Whipped salt bar

[apples]

lack of info about whipped salt bar. I'm planning to make some salt bars, cp whipped and flooded myself with questions I can't seem to find answer:

• When will you add the salt?
• How long it takes to unmold and cut? It's whipped, any difference from normal cp?
• How long will you let it cure?
• when is the best time to use? I heard that 3-6 months salt bars are great.
• Enough time for piping as per usual whipped cp?
• Hm...I don't really mind soda ash but will there be any? Want to plan the design.

I've not made salt soap bar before regardless cp, hp, m&p. My sis gave me some sea salts yesterday and asked me to make some soaps for her (she wanted to promote the soaps to her gym buddies, apparently they said something good about sea salt).

Sorry for all the questions, I'm excited. And thanks in advance for any replies.

 

[cmzaha]

One problem with making a salt bar is they harden up very quickly, unless you are using a small amount of salt. Why do you want to make a whipped salt bar? I do not make much whipped soap so maybe try a small batch and use 25% salt to soap batter and see what happens. Maybe someone in here has whipped it. I do not have much luck with whipped soap so on that front I am not a lot of help.

I will strongly advise using any salt over fine grain, extra fine being the best. In my opinion Pacific Sea Salt works the best, gray salt can be scratchy as can himalayan. Himalayan is best is you use extra fine and do not grind it yourself it only sharpens the edges of the salt grains. Save your money and do not buy Hawaiian Black Lava Salt, it is only Pacific Sea Salt infused with charcoal.

If you try a whipped salt soap let us know how it works. Another thought is making a soleseif soap which is a 25% salt brine, it does not set up as fast. There are links in the forum for Soleseif soaps

 

[apples]

I thought whipped would give me more time to work with the batter for some swirls or other designs (haven't really decided). The idea of a too thick salt soap batter, crumbly edges, unable to cut etc kinda scare me. I've whipped cp and hp and love them so I thought whipped salt soap is "safer". I only have sea salt atm, if it works out I'll get some Himalayan's.

About soleseif, this is the first time I heard of. I'll look into it. Thanks for the suggestions!

Hope someone can share if they've made whipped salt bar before.

 

[Rowan]

I thought whipped would give me more time to work with the batter for some swirls or other designs (haven't really decided). The idea of a too thick salt soap batter, crumbly edges, unable to cut etc kinda scare me. I've whipped cp and hp and love them so I thought whipped salt soap is "safer". I only have sea salt atm, if it works out I'll get some Himalayan's.

About soleseif, this is the first time I heard of. I'll look into it. Thanks for the suggestions!

Hope someone can share if they've made whipped salt bar before.

I've never tried a whipped salt bar but for what it's worth I have plenty of time to colour and swirl salt soap. The batter is just thicker than usual, so I don't do anything fancy. Its also been easy to cut, so no jagged edges either. I hardly have any individual soap moulds, so have always used a log mould. After I soap, I leave it uncovered to set up and cut at 2-4 hours (depending on the batch). It's still warm to touch, but solid when pressed. I love the fact you can soap and have a cut soap ready to cure, in hours!

It'd be really interesting to see what would happen if you added salt to whipped soap. Good luck with whatever technique you try. Don't rule out an ordinary salt bar though, they are amazing!

 

[apples]

Thanks, Rowan. I just looked up on soleseif. Since I have only 350g sea salt now, I'll probably make a 500g oil salt bar (whipped cp) with 50% sea salt. The rest goes to next batch of soleseif.

I'm hoping I'll get as much time to work with them as as yours did. I guess I'm still worried because I've not worked with salt in soap before (except a small amount when I'm out of SL). Hopefully I can do it this weekend after a bit more of research.

 

[dixiedragon]

I soap my salt bars at around 85 or so degrees, so I have time to color. I actually usually have to put the soap batter back on the stove on LOW to get it to trace. I soap it super cool b/c I am worried about it seizing.

It's 107 heat index in Alabama today, so I couldn't do whipped soap with coconut oil!

 

[galaxyMLP]

I've made a batch of whipped salt bars. It did give me more time to work with it. But, it's thicker than regular whipped soap because of the salt content. I used fine salt at 30% of the oil weight. I had some pretty big air pockets in the soap because it was so thick at "pouring" (thing more glopping here).

The soap still hardens just as fast. I cut at about 1 hour. As for piping, I didn't try it. It might work but it was pretty thick and hardening relatively quickly.

I use a steep water discount with my salt bars, otherwise they weep like crazy and get tons of ash. I used a 45% lye concentration for the whipped batch (like all of my others). Using a higher water content (lower concentration! [fixed that]) might give you a slightly better consistency to pipe.

Edit: one other thing, salt makes the whipped soap completely "deflate". It makes to bars too dense to be able to float. I didn't see any difference between whipped salt bars and non whipped. It's not even that it actually deflates, it's just that when you add in the salt, the whipped factor diminishes. By the time you have the salt mixed in, it's no longer truly whipped. For me, if a soap doesn't float, it's not really a whipped soap.

It's also difficult to keep the coconut oil (+whatever other oils you're using) at the right consistency to whip well. You don't want it so cold that the coconut oil just chips. But you also don't want it so warm that it's too thin or liquid. That took some playing with.

 

[apples]

Thanks for sharing your experience. Now I know what to expect when I work on it!

 

[dixiedragon]

Galaxy, do your whipped salt bars still float?

 

[Susie]

If you have never made (or used) salt bars before, I would suggest you do that before trying to whip it. You may decide that you hate them beyond any desire to try something new.

 

[apples]

I didn't get to make salt bar yet due to something else to do during the weekend. Made some ginger soaps though. Friends and my sis will come visiting tomorrow and they want to make soap together, kind of making me nervous to try anything funny. Guess I'll take your advice, Susie.

I'll still want to whip but I'll need to get me some more sea salt. I'll be out of sea salt after making the soap tomorrow. Himalayan's salt seems good

Dixiedragon, I'm guessing whipped salt bar still floats.