Saltbar Soap

[SmellyKat]

I have seen some threads on saltbar soap. I want to try a batch this weekend.
I have a couple of questions:

I have a 3 lb loaf mold........how do I calculate the CO, castor oil, water, lye and salt?
I want to SF at 18%

I saw a thread that used the abbrev "SL". What is that??

When do I add the salt? EO? and colorant?

When do I take it out of the mold? And how long for it to cure?

 

[judymoody]

Hi there, there is a sticky at the top of the forum for calculating how much oils you need for what size mold. I didn't find that the salt added a huge amount of volume, maybe 20 or 25% at most? I did a 1 kilo batch and it fit into a 12 inch long loaf style mold. Since you asked for my recipe on the other thread, here it is. I started with the recipe of another forum member, I think IrishLass and then tweaked. Thanks IrishLass!

1000 g CO, 380 g liquid (I used a mix of coconut milk and cucumber juice), 50% salt per oil weight, so 500 g, and 30 g of EO. I colored half the mixture with 1/4 t. of spirulina but it didn't darken a whole lot. Don't remember the lye amount off the top of my head but if you run it through soap calc at 13% superfat you will get what I did. I figured that the coconut milk would add fat so I didn't want to go overboard.

I did CPOP and should have tried cutting after about an hour or a little more. At 2 it was starting to get a little crumbly.

It also took awhile to trace. I added the EO at light trace. Add the salt at medium trace and then the colorant. Good luck. Let us know how it comes out.

And I think SL is sodium lactate ???

 

[mamaT]

Judy is right about cutting this soap pretty quickly, it will get too hard to cut if you let it go too long. Before I got individual molds for my salt bars, I would cut it as soon as it was semi solid, it was very warm at that point. A few times I used a liquid color, and dropped the color on the salt before I mixed it in at trace, ended up with some pretty color flecks thru the soap.

 

[Hazel]

Yes, SL is sodium lactate. I cured my salt bars for 4 weeks. I thought the first bar was alright and really didn't understand what the big deal was about them.

After 8+ weeks, what a difference! So much nicer. I'm now a big fan of salt bars.

 

[leillani]

you should try the recipe posted in smf tutorials. I tried it a few months ago and i am officially in love with salt bars now, they leave your skin feeling great!!

 

[Soapmaker Man]

I like adding a bit of sugar toward the end of emulsification. I like adding powdered coconut milk and powdered goat milk at the same time.
I take a 15% lye discount and use 7% unrefined Shea in my recipe too.
The added fat from the two powdered milks adds to the fating of the recipe.

Paul

 

[nattynoo]

Salt bars are awesomeness!!
Still one of my favs.
2nd what PP said, cut early otherwise they get too hard.

I don't add castor anymore. Any other oil IMO kills the bubbles.
Coconut oil SF@20%
With up to 100% equal weight in salt.
This works terrific.

 

[SmellyKat]

Salt bars are awesomeness!!
Still one of my favs.
2nd what PP said, cut early otherwise they get too hard.

I don't add castor anymore. Any other oil IMO kills the bubbles.
Coconut oil SF@20%
With up to 100% equal weight in salt.
This works terrific.

ok, sounds like a plan. SF @ 20%, coconut oil and 100% equal weight of coarse sea salt. Can I use coconut milk as the liquid?
Do I let the lye cool first before pouring in to oil? When do I take it out of the mold? About 1 1/2 hours after pour?

Can't wait to try it!!

 

[carebear]

Keep in mind that adding 100% the weight of oils in salt does NOT double the batch size... I don't actually know the fill stuff, though, as I tend to do individual molds for salt bars.

Oh, and I have found I like it better with about 75% the weight of oils in salt. But that's just me.

 

[Stacey]

Question about salt bars:

I was mixing up a batch and was planning on using sea salt. Turns out that I didn't have enough to do 100% of the oil weight. So I read some where that I could use "non-iodized" salt. Luckily I had some Kosher salt on hand that wasn't "iodized" so I used that to fill out my ratio.

But does anyone know why you can't used iodized salt? Like regular table salt?

 

[Soaplady22]

I made my first ever soap bars a couple of weeks ago and used 100% coconut milk. I used twice as much CM as lye. They turned out great _ but I didn't use SL and they stuck in the individual molds a bit. Took off some edges. Next time I'm going to use the SL!!

The first time for me to pour lye directly into CM - it turned out to be like over-creamed mashed potoatos ... but it stick blended into the CO just fine. No problems.
~hth

 

[carebear]

I used to use non-iodized but one day just tried the iodized and it came out exactly the same. Now I use whatever I have at hand. It makes no difference.

 

[Soaplady22]

Carebear - there's really no difference?? I've been wondering about that very thing ....

 

[carebear]

I go back and forth between them. No difference that I can see.

 

[xyxoxy]

I've used both and noticed no difference.
Then I found "Pickling Salt" and though I also see no difference in the finished product you could make a case for label appeal since it doesn't have the anti-caking agents that are added to table salt. Pickling salt is just salt.

 

[nattynoo]

I always use cooking salt ... it has a caking agent... is this a problem I'm wondering??