The last time I tried making a salt soap bar it was with Melt in Pour. I gave a bar to my little sister to try and it was then that we realize that she is allergic to salt =). Nothing like standing in the middle of a school event and itching like crazy! Needless to say the only bars that I make for her now are just natural oatmeal and goat milk soaps.
Being that this was my first try at making this type of soap in cold press, I did a little research, watched a couple of videos and asked a soapy friend for advice (Cee!). Also check out Jenny's blog on her Pineapple Ginger salt bars. It comes with a video!!!
One other source was Anne-Marie's post in her Soap Queen Blog. It was her blog that gave me the inspiration to use Pink Himalayan Salt.
I knew for sure that I was going to use Coconut Oil at 80% of my oils, and decided to use Avocado Oil and Mango Butter for the rest of the oils. Since it has such a high percentage of Coconut Oil, I superfat at 20%. For salt I had read that you can use 50% to 80% of the weight of your oils. I decided to use 50%.
Now a couple of things I did not plan for...and should have. Since we are adding salt to this recipe I should have adjusted my oils down so that it will all fit nicely in my mold ( I used Bramble Berry's 9 Bar Birch Slab Mold). Since it's such a high concentration of Coconut Oil...is it going to do anything to my trace time? ....and here is where my story picks up.
I gathered all my ingredients and soaped at cool temperatures (around low 90 degrees). I used Bramble Berry's Pink Grapefruit fragrance oil. I love that fragrance and have pretty good luck with it. I also added a couple of ounces of powder Goat Milk to my oils. Lately I have been too inpatient to deal with the freezing of the milk so I have been using powdered milk more and just adding it to my warm oils before I add my lye.
So there I was...stick blending...and stick blending...and STICK BLENDING. The mixture was taking forever to reach thin trace! Now I had heard about soapers burning out their stick blenders when they work with castile soap, and I thought I was getting pretty close to this myself! I kid you not, I could feel my poor blender motor start to get pretty hot. I started to think that this may be a very good recipe to use to make a Peacock Swirl!...but with my luck, the darn thing traces fast.
Just when I thought I had blended it enough I started to see a bit of a "light" trace. I decided then to split my batch in half since I was planning on coloring half of it with pink mica. Now I thought that as soon as I added the salt that it would start thickening up, but it didn't. It remained pretty loose. I poured both mixtures in the mold and then realize...WOW, I have too much soap! So in a panic I run to my soaping closet and dig up one of my individual bar silicone mold. My husband gave me a funny look as I ran from one end of the room to the other at lighting speed. =)
Once I put it to bed I could not wait to see the final results. I decided to gel the soap and I keep praying that it would harden up pretty nice. It was so thin and loose that I had my concerns!
The following morning I unmolded the bars and was pleasantly surprised to see that they had harden up pretty nicely. Now the only thing that I find weird is the how the top looks. It's not as smooth as I have seen pictures of other bars. There is these all little white dots on top, which I can guess it's the salt (its not ash). Now I must admit that the white is actually the part of the mixture that I did not color and just added the salt. Since the mixture was so flexible I tried to do some kind of swirl, except that it does not look like much now.
Here is a pic
It almost looks like white mold =o\...is that normal?
I used Pink Himalayan Salt and for those of you that have tried salt bars, what kind of salt have you used? I have read that dead sea salt makes the bars "weep". I am thinking of using Kosher Salt next time around and wondered what you think? Let me know! I am always interested to hear from my soapy friends!
Thanks for checking out my blog!
HAPPY SOAPING!!!
Roxana
I have not had any problems using Himalayan salt or ordinary sea salt. The white pattern looks interesting, but it does not look like mould. Can it be a reaction to that the soap was only at light trace? I normally use 80% coconut oil, 20% superfat and 50% salt and they have traced fast even if I have not used any fragrance. I hope your pink soaps will turn out just fine when they cure.
ReplyDeleteThanks Marika! I am also crossing my fingers and can't wait to try them when they are ready
DeleteYour soap is a lovely shade of reddish pink, and the white just adds texture. To me it does not look like molds. I made Himalayan salt bars once and they kept on weeping because it was raining at that time. I later moved them to the second floor of the house and somehow it stopped weeping! I used coarse Himalayan salt and found it waaaay too rough although it eventually smoothened out with use. I would like to make finer salt bars in the future, and when I do, I will follow what Cee did and add coconut milk. I'm pretty sure your salt bars will turn out just fine. :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks Soapjam! I used the medium grain salt. I am hoping that my skin likes the texture
DeleteThey are great,Roxana! My first salt soaps were made with coconut milk and Himalayan pink salt. I used shea butter and castor all, at 20%total and 75% of salt. They were excellent! Recently, I've made another batch with goat milk and 60% of salt. The person who I made those for,has loved my first salt soaps that much, that I didn't wanna tweak the first recipe much. Oh yes, I added silk to this new one and they have been so smooth after unmoulding! As intented to be facial soap,I didn't add any colour,nor f.o.
ReplyDeleteI also noticed it took a bit longer to reach the trace,but not that long as yours. However, I think yours will be perfect! Let them cure about 2 months and you will love them.
Thanks Maja! I just may do a coconut milk salt bar next time. Looks like most enjoy adding the milk
DeleteI think your salt bars tuned out beautiful Roxana! I made my first salt bars using plain old sea salt and followed the recipe by Jenny over at I'd Lather Be Soaping....she has an awesome video on salt bars.
ReplyDeleteThanks Gloria!
DeleteYour soap looks great - with 80% coconut oil but a 20% liquid oil superfat, I'm not surprised it took a little bit of extra time to trace. That's a lot of extra liquid oil =)
ReplyDeleteThank you Anne-Marie. I was getting nervous there for a minute
DeleteOh your poor little sister, at least you figured out the source of her itching. :) It must've been pretty scary when your stick blender started to overheat. I think the soap gremlins have been making their rounds since you, Cee and myself all had some issues with soaping this past week.
ReplyDeleteI think your soaps look fantastic and will probably feel wonderful to use. Hope you follow up with what it's like once it's finished curing.
Thanks Monica!
DeleteOoh la la...these look lovely Roxana! I love the pink and white together, they look so smooth and I can`t wait to see what you think of them :)
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DeleteThanks Cee! I can't wait for when they are ready to use!!!
DeleteYour salt bars look great, Roxana! I like the pink and white together. And thank you for the shout-out! Salt bars feel so nice on the skin. I especially like to use salt soap on my face. I've used only Pink Himalayan salt so far, and I really like it. I've heard that regular sea salt or table salt also work nicely. I, too, have read that Dead Sea salt and Epsom salt can make the soap weep. Nature's Garden has some Hawaiian black salt that looks interesting. Pricey, but interesting.
ReplyDeleteThanks Jenny! I am going to try regular table salt next time and see how much I like them
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