Lets Make A Snappy Soapy Cleanup Out Of This Salty Mess.

[SoapMakingTommy]

Hey guys just wanted to bounce something all of you and see what you all thought.
I wanted to make some salt soap bars after reading some treads and seeing some awesome pictures. So i decided i would give it a try, 2 days ago i made my salty soap bars with some trouble.
The loaf of soap was left for 8 hours before cutting (I made this soap at night and after an hour or two it seemed really moist still, too moist to cut.)
I cut the bars just fine there was a little bit of crumbling around a few bars edges, but most of them look great tho.
I had more trouble from my sample bars.
I make a small batch using a small box i make lined with paper and cut the loaf several directions. The problem is that when i was cutting the sample bars, they are about half the thickness of a regular bar of soap i make, causing a bit more crumbling.
I have cut samples after the first 8 hours with these results and then cut another small loaf 24hrs after that to see if i would get better cut. I was wrong and failed, the cut became more of a scrape and a break. ( i will upload picture)
I do have some questions hopefully you guys can help with them.
The thing is that when i cut after 8 hours the soap was still very very moist inside, more moist then any other soap i made, maybe due to the high superfat? I want to make more sample bars but am worried if i try and cut them sooner then 8 hours they would fall apart in my hands.
Does anyone have experience with the bars being over moist or them falling apart, or the difference between cutting them say 2-4 hours to 8-24 hours apart?
Another question is about eo/fo , since this soap is mostly salt and not oil, how much do you add? The same amount as a regular soap or do you use less?

One of my final questions revolves around this cleanup i want to do.
The sample bars ive made that failed after cutting 2 days of sitting turned into powdery soap salt.
It is very interesting consistency and i want to salvage or make use of it.
What are my options? Has anyone ever rebatched salt soap?
Has anyone ever made a liquid soap using this much salt?

Any help would be appreciated. Thank You.

 

[SoapMakingTommy]

 

[Seawolfe]

Yay!! We have a newbie salt bar gang! {flashes the newbie salt bar gang sign}

Some of mine did just that!! Though I didn't get a big pile of sand like you did - more like small chunks. And then some big chunks... This is probably because I cut my soap at about 10 hours, had to get some sleep. Im convinced my bad pile would have been better if Id just used the thinner & sharper knife for all of them.

Mine seemed kinda moist on the inside too - but salt is such a water sponge (spend a few days in salt water soaked clothes and you'll know what I mean) I just figured they would take longer to dry out. And now mine are dry feeling all the way through.

I think that salt bars are so brittle or crumbly you cant cut them too small. For sample sizes you might want to use cavity molds?

Right now the small chunks are in a cup, the bigger chunks are drying on the rack with the "proper" bars. I will be following this with interest for ideas on what to do with them. All I have so far is saving the chunks for embeds.

What recipe did you use for your salt bars? And what did you use for that lovely orange color?

 

[SoapMakingTommy]

Yay!! We have a newbie salt bar gang! {flashes the newbie salt bar gang sign}

Some of mine did just that!! Though I didn't get a big pile of sand like you did - more like small chunks. And then some big chunks... This is probably because I cut my soap at about 10 hours, had to get some sleep. Im convinced my bad pile would have been better if Id just used the thinner & sharper knife for all of them.

Mine seemed kinda moist on the inside too - but salt is such a water sponge (spend a few days in salt water soaked clothes and you'll know what I mean) I just figured they would take longer to dry out. And now mine are dry feeling all the way through.

I think that salt bars are so brittle or crumbly you cant cut them too small. For sample sizes you might want to use cavity molds?

Right now the small chunks are in a cup, the bigger chunks are drying on the rack with the "proper" bars. I will be following this with interest for ideas on what to do with them. All I have so far is saving the chunks for embeds.

What recipe did you use for your salt bars? And what did you use for that lovely orange color?

Haha, yea thanks Seawolfe, theres lots of good inspiration from you guys.
I used the same ingredients as you did on your bath but i did 80% CO, 15% Castor, 5% Shea at 20% SF. I had some trouble weighing out my salt since i have a old school weight not digital for lb's, so it might of been off but i was aiming for 75%, look more like 80% but thats just from my visual analysis.
Thanks about the colors, I used annatto seed extract i got as a sample. first time i used any natural colorants. I was hoping for a bit of a pink looks like its more of a light orange peach.
The reason i have more sand looking liek pile then chunks is cause that was from my sample loaf and it was soo hard to cut a straight cut after 2 days i was scraping some bars just to get a couple even bars, lol. But i cant keep doing this, i have to find a alternative, or it would be cool to find something to do with it all.
I do want to try out other molds that is a good idea, thanks.

Hopefully we can get some tips and tricks to make our salty soapy cleanup a snappy success.

 

[Obsidian]

I've never had luck cutting small bars, you would be better off using guest sized cavity molds. I've had many salt bars still moist when I cut them, its better then waiting too long as you found out. I always make salt bars in the morning so I can keep a close eye on when its ready to cut.
Using a very thin, sharp knife is imperative to a good salt cut. A wire cheese slicer or crinkle cutters will work very well too.
even better option is to use single cavity molds and never have to worry about cutting.

You can grate/smash your crumbs into a fine powder and add it to a new batch of salt bars. I've done 1 part crumbles to 2 part new batter, add around 50% salt but only for the new batter.
Not sure if chunks will work for embeds. They will be super hard and might either pull out of the new soap or continue to crumble and just fall out. Rebatching will melt the salt.

 

[Seawolfe]

Hmm - maybe even ice cube molds that would be easy to unmold - like silicon? That would work - they work for bath bombs and those are crumbly little beasts.

I keep thinking for your powdery bits to add to some sort of foaming bath scrub, but Im sure someone will chime in with a better idea.

I just adore the look of your soaps - that two tone geometry! And Efficacious Gentlemans nifty swirly - lol I think we covered all the basics!

 

[jenneelk]

I've found if you cut too late.. a sharp serrated knife works best going very very slowly.
I personally don't make salt in anything I have to cut. i prefer to use my tray mold with dividers. SO easy. And little tiny silicone molds for sample bars. They pop right out.

 

[DeeAnna]

You waited wayyyy too long to cut. Cut when the soap is just barely firm. It should still slightly yield to your fingertips. In my experience, that is only 2 hours or so after I pour the batter into the mold, but you and your recipe may differ from that. Just plan to stick around for some hours after the pour to babysit. Wear gloves when handling a soap this new, because the soap may still have active lye (chemical burns) and may still be hot (thermal burns).

 

[Crombie]

Salt bars

I agree - twelve hours was way to long to wait to cut. I personally like to use molds with silicone cavities for my salt bars which eliminates a lot of the problems you get when cutting.

Also, I never use more than 5% castor oil. My recipe is 80% coconut oil, 15 % avocado (or sunflower), and 5% castor. Some people have success using 15% shea butter and 5% castor. I use 50% salt ppo and SF at 20%. I do mine HP (and work very fast at the end!). Here are photos of my salt bars using the avocado oil.

The red salt bricks were a combo of black lava fine sea salt, Himalayan fine pink sea salt, and some regular white fine sea salt; Red Vibrance mica.

The black salt bars are all black lava fine sea salt, no colorant. Both were done HP. I unmolded from the cavity molds within two hours of molding. I cleaned them up while firm, but still a little warm, using a planer.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

The black ones are fab!

Could you gather all the powder in to a jar as a bath additive?

 

[engblom]

Look up the "salting out process"! I have a recent thread about it. You can make stable bars out of that yet! Dissolve that soap in much water. Then add more salt until you have saturated the solution. The soap will separate and float up.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

But they wouldn't be real salt bars then, surely?

 

[cmzaha]

I cut all salt bars within 2 hours, always wearing gloves since I do not gel soaps and they are still very active with lye plus being on the warm side, keeping in mind the amount of salt you use will make a difference.
Most of my salt bars contain approx 110% salt, if I make my 50% salt bars I usually cut around 3 hours, the size of your salt grind will also affect cutting. I have molds that I can take of the sides, so when the soap
feels solid enough on the top I just take offthe sides and check for stability. Once your salt bars are completely cool they will be hard to cut.
As for your "sand" you could make up a batch of cp and dump your sand in it and just make a lighter salt bar. You would still want to up your coconut, pko babassu or what combo of sudsy oils you use but you do not need
high like the original salt bars. I would not go over 25% co and up the superfat 8-10%