What Do You Like About Salt Bars?

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@Clarice it was recommended to me by @cmzaha so I can't take the credit!

Side note: I pulled out a salt bar that I made in August 2016, it's a 50/50 apple cider and coconut milk (other details of the recipe: 80% CO, 20% Avocado, 30% canning & pickling salt)... holy Hannah! That soap is freaking amazing! Hands down the best salt bar I have used. I think it's the combo of apple cider and coconut milk that pushes this one over the top. By comparison I pulled out a bar that I made in April 2016 that is the same recipe but split coconut milk and aloe vera juice and it left me with lizard skin. Not so with the cider bar, I step out of the shower and my skin actually feels human. I still need to moisturize, but a much better salt bar experience for me. I may have to put another batch up for myself for the long 2-1/2 year cure...
 
I have been on a salt "tear" lately and last night I made another batch with the attached recipe from The Spruce Crafts.

Because I had recently received indigo crystals (Jacard from Dharma Trading) and in The Nerdy Housewife (?) book she showed Indigo morphing into a beautiful purplely color, I decided to add indigo infused in aloe juice to to my additional liquid, which in this case was aloe juice (I MB my lye, so added liquid needed to reach lye concentration)

I used 75% salt per oil weight.

This puppy took FOREVER to trace, and even this AM when I cut it was really really soft (hard enough to stay in a loaf and slide out of my mold, but soft enough to deform with a prodding finger.

Was this an adverse reaction to Indigo? Prior to making this I made a non-salt batch with the same indigo and it hardened beautifully.

I will put this away on the "at least six month" shelf

Any thoughts as to what went amiss?
the maximum I did was 25% it solidified in less than 2 hours .All friends I gave as gifts and new mums are,asking for more
 
@Clarice it was recommended to me by @cmzaha so I can't take the credit!

Side note: I pulled out a salt bar that I made in August 2016, it's a 50/50 apple cider and coconut milk (other details of the recipe: 80% CO, 20% Avocado, 30% canning & pickling salt)... holy Hannah! That soap is freaking amazing! Hands down the best salt bar I have used. I think it's the combo of apple cider and coconut milk that pushes this one over the top. By comparison I pulled out a bar that I made in April 2016 that is the same recipe but split coconut milk and aloe vera juice and it left me with lizard skin. Not so with the cider bar, I step out of the shower and my skin actually feels human. I still need to moisturize, but a much better salt bar experience for me. I may have to put another batch up for myself for the long 2-1/2 year cure...
sorry what's canning and pickling salt
 
I make both brine bars and salt bars....both with 80% coconut oil and 20% rice bran oil with 25% SF. I find with my brine bar it bubbles up great but with my salt bar, I get more of a creamy lather. I believe I read somewhere that if you added a tbsp of sugar per pound it would make more bubbles. Does anyone know anything about this?

Also, what is the benefit of adding citric acid?
 
I make both brine bars and salt bars....both with 80% coconut oil and 20% rice bran oil with 25% SF. I find with my brine bar it bubbles up great but with my salt bar, I get more of a creamy lather. I believe I read somewhere that if you added a tbsp of sugar per pound it would make more bubbles. Does anyone know anything about this?

Also, what is the benefit of adding citric acid?
I do 100% coconut oil....20% superfat and 25% salt of water used.....I love the lather and,its,long lasting too...doesn't melt off easiy
 
Last weekend I made a discovery with my salt bars. Since I found that I really do like them, I've been steadily making more. My 'salt bar mold' is a 6-cavity silicone muffin pan, so I'm limited to making 6 bars at a time. Anyway, last weekend I was preparing to make a batch when I discovered that I was out of avocado oil (78% coconut, 14% avocado, 5% castor, 3% beeswax; 20% SF). Hmm. I didn't want to wait until I'd gotten more so I looked about for something else I had on hand. I ended up using green tea seed oil (not my favorite choice, due to the cost, but, well, I was desperate). Usually my bars are ready to pop out of the mold in as little as 45 minutes. With the green tea seed oil, they were still soft at 45 minutes, and even a few hours after that. They did harden up, and they seem to look/feel like the ones with avocado oil. I won't know if there's any significant difference in performance for several months, of course.
 
@amd can i clarify - for the salt bar you just "rediscovered" you used 50:50 Cider Vinegar and Coconut milk to dissolve the NaOH? In any particular order?

Regarding Coconut milk, can I use the kind you find in the dairy section as long as it is unsweetened and unflavored or only the kind in cans?

Thank you!
 
Salt bars seems to often loved over a regular bar. I have people say they only like to use it during the summer though- perhaps it is a touch drying for them.

I like them as well but one down side I have found since putting up glass shower doors instead of having a shower curtain is that the higher superfat seems to put a layer of oil on the doors. It's easily addressed by washing down the doors with Dawn or Dawn with a little ammonia in the water but if people weren't aware of that, it could be frustrating. One other down side is that salt can be a little, um, noticeable when washing private areas.

I am definitely doing to look into the powder grain salt. Thanks to Carolyn for putting that out there and others for continuing to mention it.
 
Earlier this year I read about salt bars and became intrigued. I made about 5 - 6 small batches and proceeded to wait for the cure. I realized that, while I knew that some of you (or your family members) liked them, I didn't know why.

Now that I've used several, I know at least one reason why I like them ~ they're great at the bathroom sink as a hand soap. No squishy, sloppy mess! They are firm down to the last sliver.

So, I'm curious . . . why does anyone else like them?
Love the creamy Lather and the feel that the soap is “polishing” my skin when I use it.
 
for the salt bar you just "rediscovered" you used 50:50 Cider Vinegar and Coconut milk to dissolve the NaOH? In any particular order?

Regarding Coconut milk, can I use the kind you find in the dairy section as long as it is unsweetened and unflavored or only the kind in cans?

No, it was apple cider - like what you buy in the juice aisle. I used an organic juice so there wasn't a ton of additives, I looked for the stuff that was rather cloudy and not filtered to death. I'm going to have a friend juice some apples for me next fall (she has a juicer, I don't) and try that for my next batch.

I buy the coconut milk in a can, either at the dollar store or in the Mexican foods aisle at my grocery store. The more expensive Thai Kitchens (I think is the brand my store carries) is much thicker but 3x the price. I didn't notice a difference in my regular soap recipe between the two brands, so I use the cheaper now. As with a lot of things, your experience with this may vary depending on your recipe. You can (and I have) use the carton milk in the dairy aisle, but I found there was a lot of additives even in the unflavored/unsweetened stuff, and it's mostly watered down. I didn't care for it in my soaps, so I switched back to canned.
 
@shunt2011

YAY! I LOVE instant gratification - so thank you for answering so quickly!!!

What does HTH mean? :)

AND - would this technique work with other liquids such as Apple Cider, Aloe Vera Juice, etc.?

IF SO - WOWIE!!!

HTH= hope that helps. [emoji3]

Yes, I do it with all my extras. I haven’t used vinegar though. I do it with milks, aloe Vera juice, beer, coffee.
 
@JasmineTea I'm gonna hijack your thread with a follow up question, hope that's ok...

For those who have tried both.. What's the difference between a salt bar and a brine (saltwater) soap for you? I mean in terms of using it, not making it..
I love both salt and brine bars! They both last a long time in the shower, leave an excellent skin feel and lather beautifully! My salt bars are more exfoliating, because I use a medium coarse grain sea salt and the brine bars are smoother because I dissolve the sea salt in the water before adding the lye. They both set up super fast and can be prone to crumbling, so I cu them quickly. I usually use molds for brine/solesiefe soap..
 
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