Salt quantity in CP soap?

[Raven Moonstar]

Hi everyone !

I'd like to try out a couple of recipes using sea salt.. 72% olive oil 18% coconut oil and also 72% coconut oil 18% olive oil. I'd like to add sea salt to both. and will also be adding clay. I understand that salt should be added to the lye water (before or after the lye?) but I would like to know what quantity of salt I should be using per 1000g oil, or per pound. Any ideas, please?

Thanks !

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

For a normal bar I use 2% of the oil weight as salt. That's for a bit of extra hardness. If I'm making an actual salt bar (which has a very different recipe) I use 80%

Too much salt reduces lather, which is why the salt bar recipe isn't like a normal recipe at all. But for your recipe you'd have to keep the amount fairly low or it will start to reduce the lather

 

[Marsi]

Before the lye.

Dissolve it completely in the water first, then add your lye.

 

[Raven Moonstar]

For a normal bar I use 2% of the oil weight as salt. That's for a bit of extra hardness. If I'm making an actual salt bar (which has a very different recipe) I use 80%

Too much salt reduces lather, which is why the salt bar recipe isn't like a normal recipe at all. But for your recipe you'd have to keep the amount fairly low or it will start to reduce the lather

Thank you for the info !

 

[Raven Moonstar]

Before the lye.

Dissolve it completely in the water first, then add your lye.

Super, thanks !

 

[DomTheDillyHoo]

Before the lye.

Dissolve it completely in the water first, then add your lye.

Hey, im confused. Ive seen some sources tell me to add the salt into the oils, others say to add it after trace, and now you are saying to add it to the lye water before adding it to the lye? What do I do?

 

[Iluminameluna]

@DomTheDillyHoo the different ways of adding salt depends on what kind of soap you're making. It's not for a beginner soap maker.
Please, if you haven't already made at least a few basic recipes, don't attempt to make any kind of salt-containing soaps. I made that mistake early in my journey and I almost quit making soap, the results were so disappointing!
Make a few basic soaps until you find one you can do over and over that creates a good lather and suds. Then read and watch videos on both brine and salt bars and experiment with that one favorite soap recipe you can do in your sleep (figuratively!). This is how I learned what the different ways salt acts in soap. From a creamy lather that doesn't dry out skin but helps my oily-skinned family members, to salt bars that some friends ask for specifically because they love for exfoliating their rough skin areas and others their greasy workshop hands.
I don't sell my soaps, I don't claim my soaps are better than others', or that they do more than clean skin. I just know that I've tried and failed more times than I care to remember, but that's the way I've learned.
Best luck to you!!

 

[AliOop]

^^ What @Iluminameluna said.

If you are only adding a bit of salt to harden the bar and help with unmolding, you would dissolve those very small amounts of salt (.5% to 2% of oil weight) in the water that will be used to make lye solution. You might dissolve a bit more salt in said water if you are making a brine soap. Just remember it's always best to dissolve such additives in your water before adding the NaOH, or to separate out some batch water for dissolving those additives separately from the NaOH. Once the NaOH has been added to the water, it can be difficult to get other things to dissolve.

But if you are making a salt soap, now you are talking 50-100% of the oil weight in salt. That will usually be added at medium trace, because you want it to stay evenly suspended throughout the soap, and not sink to the bottom after pouring into molds.

 

[Marsi]

Hey, im confused. Ive seen some sources tell me to add the salt into the oils, others say to add it after trace, and now you are saying to add it to the lye water before adding it to the lye? What do I do?

It's been said well above.
A little salt, to harden your bars, is added to the water before the lye. This is fine for a beginning soap.

A lot of salt, to make a brine bar, is also added to the water before the lye (expect that a little may drop back out when you add the lye, this is normal).
Fairly easy (it won't lather the same, and takes longer to cure, so better to save this recipe type for later).

A lot of salt, to make a salt bar, is the different one - this is added as grains to the batter at medium to heavy trace (otherwise it sinks). Not an easy soap to make, you have moments before the whole lot turns into a rock, and it has to be unmolded and cut while warm (or better, poured into individual bars).

 

[Nona'sFarm]

Just FYI:
For brine soaps I dissolve 1 part sea salt to 4 parts water. So if my recipe calls for 300 g of water, then I dissolve 75 g sea salt in the water. I cure brine soaps for 12 weeks.

 

[penelopejane]

Early soap (olive oil 100%) was often made with sea water.
Sea water actually has 35g salt per litre.
I buy pure sea salt and add it at that rate to the water in my mix.
I masterbatch my sodium hydroxide mix (50/50 water lye) so add the salt to the remaining water in my recipe (rather than mix it with lye as I find the salt precipitates out - separates). Additives in salt also precipitate out Which is why I use pure sea salt.
Salt makes your soap hard but doesn’t cut the lather at that rate.

 

[soap newb]

Hey, im confused. Ive seen some sources tell me to add the salt into the oils, others say to add it after trace, and now you are saying to add it to the lye water before adding it to the lye? What do I do?

I make a big liquid goodie mix and add a measured amount to every batch. It has water, kaolin. lactate, salt and sugar. I add it (and also premixed oxide colorants) to my blended oils before lye because none of it reacts with lye or fats. (Well, the water does but my recipes accommodate for it.) I can spin up the goodies + oils until full emulsion because there's no reactions happening. Check temps, add lye and mix to trace, then fragrance, pour.
Not including water the mix is about 12% of oil weight.