Pink Salt Recipe?

[jennyannlowe]

Can someone please be so kind and recommend a pink sea salt recipe? And pointers on lye concentration/water percentage and superfat?

I have not made any cold process salt bars yet. Any advice? thanks!
By the way I usually put additives such as tussah silk, citric acid and sodium lactate. I'm a salt bar cold process recipe, should I still use these items? Or for example should I leave out the sodium lactate because I'm using a lot of salt? And what about the tussah silk? What do you think?

 

[cmzaha]

I like 90-95% Coconut Oil, 5-10% Castor and 90-110% fine or extra salt. I find plain table salt or a mix of table salt and fine sea salt lather the best. Save your money on Pink Himalayan Sea Salt it really does not lend much to a salt bar and can hinder lather depending on the particular salt. Minerals in sea salts make differences in the bars. I prefer plain Pacific Sea Salt. Also save your money on Black Lava Sea Salt. It is Pacific Sea Salt with activated charcoal added. Has nothing to do with lava. Butters will greatly hinder lather in salt bars. If you really want to use some, I find it best to keep it around 3% and cut the difference from the CO not the Castor. I like 15% superfat most seem to like 20%. Higher superfat also hinders lather. Most people I think use full water for salt bars. Tussah will not hurt them, but lactic acid is not necessary and you really do not want to harden them up anymore than they will be. Remember to cut when still warm and set just enough to un-mold, unless using individual molds which is much easier

 

[KristaY]

My favorite recipe is 80% CO, 15% avocado oil (you can sub your favorite soft oil here) and 5% castor with salt at 50% oil weight. I omit the SL in salt bars because they're already going to be very hard, as Carolyn said. Also, they need a nice long cure of about 4 months to be their best.

 

[jennyannlowe]

So most people use high coconut in salt bars huh? High cleansing factor? How come?

With the salt added, it doesn't dry become too drying? I guess the high water and high superfatt counter act the dryness. I guess my question is...why high coconut for salt?

So...I could try

80% coconut
10% avocado
10% castor

Full water
20% superfat

50% oil weight in sea salt

I was thinking I could use the regular sea salt or table salt for most of it, then use pink only on the top for appearance sake only. Or maybe half white salt and half pink and make it obvious there are two salts.

I may add tussah.

But what about sugar? I'm assuming I can omit sugar for lather?

 

[DeeAnna]

High coconut is needed for a salt bar recipe, because salt reduces the water solubility of soap in general. Soap made from longer chain fatty acids are less soluble in salty water than soap from shorter chain fatty acids, so to get decent lather and cleaning performance, you want to soap with coconut, palm kernel, and similar fats that are high in lauric and myristic acids.

100% coconut oil soap was once known as "marine soap" because it was the only kind of soap that sailors could use to wash up or do laundry in cold and salty water.

Problem is the high coconut or PKO, the more drying/stripping/harsh the soap is to the skin, so most people raise the superfat to tame the harshness even though the high superfat may cut the lather some.

High water does nothing to counteract the harshness. It simply slows down the saponification to a civil pace so you have a decent amount of time before the batter gets too thick and so your soap doesn't overheat in the mold..

Hope this helps!

With the salt added, it doesn't dry become too drying? I guess the high water and high superfatt counter act the dryness. I guess my question is...why high coconut for salt?

 

[jennyannlowe]

Yes it helps thanks!

 

[dixiedragon]

I made some with 100% pink salt (get the finest grain you can), 100% coconut oil, 20% superfat. I really liked them - very rich, creamy lather - not big fluffy bubbles. Currently I have a bunch of bars with 95 coconut, 5 castor, 20 superfat, 50% salt.

 

[Seawolfe]

The worry I would have with pink salt is that the bars might sweat with the unknown extra minerals. However I have used red Hawaiian salt crystals sprinkled on top and that looks really nice.

I wouldn't go over 5% castor. My recipes are usually 85% CO, 15% OO, 5% Castor, 20% SF, 80% of the oil weight as salt.

Now some people say you NEED a very long cure on salt bars, like 6 months plus. And I have to say that the salt bar that Im using right now is over a year old and so fabulous I wash my hair with it too. But I do use my salt bars as early as a couple months and don't find them harsh or anything.

 

[dixiedragon]

I started using the bars from my first batch at 6 weeks. Couldn't wait! They were very nice. My only "complaint" was that it melted away very quickly. Not really a complaint for me b/c as a soaper I, of course, have lots and lots of soap. I am very curious why, from a chemistry stand point, a well-aged salt bar is so much longer lasting than a bar that is only 6 weeks? My assumption would be that a salt bar would go faster b/c a) it is coconut oil, highly soluble in water and b) salt dissolves quickly in warm water, so if the bar has a high percentage of salt that will obviously dissolve quickly. But a salt bar I got in a swap that's now a few months old is lasting quite nicely.

 

[DeeAnna]

A young soap doesn't have as much of a crystalline structure compared with the same soap has been cured. The more organized structure of a cured soap is one of the reasons why it will last longer and feel milder on the skin.

 

[ngian]

A young soap doesn't have as much of a crystalline structure compared with the same soap has been cured. The more organized structure of a cured soap is one of the reasons why it will last longer and feel milder on the skin.

Can we observe somehow that difference in the crystalline structure with naked eye between a one week and a two months cured soaps?

Will be something like what Auntie Clara has showed once on her site?

http://auntieclaras.com/2014/05/gly...nderstand-them/fibrous-crystalline-structure/

(Yes I know, I already noted a new to do experiment).

 

[paillo]

I adore Pink Himalayan salt in anything -- soap, bath salts, lamps, food, my favorite salt. My go-to for soap recipe is 20% superfat. 80% CO, 15% Apricot, 5% castor, 75% salt. OH, and yes, use the finest ground salt available. I order from San Francisco Salt Co and only the extra-fine grain. I do use sugar and tussah and a bit of pink clay too.

 

[jennyannlowe]

How much pink clay? 1 tsp PPO? For color? Or for other qualities? I have some red clay and rose clay.

Any suggestions for fragrance?

 

[jennyannlowe]

I put some pink salt in my grinder and it turned it to powder. I didn't expect it would be so fine.

Is there such a thing as too fine? What do you think is the best grain size? Maybe one side fine grain and the other side powder?

Anybody bought a Himalayan pink salt horse lick block from a local source?

Has anybody done the research to see if it's the same type of salt, just in block form?

It seems to be cheaper by far especially if someone has a grinder.
any thoughts?

 

[Obsidian]

The problem with grinding salt yourself is it can be very sharp and actually cut the skin if any bigger pieces end up in the soap. I would sift the powder to make sure you don't get any bigger sharp pieces. I've used powdered salt before, it works just fine but its easier and safer to just buy fine salt from the beginning.
Also keep in mind that you don't need fancy salt in salt bars. I buy sea salt from the dollar store or in bulk from grocery stores. If I run out of that, I use canning and pickling salt from the grocery store.

 

[penelopejane]

I have used 25-50% cheap, fine, sea salt in a Castile 100% OO. My DH loves it. Not sure about bubbles/lather but he didn't complain. It weeps for a few months.

 

[jennyannlowe]

No one mentioned using goats milk in a salt bar. Is it not practical?
I'm reading...looks like a lot of people use GM in salt bars.

First....what is Soleseife...I can't spell it...some sort of salt bar?

Do I dissolve the salt in the water before lye or after lye? Or add to oils or at trace?
Sorry for the million questions. Thanks in advance.

Oh what about 1% menthol crystal in salt bar?

 

[Obsidian]

You can use any liquid in a salt bar that you can use in regular CP.

Soleseife is made with salt water instead of adding dry salt to the batter at trace, usually they are a more "normal" CP recipe instead of the high coconut oil in a regular salt bar. You dissolve the salt in the water before adding the lye, you can dissolve 25% of the water weight in salt. They are nice but not as lathery and awesome as a proper salt bar.

I don't see why you can't use menthol in a salt bar but dissolve it first, you wouldn't want the crystals in the soap.

 

[jennyannlowe]

Ok cool thanks. Here I go!

EDIT

Well, im starting my first salt bar recipe, this is what Im working on, please holler if any red flags go off when reading this.

The only thing that Im wondering about ....I have always made goats milk soap using frozen cubes of condensed liquid GM that i add to the other half of distilled water in a container sitting in an ice bath. But I am out of liquid. I decided to switch to GM powder. Now my plan was to make a pink sea salt with a little pink colorant/clay and regular sea salt (with titanium dioxide) swirl.
so I wouldnt want the GM to turn tan or light brown. Ivory, or cream color is fine. But im not used to using the powder GM. I usually dont gel and i put it in the freezer overnight. however I am told its better to gel salt bars.

what do you recommend? to make sure my soap dont turn too brown?
what is best way to use powder GM and try to keep light as possible?

thanks for all the help!


....i may not bother with the swirl. I may mix do a half pink salt half white sea salt bar...half and half. Or maybe use sea salt with just sprinkling of pink on top.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

A soleseife (or brine soap) is not the same as a salt bar.

With salt bars, the salt is added to the batter at anything from 30 to 100% of the oil weight. The recipe itself also has to be high co (because of the salt) with a high superfat (because of the co).

Soleseife or brine soaps have a smaller amount of salt dissolved in to the water for the lye - the maximum amount is less than 30%, the exact amount is something I'd have to look up, as well as if you dissolve the lye or the salt in the water first.

But the two are really different soaps