Salt Bars, 2nd failure

[Fran2]

I have made 2 batches so far, first one failed because I colored it and it bleed, but let it cure, drying and scratchy and the bar cracks in half in the shower, it does not stay whole. I don't know if I can rebatch salt soap.

2nd batch looks pretty, I made them on 9/29/2012 (I know they may not be fully cured) so today I took a shower with an end piece. Results Still scratchy and still extremely drying to skin. And still cracks and breaks into pieces while I was showering. I really want to get this right, I think my friends will love a salt bar if done right. But they won't want dry skin after showering. I mean I feel really dry, as a mater of fact I need to moisturize right now!

Receipe: Using 5 lb log mold.

CO 16.5
PO 16.5
OO 19.2
Shea 4.0
about 5 cups Small Pink Himalayan Salt
Water: 21.356 ozs or 605.432 grams (I try to get as close as I can, my scale with read 605 grams but not the rest, same with ozs. I usually round up)
NAOH 7.798 ozs. or 221.075 grams (usually round up)
Superfat: 8% Water as percent of oil weight 38%

Trace was a little on the light side, so the salt keep dropping to the bottom, I split the batch and did layers of soap with light pin and soap with salt.

Results: I was not able to cut them in 8 hours, they were mush. I was up to 2 in the morning, I made them late, so I just left them until the morning, I was able to cut them, but a bit crumbly.

I don't know if it is the Himalayan salt or what, but please could some help me. Should I switch to Dead Sea Salt or another type of Salt? Is my recipe flawed?

I know Irishlass has a recipe but I cannot seem to fine it. When I go to the category Soap Recipes I don't see it.

Thank you for any help all of you experienced soapers are willing to give. I am grateful for this forum. Much information is available and you are all so kind to help.

Fran

 

[adoptapitbull]

Everything's wrong, really. Your oils, your SF, and your amount of salt. Much higher CO, higher SF, correct saltil ratio will all help.

 

[AlchemyandAshes]

Salt Bars are generally superfatted really high, like 20%, to compensate for the high coconut oil content used to retain lather. My suggestion would be to use 90%Coconut Oil 10%Butter (I prefer Cocoa, but use whichever butter you prefer), 38% Water Discount, 20% Superfat, 75% Salt to Oil ratio. I've used Pink Himalayan Salt and Sea Salt with success. The trick is to add the salt at a heavier trace to keep it suspended. Some people still find salt bars scratchy or drying even with a high Superfat. It's just a matter of personal preference, but I think the 10% butter and high Superfat helps. A finer grain salt will be less scratchy also. Hope that helps! Good luck on your next attempt!

 

[new12soap]

I have heard of people having success with using a lot of different oils, but I stick with the recipe IrishLass uses:

100% Coconut Oil
100% Coconut Milk
13% Superfat
25% Salt (by weight of oil)

I use fine sea salt that you buy in the grocery store. If you like the pink himalayan salt, you might just want to sprinkle some on top for decoration until you nail down a recipe you like that works for you, less expensive to experiment that way. Also, I would highly recommend smaller batches whenever you are testing a new recipe. 5 pounds is a lot of ingredients to waste if things go south, IMO.

Coconut milk can be a bit tricky, if you use the split method it makes it easier. Mix your lye into one half of your water amount, then add coconut milk powder to the remainder of the water to a concentration of 100%. I'm sorry if that sounds confusing! Let's put it this way, if your recipe calls for 20oz of water (and you definitely want to use a full water amount with salt bars, no discounting here!), you would mix your lye into 10 of water, then mix enough powdered coconut milk for 20oz into the remaining 10oz of water. Put the double-strength coconut milk into your oil, then add the lye water. You can do a search here for split-method.

If you want to just use canned coconut milk, that's fine but be sure your coconut milk is very cold, add the lye slowly, and be prepared for the lye to quickly thicken the heck out of the milk. It is saponifying the fat, you will have soap in a cup, so get it in the oils fairly fast.

Mix to medium to heavy trace before stirring in the salt so it will stay in suspension, make sure the salt is well incorporated, then be ready to mold FAST. It will be hot and will get hard quickly, too hard to cut if you wait until it completely cools.

I add any fragrance or color BEFORE stirring in the salt.

HTH let us know how it turns out

 

[Fran2]

Thank you so much for all the help. It is so nice of you all to reply to me.

Just one more question, will the high CO make it still a drying soap, or does the high super fat take care of that or does the coconut milk help the drying?

Fran

 

[new12soap]

The high superfat compensates beautifully for the drying effects of the coconut oil, along with the additional fat in the milk. If you decide to use water instead (which I don't recommend), up your superfat to 18-20%. Coconut oil is also very very stable, and that along with the salt means no worries about rancidity.