Sodium Citrate Bar

Well i did it, after the discussion in this thread:
http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=52250&page=3

i went ahead and made a 100% coconut oil salt bar but instead of using regular salt i used sodium citrate.

i made a small test bar with 50g of coconut oil, 5% superfat and a 40% lye solution,
i got the batch to an extremely thick trace, basically soap on a stick, this was on purpose because i feared the sodium citrate would soften up the soap, i mixed 50g of sodium citrate into the soap and it indeed softened up a little, scooped it in a mold and stuck it in the toaster oven for an hour on low heat, it didnt gel but i didnt really expect it to.

24h later and i ended up with a white bar that looks just like a regular salt bar and is just as hard a regular salt bar,

Now this is where it gets interesting, when doing a lather test i notice that it bubbles up better then a normal salt bar, the lather feels a lot more slippery then usual and when washing the lather away it again feels very slippery, like im washing my hands with distilled water, mind you the water in my tap is Very hard.

Even though this coconut/"salt" bar has only 5% superfat, i didnt notice excess drying.

Came back after 4 hours and noticed something odd, the bar was still wet, just as wet as when i finished my lather test, it doesn't dry out even now about 11 hours since my lather test the soap is still wet, its still just as hard though, not sure if this behavior is something all regular salt bar have since i haven't attempted to make a salt bar before.

i guess adding sodium citrate at 100% oil weight is too much for the soap to dry out properly, i'll probably try making a 50% bar next.

thoughts?

You're a loon! But it's very interesting to hear about the wetness

My salt bars "sweated" on and off for a few weeks as the humidity would rise. This may be what you are seeing.

Susie said:

My salt bars "sweated" on and off for a few weeks as the humidity would rise. This may be what you are seeing.

Click to expand...

no thats not it, i've seen soap sweat before, this is entirely different, it just stay wet forever, there are no droplets or anything, its just soaked.

This is what I love about the forums! We all do experiments, but none of us can try everything. With the forums we can all share and we don't have to try everything to get the results!

Not that we won't try the experiments ourselves, but it helps when you have an idea of what to expect!

Thank you for posting your results, and thanks to everyone who trys new things and posts them for everyone.

Sodium citrate is used as a water softener. The results you are getting is probably comparable with washing you hands in very soft water.



"The slippery feeling experienced when using soap with soft water occurs because soaps tend to bind to fats in the surface layers of skin, making soap molecules difficult to remove by simple dilution."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_softening