What Do You Like About Salt Bars?

Soapmaking Forum

Help Support Soapmaking Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
I am curious. Has anyone tried making a salt bar with goats milk? Reading these posts have inspired me. With the results of what both does for the skin I was wondering about combining them. Any input or ideas on this?
 
I am curious. Has anyone tried making a salt bar with goats milk? Reading these posts have inspired me. With the results of what both does for the skin I was wondering about combining them. Any input or ideas on this?

I always make mine with either GM or coconut milk. Just remember not much of the qualities will survive the lye and saponification if any. It does add some sugars so you need to watch them for overheating.
 
I've done mine with goat milk but that batch ended up with a crazy amount of ash; they were just for personal use so it didn't matter but I would not have been comfortable selling them. Now that I sell, I'll stick with just water.
 
As somewhat of a newbie, may I ask those of you who make salt bars, what processing method you use for your salt bars? Do you find that CP, CPOP, HP, etc., tends to work best for these? I won't be coloring but will probably add AC and some EOs for scent. Thanks!
 
I do CP, and use individual cavity molds so I do put them on a heating pad and cover with a box. I think if you make them in a loaf mold they will get plenty hot on their own. I know people who do it this way watch them closely and cut when the soap is firm enough to unmold and still warm. I'm not too sure how long, but I think it is pretty quick.
 
Do you have soft water? I tried your recipe with castor and 100% salt, I couldn't get them to lather. Had to grind them up and add to another batch.
Always figured it was my hard water to blame.
I have hard water and they lather great for me, after a 6 month cure. I'm sorry, my recipes seem to not work well for you :( It is so weird how some work for one and not another. I am going to try sorbitol in my next batch of salt bars and see if it helps with lather. I have even used up to 110% salt and they still lather. I am sorry you wasted your time and ingredients. But confetti salt bars are nice to. I have also lowered the liquid oil to 5% upping castor to 10%, and also like them. Will see if I have any left when I get home to drop one in the mail to you. It will be a couple of weeks
 
Last edited:
Hey AliOop ... mostly CP for me.

Slab molds are quick (the exothermic reaction warms everything up and it goes fast ... I tend to cut them in the mold)
Log molds are ok, but your timing still needs to be good - they can be turned out and cut while warm (don't let them go cold - they will be too brittle to cut)
Individual molds - these are the easiest of the three - pour/pour and cover/pour and insulate/pour and carefully CPOP or heatpad ...they still turn out :)

HP salt bars are the hardest - they are so difficult as to be nearly impossible ... they set so fast on contact with anything cool, including room temperature air.
 
@cmzaha no need to feel bad. The salt bars I made quite a long time ago, they have since been ground up and used as confetti.
The other recipe turned out fine, just took awhile to firm up. Pretty sure I figured out the issue with them.
 
Hey AliOop ... mostly CP for me.

Slab molds are quick (the exothermic reaction warms everything up and it goes fast ... I tend to cut them in the mold)
Log molds are ok, but your timing still needs to be good - they can be turned out and cut while warm (don't let them go cold - they will be too brittle to cut)
Individual molds - these are the easiest of the three - pour/pour and cover/pour and insulate/pour and carefully CPOP or heatpad ...they still turn out :)

HP salt bars are the hardest - they are so difficult as to be nearly impossible ... they set so fast on contact with anything cool, including room temperature air.

I do CP, and use individual cavity molds so I do put them on a heating pad and cover with a box. I think if you make them in a loaf mold they will get plenty hot on their own. I know people who do it this way watch them closely and cut when the soap is firm enough to unmold and still warm. I'm not too sure how long, but I think it is pretty quick.

Thanks, Dibbles and SF, that is all great info. I have a bunch of stuff on my "must try" list, but this thread has moved the salt bars to the top of that list. I really shouldn't make any more soap for awhile, BUT... (d0 I even need to finish that sentence?):rolling:
 
Thanks, Dibbles and SF, that is all great info. I have a bunch of stuff on my "must try" list, but this thread has moved the salt bars to the top of that list. I really shouldn't make any more soap for awhile, BUT... (d0 I even need to finish that sentence?):rolling:
Don't forget.... it's good to make them now because they should be cured for a good long time! I'll be making more this week as I'm almost out of my personal stash.
 
As somewhat of a newbie, may I ask those of you who make salt bars, what processing method you use for your salt bars? Do you find that CP, CPOP, HP, etc., tends to work best for these? I won't be coloring but will probably add AC and some EOs for scent. Thanks!
I only cp salt bars and cut mine withing 45 minutes. With my salt bars I use a 30% lye solution with my salt bars. Using 100 percent salt the bars lather much better with a bath pouf or hairy body ;)
 
I just tried my sample piece again and it is fantastic. You will notice how long it has been curing it was poured in May 2017. I remember the first three months of cure it was a tad drying. It now is a thick thick lotion or whipped cream lather.
 

Attachments

  • Salty Dragon.pdf
    232.1 KB
The salt bar is one of my favorites. My recipes tend towards 80% salt. I use it to wash my face in the morning - my skin is easily and often damaged and prone to breakouts - salt bars seems to help heal damage more quickly, make breakouts go away faster, and prevent breakouts - all of which kind of makes sense. E.g. when I lived in California, every time I came back from the beach my skin was amazing for the next week; after you get a tattoo, the tattoo artist advises to wash it in saline/salt water until it heals up; salt water is used to clean/irrigate wounds in hospitals, etc.

A not-so-fun to read but interesting literature review that basically says salt water is good for treating psoriasis and beneficial to skin in general, but it depends on the ratio of salt:water:
"Salt water and skin interactions: new lines of evidence" (Carbajo and Maraver, 2018) PMID: 29675710 DOI: 10.1007/s00484-018-1545-z

Re: brine bars - I've made 2 batches. So far, I love, love, love their texture post-cure - so soft and velvety! And the recipe makes a nice hard bar. So far (5 -10 weeks later) their lather is weak, but they are less prone to mushiness. I need to tinker more with my recipe to increase the lather and lather stability.

"What Do You Like About Salt Bars?"
My most recent soap is a double-salt bar (both brine in the lye and salt added to the batter), using a recipe designed to also create soda ash in the soap.

Totally going to try this.
 
Last edited:
As somewhat of a newbie, may I ask those of you who make salt bars, what processing method you use for your salt bars? Do you find that CP, CPOP, HP, etc., tends to work best for these? I won't be coloring but will probably add AC and some EOs for scent. Thanks!

DON'T CPOP! My first salt bars failed when I tried to CPOP. I was following some advice on an internet recipe and the not the advice given here. CP and let them do their thing. The amount of CO and salt will determine how long to wait to cut - although for the first time I really recommend cavity molds. I cut sometime within the first 1-3 hours - 4 hours is pushing it a bit for me.
 
I too cut mine at about 3 hours. I only use 35-40% Salt. It's still warm when cut it, be sure to wear gloves. And I tried to CPOP once and it was a failure. I prefer loafs as I get much less ash. Individual molds almost always ash on me.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top