Handavaka, Excalibur dehydrators are the best I have found without going to a full commercial dehydrator. In my opinion they are well worth the cost. I tried many over the years and just wasted my money until I purchased my Excalibur
Tell me about Salt bars...why great?
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handavaka
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Aaaaah, THANK YOU FOR THAT! Funny thing is. Those seem to be the most available and come up often on those sites! I shall check them out further. I also noticed that I posted in the Salt Bar Soap thread.....but I do everything on my phone and I do it fast...must.slow.down. Anyway, thank you, again for that review on the dehydrators!
sudsy_kiwi
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Here's my first attempt at salt bars...after being inspired by this thread :smile:
I just did a small batch, since it was my first time.
100% CO, 15% superfat, water 38%, 3% FO, and 50% salt. Also added citric acid @ 1% after reading on here that it might help with the local hard water situation. Didn't bother with any colour as I wanted to keep it basic, and used some El Cheapo FO that I didn't mind wasting if things went pear-shaped.
I intended to only use the stick blender until emulsion, but I think I may have gone a bit further than that (still occasionally have an issue with drawing the line lol). Added the FO and then the salt, and hand mixed. It stayed quite runny for a while, and then suddenly seemed to thicken just as I was thinking it was time to pour it :x I ended up kinda pouring/smooshing with a spatula to get it into the molds. Then, just because I could, i tried playing around with a bit of texture on the tops...meh lol.
Anyway, I came back after about 3 hours, thinking it would need a wee bit longer, and it was fully hard (although very warm...I had insulated it...was that wrong? :eh: )so I unmolded. Bars feel hard and smooth, and (I think) look a lovely white...now the hard part comes...forcing myself to wait four+ weeks, even though they look and feel ready lol.
I just did a small batch, since it was my first time.
100% CO, 15% superfat, water 38%, 3% FO, and 50% salt. Also added citric acid @ 1% after reading on here that it might help with the local hard water situation. Didn't bother with any colour as I wanted to keep it basic, and used some El Cheapo FO that I didn't mind wasting if things went pear-shaped.
I intended to only use the stick blender until emulsion, but I think I may have gone a bit further than that (still occasionally have an issue with drawing the line lol). Added the FO and then the salt, and hand mixed. It stayed quite runny for a while, and then suddenly seemed to thicken just as I was thinking it was time to pour it :x I ended up kinda pouring/smooshing with a spatula to get it into the molds. Then, just because I could, i tried playing around with a bit of texture on the tops...meh lol.
Anyway, I came back after about 3 hours, thinking it would need a wee bit longer, and it was fully hard (although very warm...I had insulated it...was that wrong? :eh: )so I unmolded. Bars feel hard and smooth, and (I think) look a lovely white...now the hard part comes...forcing myself to wait four+ weeks, even though they look and feel ready lol.
They look good, you will love them
No, it wasn't wrong to insulate them, high coconut oil soaps usually get quite hot and gel quickly.
No, it wasn't wrong to insulate them, high coconut oil soaps usually get quite hot and gel quickly.
Dehydrator -- I second Carolyn's vote for Excalibur. When I married my dear hubby, I inherited an Excalibur. It was used when he got it and that's been, um, well, a couple of decades ago, so it's no spring chicken anymore. It's still running strong and works very well. Only thing is (at least for this well-loved older model) the temp control is not too accurate. So I just use my oven cooking thermometer -- the kind with the probe you insert into your roast and leave -- to help me adjust the temp setting.
handavaka
Well-Known Member
DeeAnna....Thank you very much! I'm getting one this weekend!
Kiwi, those bars are really, really pretty. Perfect for salt. Did you add TD? How did they get so white?
I yielded to temptation (my own inner evil voice and Irish Lasses' and Sea's external ones, not sure if it was this thread or another salty one) and tried my salt bars, after a bit more than a month. As everyone says, they feel really great, even now. Hard to imagine how good they will feel after a longer cure, as everyone recommends. Of the three - 80% salt, 50% and 30%, I like the 50% one the best, I think, just the right balance for me. But I would be happy to share my shower with any of them. I get the salt bar thing, the bubbles and the creaminess together are tremendous.
I yielded to temptation (my own inner evil voice and Irish Lasses' and Sea's external ones
, not sure if it was this thread or another salty one) and tried my salt bars, after a bit more than a month. As everyone says, they feel really great, even now. Hard to imagine how good they will feel after a longer cure, as everyone recommends. Of the three - 80% salt, 50% and 30%, I like the 50% one the best, I think, just the right balance for me. But I would be happy to share my shower with any of them. I get the salt bar thing, the bubbles and the creaminess together are tremendous.
That sounds like a really nice EO blend . . . might have to steal your combo but sub spruce for fir
Yooper
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Kiwi, those bars are really, really pretty. Perfect for salt. Did you add TD? How did they get so white?
I yielded to temptation (my own inner evil voice and Irish Lasses' and Sea's external ones
My salt bars are stark white as well.
For one I did 100% CO with 20% SF. For another, I did 80% CO, 10% Castor oil, 10% sweet almond oil. I varied the salt from 50% in the first to 35% in the second, using white fine ground sea salt. Maybe a colored salt would have given some color, but all of the bars are blindingly white- no TD needed there at all.
Next batch of salt soaps is going to be that way. I don't use colored salts but have been adding micas, I really didn't realize how pretty and white they could be by themselves (I never really thought about it but w/regular soaps I usually use at least a bit of OO, so almost always add at least some TD b/c I don't like the off-white color of the batter.) I guess I might have expected that w/straight CO, good to know that it is the same w/adding castor and SAO, though!
Yooper
Well-Known Member
It might be the white sea salt as well- the batter was white, but once I added the salt it was WHITE. Even during and after gel, and cutting, it remained that way.
It's not streaky or anything- just bright white.
Its been SO nice during this hot summer and on my trips across the equator - really refreshing. Spruce would work very nicely as well.
My percentages right now are:
Fir 15%
Rosemary 9%
Eucalyptus 27%
peppermint 18%
spearmint 32%
I use the brambleberry calculator for "medium" strength, but this batch I calculated for the total weight of the soap including salt - last time was just for the soap batter and the scent lost a bit of oomph after 6 months, but I was glad for the base and mid notes.
Yooper
Well-Known Member
Forgot the photo! This is a very small batch- four bars:
(bad picture, taken with my phone, but you get the idea):
The soap on the left is a deer tallow/coconut milk soap I made today as well.
The salt soap on the right is BRIGHT white, while the white of the chocolate swirl soap is pretty white as well, considering that there is no TD in that. It's hard to see on the yellow counter how white the salt bars are. The chocolate swirl/white soap looks white and brown in natural light, but the salt soap is blindingly white in person.
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You rock Seawolfe, thank you for sharing percentages it's very generous! We have tons of cucumbers in the garden right now so guess what I want to soap with? Thinking the cucumber puree would go well with a eucalyptus, spearmint & sweet birch combo but I'm tempted to try your blend. Though I probably should save it for my next batch of salt bars . . . for some reason I keep picking FOs that discolor so stark white would be a welcome change.
I looked at so many salt bar posts before I made my test batches that my memory is a bit higgledy-piggledy. But I think I went w/ a combo of Sea's and Irish Lasses' suggestions, mostly, and they sure are nice. I really am so grateful for the advice I get here.
sudsy_kiwi
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Kiwi, those bars are really, really pretty. Perfect for salt. Did you add TD? How did they get so white?
I yielded to temptation (my own inner evil voice and Irish Lasses' and Sea's external ones
Thanks for saying so...I wish I could take some sort of creative credit, but it really was just a fluke lol. No, I didn't add TD, or any sort of colourant. I'm assuming it was just due to the 100% CO. Also, I used standard (iodised) table salt...don't know if that has any bearing. I was wondering about using some pink himalayan salt, to see if that gave a nice pink colour...I know to avoid Dead Sea salt, but does the same apply to Himalayan?
I know what you mean about the temptation...I'm struggling to not "test" one after just one day lol...how am I supposed to wait four weeks, never mind four months?!?! :Kitten Love: On that note...what is the absolute minimum I could get away with waiting before cutting a bit off one bar to test? I know the sooner I do it, the less "good" it's going to be...but I really want to find out if the addition of CA will help, before I go adding it to a whole lot of batches over the next four weeks.
http://www.soapmakingforum.com//www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/
I made a batch of salt bars about 6 weeks ago and started using one two weeks ago. It was awesome by then. I used it first on my face and really loved how my skin felt afterwards. My recipe was 80/20 CO/OO with coconut milk for half the water and 15 SF and salt at 75% oil wt.
Not sure how I missed the post on the Excalibur but I will throw in my vote of confidence as well! I've had mine for 20 years and never had a problem yet. My 2 year old grandson loves fruit, so for breakfast he gets several choices but at the end of the day I end up with...half an apple, half an orange, half a banana ect. No wasted fruit for me! I slice up the apple thin and sprinkle cinnamon on it, the oranges, mangos, bananas and strawberries just get sliced and thrown in the dehydrator. If I'm in a mood, I will puree the fruit alone or in combo, heat it up if I want it to look clear and pretty, add honey or agave if needed and spoon it on the sheet to make fruit leather. He loves the apple chips but the orange slices and strawberry are his favorites, he calls them candy and I don't argue...lol. It's easy to peel the rind off the orange and just give him a triangle or two to chew on...and I like them as well.
Left over pea soup? Throw it in the dehydrator and then in a mason jar. Add boiling water and I have the best instant soup ever. I even make my own powdered boullion but that is a project...
I credit the Excalibur and my FoodSaver for the most food saving dollars ever...which of course give me more money for soap making supplies...:-o
Left over pea soup? Throw it in the dehydrator and then in a mason jar. Add boiling water and I have the best instant soup ever. I even make my own powdered boullion but that is a project...
I credit the Excalibur and my FoodSaver for the most food saving dollars ever...which of course give me more money for soap making supplies...:-o
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Sudsy, I had a bunch of Himalayan salt so did use it on an early batch of salt bars, from about 6 mos. ago. I tested them too soon and discounted them on that basis, it was a mistake. I should try and dig them out now, if I even kept them, they are probably really nice.
The pink does not change the color that much (not enough to use it for the color aspect unless you are sprinkling it on top as a "garnish", which I don't like to do b/c I I think only the medium-size grains are pretty like that, and they are too sharp/scrubby for me, even if they wash off fast from the surface).
But it is more expensive than plain old salt (I still scoop up as many 2 lb non-iodized sea salt boxes as I can from the dollar store), and I'm not sure how much of a difference it makes w/r/t quality/feel. As you noted, the only really bad salts for soaps that I have read about are Dead Sea, also a recent post by Irish Lass reminded me about Epsom, and some people recommend against iodized salts, though I have also read that iodine does not make much of a difference.
I don't know what the perfect time to test salt bars is. Like I said, I did it way too early the first time. The subsequent, "official" testing batches I did about five weeks ago, I did religiously wait a month+ to test, and all the things people say about salt soaps is true, so I would think at least a month for a good sense of what is to come
The pink does not change the color that much (not enough to use it for the color aspect unless you are sprinkling it on top as a "garnish", which I don't like to do b/c I I think only the medium-size grains are pretty like that, and they are too sharp/scrubby for me, even if they wash off fast from the surface).
But it is more expensive than plain old salt (I still scoop up as many 2 lb non-iodized sea salt boxes as I can from the dollar store), and I'm not sure how much of a difference it makes w/r/t quality/feel. As you noted, the only really bad salts for soaps that I have read about are Dead Sea, also a recent post by Irish Lass reminded me about Epsom, and some people recommend against iodized salts, though I have also read that iodine does not make much of a difference.
I don't know what the perfect time to test salt bars is. Like I said, I did it way too early the first time. The subsequent, "official" testing batches I did about five weeks ago, I did religiously wait a month+ to test, and all the things people say about salt soaps is true, so I would think at least a month for a good sense of what is to come
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