My First Salt Bars

[JasmineTea]

Here are my first salt bars, all of them made in mid May. From left to right: Peach, Hot Apple Cider, Layered (lavender, orange, peppermint), Spice.

Because you all have been so generous with advice and cautions, I was able to tackle this new-to-me project with success from the start.

I used Himalayan pink salt, which I ground to a very fine consistency in my coffee grinder. The salt was 50% of the oils, which were 80% coconut, 15% avocado and 5% castor. I also used coconut milk, silk and kaolin clay.

I'm quite pleased with my little salt bar babies .

 

[zanzalawi]

these are really beautiful!
the ones on the left remind me of cinnamon rolls, look pretty delicious
really makes the aging process painful

 

[JasmineTea]

Thank you, Z!

Shhh, don't tell . . . I've been sneaking one of the layered ones into the shower to try it .

 

[SunRiseArts]

They are beautiful! Love the colors. Sometimes difficult to manage with salt bars!

 

[scard]

Really pretty, and they look so smooth!

 

[JasmineTea]

Thanks for the encouraging words, SunRise and scard!

 

[cmzaha]

Here are my first salt bars, all of them made in mid May. From left to right: Peach, Hot Apple Cider, Layered (lavender, orange, peppermint), Spice.

Because you all have been so generous with advice and cautions, I was able to tackle this new-to-me project with success from the start.

I used Himalayan pink salt, which I ground to a very fine consistency in my coffee grinder. The salt was 50% of the oils, which were 80% coconut, 15% avocado and 5% castor. I also used coconut milk, silk and kaolin clay.

I'm quite pleased with my little salt bar babies .

They look very nice, with lovely colors, but I hope they are not prickly. There is numerous threads about Not grinding salt especially Himalayan that can become very sharp. It may look fine and powdery but in reality there can be very sharp edges on shards of salt that can lacerate the skin. I am by no means trying to be discouraging, but it is a reality so please be very careful when using salt bars with ground salt. It would be best to use them with a bath pouf and not directly on your skin. Next time purchase x-fine Himalayan which will be okay, but can still be scratchier than plain table salt for Pacific Sea Salt. Salts can vary widely even when you purchase x-fine to fine. Gray Sea Salt is another that is not good in salt bars.

 

[JasmineTea]

Hi, cmzaha! Yes, l saw the advice about reducing the size of the pink salt with a . . . l forget what it was. I decided to go ahead with the coffee grinder to see what would happen. The ground salt was quite fine.

I do use a pouf (it makes lovely lather for any soap or shower gel). If the soap proves to be too coarse over time, I'll have learned from my experience .

 

[Zany_in_CO]

...I'm quite pleased with my little salt bar babies .

Well done! You should be pleased! Impressive!!!

 

[lsg]

Very pretty!

 

[Veggiebin]

Those are beautiful!

My first salt bar experiment was a disaster - used Dead Sea salt, be sus I had it in hand, but of course, it is the only kind you should not use. They oozed so much, for so long, I finally had to throw them out. Taught me to do more research before jumping into a new project

 

[melibee]

They look very nice, with lovely colors, but I hope they are not prickly. There is numerous threads about Not grinding salt especially Himalayan that can become very sharp. It may look fine and powdery but in reality there can be very sharp edges on shards of salt that can lacerate the skin

Totally agree. I used pink salt in a batch and ended up with actual lacerations on my tummy.

 

[cmzaha]

Hi, cmzaha! Yes, l saw the advice about reducing the size of the pink salt with a . . . l forget what it was. I decided to go ahead with the coffee grinder to see what would happen. The ground salt was quite fine.

I do use a pouf (it makes lovely lather for any soap or shower gel). If the soap proves to be too coarse over time, I'll have learned from my experience .

Sadly you will not know until you run a sharp shard across you skin. The threads on grinding salt all mention to not grind salt. Even purchased x-fine Himalayan can be quite scratchy which is why I stay away from it. It is a wash-off product so you will not get a lot of real benefits from the minerals in Himalayan Salt, I like to save it for tub soaks. Another salt some sites sell is Hawaiian Black salt, save you money it is Pacific Sea Salt infused with activated charcoal

 

[zanzalawi]

while i dial in my recipe i like- i bought the old school mortons canning and pickling salt, very inexpensive and pretty fine
i'll just fantasize about the beautiful pearl salts until then

 

[cmzaha]

Several years ago San Francisco had Pearl Salt from Lake Assal that was wonderful. They were smooth round pearls of salt in several sizes. I almost cried when it was dis-continued and purchased the last 50#'s they had. I cherished that salt for a long time. It can still be purchased elsewhere, but quite unaffordable for soapmaking.
https://www.biova.de/en/natural-salts/sea-salts/african-pearl-salt

 

[TFriedman]

Here are my first salt bars, all of them made in mid May. From left to right: Peach, Hot Apple Cider, Layered (lavender, orange, peppermint), Spice.

Because you all have been so generous with advice and cautions, I was able to tackle this new-to-me project with success from the start.

I used Himalayan pink salt, which I ground to a very fine consistency in my coffee grinder. The salt was 50% of the oils, which were 80% coconut, 15% avocado and 5% castor. I also used coconut milk, silk and kaolin clay.

I'm quite pleased with my little salt bar babies .

Each is very pretty. Well done.

 

[JasmineTea]

You realize, of course, that no matter the responses here ("Oooo, Jasmine, those salt bars are beautiful!!!" OR "Oh, JASmine! You are going to exit the shower with bloody stumps ."), it leads to the same conclusion? I will be making more salt bars!

How about dendritic salt? I think I have a big bag of that from a sale at WSP. Anyone have experience with that?

Thanks for everyone's constructive comments .

 

[amd]

I've tried dendritic salt, and it worked ok mixed with another salt. When I used it as 100% of the salt, the bars were moisture magnets. I've used the x-fine pink salt, which is really scrubby (the hubs liked them), but I still prefer the pickling and canning salt - when my bars finally age enough that I can use them

 

[cmzaha]

You realize, of course, that no matter the responses here ("Oooo, Jasmine, those salt bars are beautiful!!!" OR "Oh, JASmine! You are going to exit the shower with bloody stumps ."), it leads to the same conclusion? I will be making more salt bars!

How about dendritic salt? I think I have a big bag of that from a sale at WSP. Anyone have experience with that?

Thanks for everyone's constructive comments .

No one was trying to discourage you, and we all had to learn. When I first started making them I made a lot of errors because I was not a member of a forum, and salt bars were not popular like they are now. Also things happen when you do it right, I have a double batch of dead sea mud salt bars that I cannot sell because they came out very prickly, like little needles. This was caused from a Pacific Sea Salt from Winco which I had purchased in the past. They are worse than a scratchy bar even though they do not seem to cause abrasions, but feel just like tiny needles. So I will not take a chance and purchase their sea salt again, I have gone back to San Francisco Salt for my salts or table salt.

 

[shunt2011]

You realize, of course, that no matter the responses here ("Oooo, Jasmine, those salt bars are beautiful!!!" OR "Oh, JASmine! You are going to exit the shower with bloody stumps ."), it leads to the same conclusion? I will be making more salt bars!

How about dendritic salt? I think I have a big bag of that from a sale at WSP. Anyone have experience with that?

Thanks for everyone's constructive comments .

Your soaps are lovely!

Salt Bars are awesome. However, many of us have been making them for years and try to stop new folks making them from making the same mistakes we did. Usable soap is our goal, not something that can injure us. Nobody is trying to deter you from making them at all just hoping to help avoid mistakes which can get costly.