great on my face for a while, but as you said the effect seems to wear off. I am 37 and also get adult acne.

But I no longer complain about it b/c I'm noticing that thanks to my oily skin I have fewer wrinkles thank folks my age and younger, so there is that bonus!

 

[mymy]

I'm 37 and have oily skin that, in the past few years, has almost entirely stopped breaking out.

I wear makeup and use makeup removing wipes, but other than that only the occasional exfoliation with co & sugar. Normally just water and a wash cloth. I haven't used soap on my face in years.

I also moisturize with an oil moisturizer. I know, I know--moisturize oily skin??? But it works and seems to keep my skin from over-producing oil. I use a brand called Fresh that is expensive, but I got cheap from a friend. I believe there are cheaper drugstore options now, but when I run out I'll be trying to make my own.

Maybe I should try exfoliating too. My skin is getting coarser by day yet it is so sensitive. So weird.

 

[mymy]

So, as originally stated, different things work different people. It's just a matter of finding what works best for your skin. I made some Aleppo type soap that's almost 6 months old now and I've kept a bar at the sink and try it out periodically on my face. It's very similar to 100% Olive oils in my opinion and it's got kind of a snotty factor to it. Though it's getting better. It does leave my skin feeling soft afterwards.

I just want something that is not too drying. That would be great. Waiting for avocado oil to arrive and gotta try lindy's shampoo bar. Besides, not just for me, I wanna share good soaps with friends. :razz:

They work for some folks. I've not used pink Himalayan salt. But, imagine as long as it's a really fine grain it would work great. I use sea salt myself.

Got 12 bars are curing. Yes they are finely grated salt. So lovely. Can't wait to try them out. Unfortunately my friend wanted to try some swirls on top. With colors. roblem:

I currently use tallow, olive, shea butter and castor oil bars. Percentages: 55/30/10/5. 0% SF.
I prefer lard to tallow but I just can't fight DOS that lard brings.
This recipe is lovely, it's mild on my skin since there is no CO but it still does decent job cleaning oily areas on my face.

Could tallow be replaced with butter? Kinda hard to get tallow around my place though.

I made a pink Himalyan salt bar and worked great on my face for a while, but as you said the effect seems to wear off. I am 37 and also get adult acne.

But I no longer complain about it b/c I'm noticing that thanks to my oily skin I have fewer wrinkles thank folks my age and younger, so there is that bonus!

Good to know that salt bars are quite good though. Yes some products are not effective if we use for quite sometime. That happened to me when i was using Clinique.

 

[TwystedPryncess]

Interesting to hear that some people are concerned that Cetaphil may contain long term carcinogens. I really do not doubt it. Big companies seem to be able to get away with everything, while we can't even say our handmade stuff is good for acne or eczema, when we we know it is. (Thank you, snake doctors, for help in ruining that, I am sure, but it is what it is) When one of the twins were really little, we had to go to the dermatologist and Cetaphil lotion is what he 'prescribed' as she was breaking out from being bathed. So I had to start bathing her less, and taking her out of the tub still soaked, grease her up like a pig, and let her run around naked and greasy for about twenty minutes, then clean her up. Worked like a charm, and was quite a sight. Now, I am wondering if handmade soap wouldn't have helped her then. She's since outgrown that, but says the handmade soap does seem to make her skin a lot softer, and she loves it. Another thing that makes me wish I would have learned this hobby twenty years ago.

 

[cgpeanut]

I bought one last few months. I found it so strippy. Made out of 100% olive oil but it has colorant and fragrance in it. So harsh to the skin even my hands are exfoliating like snakes are going through edysisa. Haha



I only used 20% of cocoa butter for the recipe and waited 2 weeks before using it. Maybe I should have waited a couple of week more though because they still look moist. Right now I'm using the one that I thinly cut it, it dried faster that the others. I am quite shocked now that HP needs more curing time compared to CP but hey good things don't come cheap right?



Yes I would admit that everyone has different skin and reacts differently on the same soap but most people with sensitive skin would be fine with mild soap(as far as i know of). I put 10% of coconut oil in it and 30% palm oil. Waited 2 weeks for them to cure. Maybe I will make them cure a little longer though.



I made a CPed pink himalayan salt bars too. Now waiting for them to cure. It has been two weeks still and they are sweating like a lot, I wonder why?



I know right. Puberty ruins everything, I started to have breakouts since I am 13 and now 24. Getting better as I optioned out to use "mild" products which consist not colorants and fragrances. I find these 2 culprits make my skin even worst. I want to leave Cetaphil because people have been posting that it has a carcinogenic long term effects.



What kind of salt from the store? As many bloggers wrote to don't use epsum and generic NaCl for salt bars. They tend to seize the batter.



Really? I have never tried CP soap that I made because all of them are still curing. The castile soap that I bought was milled I guess. My soapmaking materials supplier gave me two nicely made CP soaps but I gave them to my friends because they had colors and fragrances. Hmmm.



I have tried so many products out there. Clinique's bars worked best but the effect seemed to fade by time. Then I tried Simple's bars, quite good but not as good as Clinique's. Cetaphil is what I am using till now. Gotta try something that I made by myself instead. I can share then with my frieds too.



Yes, water is the purest cleanser, I can't deny that but I need something thicker to gently shed dead skin outta my face. Hehe

I dissolve my fine sea salt at 24 % into my water for my lye. After it is dissolved I add my lye. I have tried it both ways. This is the soleseiffen soap the europeans are making a lot of. It makes a lovely bar of soap. I sell a lot more of the soap since I dissolve the salt in the water instead of just adding salt at trace and it does not accelerate the soap.

i sell one that has dead sea mud and rosemary and lavender. with oo/co/ sao/ palm and castor. it is the essential oils that help the most. It is for acne. I have repeat customers of this bar.

 

[fuzz-juzz]

Tallow replaced with butter as in cow's milk butter?
I don't think that would be good idea.
They are fats from two different origins.
I've seen few experiment with butter and it didn't work out well. You would have to use ghee or clarified butter since normal butter is only about 80-90% fat. But end result is not worth the trouble.
Lard would be great replacement if you can get hands on some.
I forgot to add that my facial bars are additive free, so no colour, no FO, no milk, no clays etc

 

[Obsidian]

I bought one last few months. I found it so strippy. Made out of 100% olive oil but it has colorant and fragrance in it.

When I first started soaping, I bought a year aged castile from etsy and was given another aged bar from a member on here. Both dried my skin out so bad I couldn't use them more then a couple times.

I made my own castile, with different grades of OO, still can't use them. I'm one of those who is either sensitive to OO or there is just something in it that my skin doesn't like.

I would rather use a 100% lard bar on my face then just about anything else except maybe a salt bar. You can use plain salt from the grocery store, it doesn't need to be fancy sea salt. I use canning and pickling salt the most.

 

[mymy]

Interesting to hear that some people are concerned that Cetaphil may contain long term carcinogens. I really do not doubt it. Big companies seem to be able to get away with everything, while we can't even say our handmade stuff is good for acne or eczema, when we we know it is. (Thank you, snake doctors, for help in ruining that, I am sure, but it is what it is) When one of the twins were really little, we had to go to the dermatologist and Cetaphil lotion is what he 'prescribed' as she was breaking out from being bathed. So I had to start bathing her less, and taking her out of the tub still soaked, grease her up like a pig, and let her run around naked and greasy for about twenty minutes, then clean her up. Worked like a charm, and was quite a sight. Now, I am wondering if handmade soap wouldn't have helped her then. She's since outgrown that, but says the handmade soap does seem to make her skin a lot softer, and she loves it. Another thing that makes me wish I would have learned this hobby twenty years ago.

Yes, I am very concern on what I am taking right now, either it internally or externally. Chronic effects are inevitable and we can't predict their ways to us. I'm trying to reduce processed foods and grooming products that has harsh chemicals. I use shampoo and facial cleanser daily and I believe they are not healthy at all. Plus they are commercially produced, and big company does not concern about their customers, money comes first. I had relatives passed away due to cancer.

I dissolve my fine sea salt at 24 % into my water for my lye. After it is dissolved I add my lye. I have tried it both ways. This is the soleseiffen soap the europeans are making a lot of. It makes a lovely bar of soap. I sell a lot more of the soap since I dissolve the salt in the water instead of just adding salt at trace and it does not accelerate the soap.

i sell one that has dead sea mud and rosemary and lavender. with oo/co/ sao/ palm and castor. it is the essential oils that help the most. It is for acne. I have repeat customers of this bar.

The only thing I know by dissolving salt in the water in a small amoust is to make the bars harder. Good share by you mate.
I added salt at trace last time.It got hard within 1 hour. I'll follow your guide for my next batch of salt bars. Can't wait! One question, is it normal for salt bars to sweat a lot? Carolyn said I need to ventilate them even more, but I just wanna get extra info from your side if you don't mind.

Tallow replaced with butter as in cow's milk butter?
I don't think that would be good idea.
They are fats from two different origins.
I've seen few experiment with butter and it didn't work out well. You would have to use ghee or clarified butter since normal butter is only about 80-90% fat. But end result is not worth the trouble.
Lard would be great replacement if you can get hands on some.
I forgot to add that my facial bars are additive free, so no colour, no FO, no milk, no clays etc

I see, so no butter then. It's hard to find tallow around here though. Maybe another alternatives would be great. Yes I saw few stores are selling ghee, maybe I'll get them on my next visit. Yes, trying to keep natural as possible. I'm used with the smell of my unscented cocoa butter soap. Not so bad.

When I first started soaping, I bought a year aged castile from etsy and was given another aged bar from a member on here. Both dried my skin out so bad I couldn't use them more then a couple times.

I made my own castile, with different grades of OO, still can't use them. I'm one of those who is either sensitive to OO or there is just something in it that my skin doesn't like.

I would rather use a 100% lard bar on my face then just about anything else except maybe a salt bar. You can use plain salt from the grocery store, it doesn't need to be fancy sea salt. I use canning and pickling salt the most.

I bought pink salt because most soapers hate normal salts from the store including dead sea salt and epsum as they tend to seize the soap. Got two versions of the pink salt. Fine grain and the other one is in small rock shape. I used them as toppings to compliment the color of the bars themselves. So lovely. I'll try to make few bars using other salt soon, and 100% olives.

 

[Obsidian]

I bought pink salt because most soapers hate normal salts from the store including dead sea salt and epsom as they tend to seize the soap.

dead sea and epsom both will ruin soap, you just plain salt or regular sea salt. I've had good luck with sea salt from the dollar store and usually buy a few pounds when I come across it but plain non iodized table salt or even flake kosher salt works just as well.

 

[mymy]

dead sea and epsom both will ruin soap, you just plain salt or regular sea salt. I've had good luck with sea salt from the dollar store and usually buy a few pounds when I come across it but plain non iodized table salt or even flake kosher salt works just as well.

Good to know
Gotta try to make one out of normal salt that u suggested. I SF-ed 5% on my precious salt bars. Fingers crossed. :silent:

 

[penelopejane]

So 100% OO soap is best to use after 12 months?

I was given some 100% OO soap and used it when it was just under a year old. It was still a bit slimy and wasn't really impressive. At 18 months the same soap was fantastic. It is hard and white and not slimy at all. It has 1 tbs of honey in a 700g (24 oz) batch. I am not sure how much difference that made.

Ridiculous amount of time to wait. I think you have to make a batch and just keep trying it each month and see if it suits you.

 

[mymy]

I was given some 100% OO soap and used it when it was just under a year old. It was still a bit slimy and wasn't really impressive. At 18 months the same soap was fantastic. It is hard and white and not slimy at all. It has 1 tbs of honey in a 700g (24 oz) batch. I am not sure how much difference that made.

Ridiculous amount of time to wait. I think you have to make a batch and just keep trying it each month and see if it suits you.

18 months are too long. Haha I can't wait that long.

P/S: it has been 3 days of using my cocoa butter soap. My facial complexion is mildly exfoliating. A sign to stop maybe until I made a better bar

 

[Dharlee]

Interesting. Of the bars I made and tested my cocoa butter bar is my favorite so far, however it is also the softest and does not last long enough. But oh my the feeling!

 

[mymy]

Interesting. Of the bars I made and tested my cocoa butter bar is my favorite so far, however it is also the softest and does not last long enough. But oh my the feeling!

Yes, had to pour in few hard oils such as palm and coconut in it. Gonna formulate a milder bars after this.