Salt bar (soleseife)

soapysarah · 2025-02-06T07:02:37-0500

Good morning, all. I have recently made some soleseife soap using a Lovely Greens recipe and found them excellent. Usually, they harden overnight and I can use them the next day but my batch of yesterday was fairly soft and although unmoulded fine this morning I was able to cut off the over-spill easily. The only difference was my using a cheaper brand of EVOO, would this have been enough to keep the soap relatively soft? I think that the bars will harden as they dry but would appreciate some input. Thank you. P.S. my friends think the salt bars are the best.

artemis · 2025-02-06T09:12:41-0500

Please give more info: recipe, methods, techniques, additives, fragrance, any other relevant information about your soaping session.

Also, be prepared that most are going to suggest that you shouldn't even be using it the next day.

DeeAnna · 2025-02-06T09:27:59-0500

I agree with Artemis -- more info is needed. I'd also want to know more about your temperatures of the soap batter or your starting ingredients and how you handle the soap after it's poured into the mold(s). Sounds almost like your soap didn't get warm enough to reach gel temperature, but that's a pure guess.

You might cause some confusion by referring to a "solseife" soap as a "salt" bar. While you're technically correct, solseife or brine bars are made by fully dissolving salt in water first, and then the soap batter is made using that salt brine. In my experience, the name "salt bars" is usually used for soap that has granular salt added to the soap batter, typically later in the process when the soap batter is at trace. They're also called spa bars.

Nona'sFarm · 2025-02-06T09:28:15-0500

Congratulations on making a soap that you love!

If the brand of olive oil is the only change, then it is probably the culprit. At one time there was an issue in the US where some brands of EVOO were getting adulterated with other oils, which would mean the lye calculation is off. Hopefully that's not still the case.

I offer the below advice, not as criticism, but as information regarding Soleseife vs. Salt Bars. I like to let my soleseife bars cure 3-6 months as I get a nicer lather after that time. Also, to be a little nitpicky here, there is a difference between soleseife (brine) soap and salt bars. It helps others to help you if you don't mix the 2 terms. They both have salt in them, but salt bars have a huge amount of salt in them - usually equal to the weight of the oils and soleseife bars use about 25% salt/water solution to mimic sea water. It is recommended to cure salt bars a year for a really lovely lather. Also, salt bars are usually made with 70%+ coconut oil and a high superfat, 15%+.

A-Polly · 2025-02-06T11:45:11-0500

@soapysarah, has the weather in your area been damp or rainy lately? Just another thought as to the possible cause of softness. I've had lye weaken and not work as well during a prolonged spell of high humidity and rain. Even though I kept it in the original bottle inside another larger container with those dry-pack things, I guess it picked up enough moisture each time I used it to make a difference. It took a few progressively softer batches before the lye actually began to clump and I realized what had happened and opened a new bottle of lye. Haven't had the problem since I started master-batching a 50/50 lye/water solution.

Good luck figuring out what happened! I hope it turns out to be something equally simple and easy to fix.

soapysarah · 2025-02-07T12:39:19-0500

Thank you for all your comments. I was using the term ‘salt bar’ loosely, meaning a soap bar with salt. My recipe uses pre-dissolved sea salt. When I make another batch I will use my original EVOO and see if that makes a difference. (Thank you, Nona’s Farm).

The recipe I’ve been using is from Lovely Greens.

I’ve only been making soap for about 10 years so still have a lot to learn and only make it for family and friends. I have been curing my soaps for at least 3 weeks but usually 4 weeks; even if I try a bit after a few days my hands do not react - my friends have not had any of the young soap so no worries there. I keep a record of every soap I make with recipes and comments. (I used to do the same for my country wines (my mother’s wine records go back to 1954.)).

I read this from Brambleberry:

Curing: Technically, cold process soap is safe to use after a few days. However, we recommend letting the soap cure for 4-6 weeks in a cool, dry place with good airflow. Excess water will evaporate, which creates harder and milder bars that last longer in the shower. It' s definitely worth the wait.

Interestingly, I added pure indigo powder to my first batch of soleseife, which turned the batter blue-grey, however, the next day the soap was white with no hint of colour. I generally don’t bother about the colour of soap but thought that blue might be nice for a sea soap; I won’t bother next time.

Thank you, all, for your responses.