The quest for a hard bar

[busymakinsoap!]

I am in the process of formulating a palm free bar. My regular recipe consists of 25% palm with a total of 55% hard oils, and has a soapcalc harness rating of 43.

So I have played around with a couple of other recipes. One of them using shea and cocoabutter in high percentages to achieve hardness. With the right combination I have been able to get a recipe that also has a hardness of 43. Again my hard oils are around 50%. It seems good - but very expensive.

Last night I decided to try a combination of 70% liquid oils and 30% coconut oil.This only had a hardness rating of 37. I decided to add some salt to the lye to see if I could increase the overall hardness. I researched and couldnt come up with a golden rule re % of salt, so I went for 1.5% of total batch.

OMG - 16hours later and it is HARD. I made my shea and cocoabutter bar an hour before this one, and it fully gelled and it is SOFTER than my one with salt. I thought I was going to have to wait a day or two before I could unmold.

Heres a pic


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the funny thing is - I'm not sure if this gelled. I checked on it a couple of hours into it and no sign (its unfragranced too) and if I go by the colours it doesnt look like it did.
I made an ungelled palm oil soap 4 days ago and could only cut this morn.

I just think this is incredible, and needs to be shared. So thank you to all the wonderful people on this forum! A huge learning curve for me today, I am stoked!

 

[Relle]

A lovely white bar of soap, is the red a different bar or just on the top of some ?

 

[krissy]

i love pure white soap! and yours looks so pretty

 

[busymakinsoap!]

A lovely white bar of soap, is the red a different bar or just on the top of some ?

Hehe no the red is another bar.

This bar has 25% rice bran too, which is a really dark amber colour and it still came out white. Heaps of learning for me with this one

 

[Guest]

I am glad to hear you are now riding the salt train with me. I use 1 tsp. ppo.

Your white bars are absolutely beautiful!!

 

[newbie]

That is some of the purest looking soap I've seen. Beautiful.

For the salt users out there, has anyone tried it with a castile/bastile soap? They get so hard but are so soft in the beginning- I assume it would help harden up the bar initially, but does it make a detectible difference in such a hard bar (cured) as a castile?

 

[Guest]

From what I have found, adding the salt helps the batch harden much faster but does not affect the long term hardness or performance of the bars.

Sorry I haven't tried in any type of soap with a high % of OO. I would assume it would work but I can't say for sure. Let me know if you try it though.

 

[delicious]

Would you mind posting the exact recipe you used ? I might like to try that out

 

[yoenoess]

soo white. did you use any colorant?

 

[busymakinsoap!]

That is some of the purest looking soap I've seen. Beautiful.

For the salt users out there, has anyone tried it with a castile/bastile soap? They get so hard but are so soft in the beginning- I assume it would help harden up the bar initially, but does it make a detectible difference in such a hard bar (cured) as a castile?

I'm wondering this too. I'm guessing yes, its already as hard as my regular bars after 3 weeks cure, I cant wait to see how it feels after a month.

Why does this happen? Does the salt cause the water to evaporate quicker? Hmmmm....

I've also been reading that salt can be used to 'reverse' the effects of rancidy in oils. If this is the case......will salt reduce the chance of DOS??

Have also read that it can decrease bubbles (as salt does) seems like the 30% coconut oil was a good idea - I just tested a slither - huge bubbles.

I'm sold, I am going to use salt in every batch now.

 

[busymakinsoap!]

soo white. did you use any colorant?

No yeoness, no colour or fragrance, i was just testing how salt performs in a recipe, I wasnt too concerned about the look of the bar

 

[Jezzy]

Looks really nice!

 

[nattynoo]

Fab looking soap.
Perhaps salt might solve my palm free, affordable, soft soap issues too.
Thanks for sharing.

 

[saltydog]

Thanks, busy!
I can't believe how fresh and white that bar is!
I'd LOVE to get one that color...
I too, just did my first soap this morning with 1 tsp ppo of salt (thanks to this forum) Although I have read on here about the hardening factor of salt, I hadn't read about the decrease in bubbles
My recipe had 25% CO and 10% Castor, so we'll see!

 

[Guest]

Thanks, busy!
I can't believe how fresh and white that bar is!
I'd LOVE to get one that color...
I too, just did my first soap this morning with 1 tsp ppo of salt (thanks to this forum) Although I have read on here about the hardening factor of salt, I hadn't read about the decrease in bubbles
My recipe had 25% CO and 10% Castor, so we'll see!

I have noticed no decrease in bubbles using the salt. I do however use a high % of castor in my recipe and my soap calc bubble number is 38.

 

[saltydog]

I have noticed no decrease in bubbles using the salt. I do however use a high % of castor in my recipe and my soap calc bubble number is 38.

Wow, I thought 26 was a bubbly number. Maybe next time I'll try increasing my Castor %, I love bubbles!

 

[Guest]

I have noticed no decrease in bubbles using the salt. I do however use a high % of castor in my recipe and my soap calc bubble number is 38.

Wow, I thought 26 was a bubbly number. Maybe next time I'll try increasing my Castor %, I love bubbles!

I do love me some castor oil! I think it makes great bars plus I love bubbles too!

 

[jlw4690]

Beautiful!

Just out of curiosity, has anyone tried the salt trick with HP?

 

[SudsyKat]

Wow! I'm curious to experiment with adding salt. It's funny how that red bar behind the soap looks like it's part of it. It looks like some sort of strawberries and cream bar - yummy!

I'm wondering, would adding 1 tsp salt PPO make the bar sting if you have shaving cuts or any other irritations? I know a salt bar (which has WAY more salt) has this issue.

 

[busymakinsoap!]

I have noticed no decrease in bubbles using the salt. I do however use a high % of castor in my recipe and my soap calc bubble number is 38.

Wow, I thought 26 was a bubbly number. Maybe next time I'll try increasing my Castor %, I love bubbles!

My bubbles were 25 and its plenty. Thats a mix of coconut and castor.
There are a lot of reasons not to go too high in castor. The recommended usage is between 5 and 10% I use 5% (plus its expensive).

Coconut will give you the bubbles, castor will give you the creamy stable lather IMHO.