Salt Bars. Weeping. Labeling Iodine?

[AlicesWonderhands]

Greetings fellow soapers! I am having so much fun with these 100% coconut oil salt bars! I super fat at 20% and use 100% salt. Im buying the cheapo stuff at the grocery, ya know the ones in the round cardboard containers and i am exeriencing so much weeping Im not sure how to label these bad boys? And i am worried that all the weeping will cause the bars to some how be less than awesome.. maybe making them crumbly? not last as long? shrink? explode? implode? who knows with this unchartered territory what could happen?!?! So, I humbly come to those who have soaped and salt bared before me. what say you? is iodine a problem? why? where do you get your (inexpensive, white) salt? how do you deal with weeping, curing and packaging due to the watery weeping wells?
TIA!

 

[janzo]

Hi, I am no expert on salt bars but have you tried lowering the percentage of salt you put in. I am using 50% salt in mine, with 80% coconut oil, 15% olive or avocado oil and 5% castor oil. Also are you in a high humidity area? Our rainy season has just started in Zambia so I have the heater on very low in the soap room to help keep the moisture down. Just a few pointers, hopefully one of the soap bar experts will come i shortly and give you a more helpful solution!

 

[JustBeachy]

This question seems to be popping up lately.

I've seen some responses on here that any salt will work and some have used iodized salt. I never do. Theoretically, salt bars should be prone to weeping, especially in a humid climate, yet i don't seem to have that problem here in S Texas. Which is strange. I do a 50% salt ratio and don't use iodized salt.

For suppliers, I buy my salt from a few different sources, but for the basic fine grain sea salt, I just go with who's got the best deal at the time. Bulk Apothecary has a pretty decent selection of salts, but is a little high. WSM has some pretty good prices on salt. You should be able to buy non iodized salt in your grocery store as well. Just have to look at the containers, they should be right next to the iodized salt.

As far as packaging and storing them, I'm not going to be of much help, since mine don't seem to be sweating. I just treat them like I do my non salt bars.

Hope that helps.

 

[Susie]

If you live in the US, you can often buy pickling salt that is iodine free much cheaper than the round 1 lb packages. My 75% salt soap sweated a while, but finally stopped. I sent the bulk of that soap to New Orleans(once it stopped sweating), and got only rave reviews.