Making salt bars

[Oregon Groves]

I made my first salt bar yesterday on a whim. It turned out great. I followed the recipe Soap Queen shared but substituted out the palm oil with lard. It calls for shea butter and luckily I had just enough for this experiment, however can I use castor oil in replace of the butter?
I'm looking for something very simple. Also I make goatsmilk soap and so this is all new...a bit exciting. I did freeze some coconut milk thinking this would make a creamy lather as the kids are not weaned yet


Here is my first go.

A bit draggy

 

[AliOop]

Very pretty colors! You can use castor in salt bars, but I use 100% CO, or a CO/PKO blend, since salt inhibits lather, and you need to make up for that with the high-lather oils. So with all that bubbly CO/PKO, there is no need for castor, IMO. But there are others who do include it, and you can too, if you'd like.

You also need a high SF to combat the drying nature of those high-lathering oils. So here is a very typical salt bar recipe:

100% CO (or CO/PKO blend)
50% salt
20% SF

Pouring into cavity molds will eliminate the need to hover over your loaf to make sure you cut it in time. And then you won't get drag marks, either.

Then you just have to let them cure for at least six months, although I personally prefer 10-12 months. The lather is so much softer after the long cure!

 

[amd]

Is it this recipe? Pink Sea Salt Cold Process Soap Tutorial
There are much simpler recipes to follow. My favorite from another member is:
80% CO
20% Avocado oil
35% salt (meaning if you have 1000g oils, you would use 35% or 350g salt)
50/50 aloe vera juice/coconut milk 35% lye solution
SF 20%

Also, I would not use the pink salt shown in the link above. I used extra fine pink salt and it was still too scratchy to be used on skin. My husband is still working through those bars that I made 3 years ago and I can tell when he runs the bar directly on his skin by the red welts it leaves behind. Table salt or canning & pickling salt make very nice additions to salt bars.

 

[Oregon Groves]

Nope it's not that.
I used this recipe, swapped out palm oil for lard and opted out the shea. I used coconut milk for my water replacement as well. I used 5 cups of super fine pink salt.

I tried hot process for the first time and all was perfect until the salt sucked the life put of my batter. I will see how it goes. It's a nice color and is scented raspberry

 

[cmzaha]

Leave it to Ann Marie to post such a recipe to sell her Pink Salt. Do not use that salt it is too sharp. If you did use the salt in her recipe I would use the bars with a bath pouf for safety. Even super fine pink salt can be scratchy, test gently when using. Non-iodized table salt is really better or fine Pacific sea salt. Pink salt is just a sharp salt. Also, salt bars really need to be high in CO to lather well, so sadly I do not hold out a lot of hope for a good thick lather with this recipe or any lather. You will definitely need to give them a min of 8-month cure to have a chance at lather.

 

[Oregon Groves]

It turned out lovely.

 

[earlene]

Nope it's not that.
I used this recipe, swapped out palm oil for lard and opted out the shea. I used coconut milk for my water replacement as well. I used 5 cups of super fine pink salt.

I tried hot process for the first time and all was perfect until the salt sucked the life put of my batter. I will see how it goes. It's a nice color and is scented raspberry

What was the salt to oil ratio? In other words, was it 1:1 or 100%, or 0.5: 1 or 50%? I don't see that in the recipe you posted.

When measuring ingredients in soap, it's best not to mix measurements. So if I use 500 grams of oil, I weigh my salt in grams also.

Anyway, having not made salt soap using the HP method, I can only share my experience with CP salt soap. When my batter was sufficiently traced (about pancake batter thickenss) I poured in the salt. It does get even thicker right away when 100% salt, so not a lot of time to do much more because immediate pouring is necessary. I would expect with the added heat of HP, it would thicken even faster.

They do look pretty.

 

[cmzaha]

Word of advice for anyone making salt bars with high salt use CO at 80% or higher or you will not get any lather. With Salt usage around 50% I would guess you could go with 70-75% CO. Lard, Butters, and Palm kill lather in Salt bars. I tried many combinations trying to make salt bars less soluble several years ago and it just did not work.

 

[Oregon Groves]

What was the salt to oil ratio? In other words, was it 1:1 or 100%, or 0.5: 1 or 50%? I don't see that in the recipe you posted.

When measuring ingredients in soap, it's best not to mix measurements. So if I use 500 grams of oil, I weigh my salt in grams also.

Anyway, having not made salt soap using the HP method, I can only share my experience with CP salt soap. When my batter was sufficiently traced (about pancake batter thickenss) I poured in the salt. It does get even thicker right away when 100% salt, so not a lot of time to do much more because immediate pouring is necessary. I would expect with the added heat of HP, it would thicken even faster.

They do look pretty.

The recipe calls for five cups,which I used.

 

[earlene]

The recipe calls for five cups,which I used.

Fair enough, but because it is quite common for a salt soap to be defined in terms of the Salt to Oils Ratio, it would be useful to know what that is for any Salt Soap formula you choose to make.

So this is what I do when I choose to follow someone else's recipe where they mixed units of measure:

I convert all formulas to use the same type of measurement. How? Measure as the other person's recipe calls for, THEN I weigh the oddball measure on my scale and make a note of the weight in grams.

I use grams of weight for my measure, so I convert everything to grams. If a recipe calls for 8 ounces, I weigh out 8 ounces, but record what that converts to in grams (my scale tells me). I can also do the same on a lye calculator that will also give me that same information.

For Cups of measure, I would pour the measured out ingredient into a vessel on the scale & document the weight in grams to my notes, then input that into my lye calculator as well.

In this case, I would have weighed out 5 cups of salt on my scale and then I would be able to easily know the Salt to Oils Ratio for future assessment of weather I like that ratio in soap.