Tell me about Salt bars...why great?

[Obsidian]

I've used kosher salt with anti-caking additives and it was fine. If I run out of sea salt, I just get the canning and pickling salt from the grocery store.

 

[not_ally]

I keep an eye out at my favorite place to shop, the dollar store. I occasionally see 2 lb boxes of non-iodized sea salt and buy a bunch of them.

 

[JLem]

A lot of the recipes I see here contain a ton of CO, which I had always thought to limit because it can really dry out the skin. I keep my standard bars to 15% CO. Is it the addition of the salt that changes things here? I also noticed that the SF rate is also really high - upwards of 20% - is that why these bars aren't drying?

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

That's exactly it - for the actual salt bars, with actual salt rather than brine water, you need a whole lot of co to get it to actually lather. Salt water hinders lathering and co (and I think all pko etc) are the only soaps that can lather in salt water, so to counteract the drying co, you up the sf to compensate

 

[grumpy_owl]

Soaping 101 discusses the CO perception in her soleseife tutorial--technically, coconut oil is high in cleansing, which soapers equate to drying. A good amount of superfat counteracts the "drying," that is, cleansing effect. I promise you they feel great on the skin.

 

[JLem]

Thanks. I think this will be my next soap making endeavor! I am thinking something like 85% CO, 15% Olive/Sunflower/Avocado oil*, 20% SF, and 50-75% salt. This seems to fall in line with the recipes I have seen.

*oils I currently have in stock...I also have shea butter - would that work in a salt bar?

 

[Seawolfe]

Thanks. I think this will be my next soap making endeavor! I am thinking something like 85% CO, 15% Olive/Sunflower/Avocado oil*, 20% SF, and 50-75% salt. This seems to fall in line with the recipes I have seen.

*oils I currently have in stock...I also have shea butter - would that work in a salt bar?

It probably would, you can try it in your second bar. After playing around with various soft oils (avocado, almond) instead of 15% Olive oil, I ended up going back to olive oil because to me it was the nicest bar. But you wont know until you try it.

 

[KristaMarie]

JLem I personally love butters in my soap, but not my salt bars. I find that shea decreases lather a LOT in a salt bar

 

[Yooper]

Thanks. I think this will be my next soap making endeavor! I am thinking something like 85% CO, 15% Olive/Sunflower/Avocado oil*, 20% SF, and 50-75% salt. This seems to fall in line with the recipes I have seen.

*oils I currently have in stock...I also have shea butter - would that work in a salt bar?

I'm doing 80% CO and 20% OO today (20% superfat), with 50% salt. I would use shea butter, if I had some as I think it feels more luxurious.

 

[JLem]

I'm doing 80% CO and 20% OO today (20% superfat), with 50% salt. I would use shea butter, if I had some as I think it feels more luxurious.

to veer off-topic for a moment...Hi Yooper! You know you're the reason I got into soap making, right? You very generously sent me some samples of your soap a couple years back in response to an HBT homebrew swap! I haven't used store-bought soap since! Thank you!

 

[Judiraz]

I got interested in salt bars after reading all the posts a couple of months ago. Obsidian's praises of salt got me to try a batch. That was 8 weeks ago. I just tried a half bar this week and I AM IN LOVE with the bubbles, feel, and scent. I used WSP's My Main Squeeze which is one of my favorites, but it usually fades to a light citrus scent after 8 weeks. This is still "in your face" grapefruity. The lather is very bubbly and rinses easily. Different than my soleseife bars that almost feel slimy when I'm rinsing.

I used 85% CO, 10% rice bran oil, 5% castor oil and 15% SF. I added 25% salt and will probably go a little higher in the next batch. I did use pink Himalayan and after reading through this thread I won't use again. Every so often I'll feel a very ragged bit of salt.

The upside with salt is that I cut the bars within 3-4 hours after making. The downside is waiting so long to use.

 

[Yooper]

to veer off-topic for a moment...Hi Yooper! You know you're the reason I got into soap making, right? You very generously sent me some samples of your soap a couple years back in response to an HBT homebrew swap! I haven't used store-bought soap since! Thank you!

Haha- you're not the first guy to come over from HBT. Lbussey is here, as well, and a few others who I can't recall right now.

Today, I'm doing all those spousely duties- kegging 10 gallons of IPA, making soap, pickling beets, and maybe kegging up some everyday chokecherry wine. And then, I have an urge for just one more batch of soap.

Soapmaking is as addicting as brewing. The only issue with soap vs beer is since I don't sell, the soap piles up while the beer disappears so fast.

I told my husband that he needs to shower more, and drink less, so that my supply:demand ratio evens out. He said that as much as he loves my homemade soaps (liquid and bar, as well as shampoo) he can't shower more than once a day but he can drink beer much more than once per day.

 

[Obsidian]

I'm doing 80% CO and 20% OO today (20% superfat), with 50% salt. I would use shea butter, if I had some as I think it feels more luxurious.

This is my favorite oil recipe but I like 35% salt and the addition of coconut milk. I've also used shea and didn't like it at all in salt bars.

 

[Yooper]

This is my favorite oil recipe but I like 35% salt and the addition of coconut milk. I've also used shea and didn't like it at all in salt bars.

I wanted to use the coconut milk, but I am completely out today so I just used water. It took a long time to trace, weirdly enough. Maybe it's because it's hot (for my area, anyway!) and humid today and that's not common so I've never dealt with humidity and warm weather when soaping.

 

[not_ally]

Homemade pickled beets! I wish I lived next door to you and could pester.

ETA: this is funny! "I told my husband that he needs to shower more, and drink less, so that my supply:demand ratio evens out. He said that as much as he loves my homemade soaps (liquid and bar, as well as shampoo) he can't shower more than once a day but he can drink beer much more than once per day.

"

 

[Obsidian]

My salt bars always take a long time trace, even after adding the salt it stays quite fluid for a time. Thats ok though, I can make swirls that way if I want.

 

[shunt2011]

My salt bars generally take a long time as well. Except yesterday one of my batches went so fast it was like working with clay jamming it into the molds. Never had that happen before. You just never know what will happen. I too like coconut milk in my salt bars.

 

[BlackDog]

Thanks for starting this thread! I'm intrigued by all this salt-bar talk and toying with the idea of trying one for my next batch, so warning: potentially stupid newb questions ahead:

When putting a salt recipe into SoapCalc, do I have to enter my salt content somewhere?

Also, is the standard 38% water discount ok or will that need adjusting?

 

[dibbles]

Does anyone add clay to their salt bars? I have some French green clay I was thinking about trying to add a little natural color.

 

[KristaMarie]

Thanks for starting this thread! I'm intrigued by all this salt-bar talk and toying with the idea of trying one for my next batch, so warning: potentially stupid newb questions ahead:

When putting a salt recipe into SoapCalc, do I have to enter my salt content somewhere?

Also, is the standard 38% water discount ok or will that need adjusting?

Nope, no need to enter the salt in SoapCalc...except in the notes, of course, so you remember how much you used

Standard water is fine. Use what you're comfortable with, if you've made a 100%
coconut oil soap before.

Does anyone add clay to their salt bars? I have some French green clay I was thinking about trying to add a little natural color.

Yes! My favorite salt bar has rose clay in it