Brine Bar Ciaglia

[not_ally]

The recent thread on ciaglia reminded me that I wanted to try this using some soaps from a couple of rounds of brine bars from cavity mold soaps that had traced too fast and where I didn't like the lumpy tops. I was going to do a 30%/70% mix of brine soap shreds/new batter, and for the new batter was just going to make a batch with my regular recipe (60% lard, 20% CO, 15% avocado, 5% castor, 5% SF) but started to wonder if using such different recipes for one soap would create an issue.

The shreds are from two separate brine batches with CO at 60% in both, and superfatted at 16% and 13% respectively; the balance of the oils in both was a combo of lard (25%), olive (10%) and castor (5%). The lye concentration for both was 33%, with salt for the brine at 20% of the water amount.

Will combining these recipes for the gratings (30%) and the regular recipe/new batter (70%) throw things out of wack, do you think? I hope this is clear, I feel like it's not. I did do a search and found one thread about salt (not brine) soap that indicated it would be OK (thanks @Obsidian and @AliOop, and @Servant4Christ your soaps looked great) but I wanted to see if there was anyone else with experience or more info on the issue.

Edited to try and clarify.

 

[Servant4Christ]

I'm sorry, but I'm honestly not sure. In the ciaglia batch I think you're referring to (when I didn't use the same recipe for both my ciaglia scraps and fresh soap) my ciaglia scraps were ZNSB recipe (which is a brine bar) and had no SF, while my new soap batter was a salt bar recipe from I Dream In Soap that has a 15% SF if I remember correctly. It worked fine. I calculated 30% of my total oils and added that amount of ciaglia scraps to my warm oils, so it's not really 70/30 at all. More like 100 oils plus 30 ciaglia. Hope that makes sense.

 

[not_ally]

It does make sense, thank you. Basically that seems like a difference in degree, not kind, so hopefully the fact that my numbers are different won't be a problem. I was really worried about the fact that the recipes were so different with (eg) amounts of superfat, but it seems like that was not an issue. Thank you for your reply! ETA: your soaps really were pretty, that orange is lovely. Did you CPOP them?

 

[Servant4Christ]

It does make sense, thank you. Basically that seems like a difference in degree, not kind, so hopefully the fact that my numbers are different won't be a problem. I was really worried about the fact that the recipes were so different with (eg) amounts of superfat, but it seems like that was not an issue. Thank you for your reply! ETA: your soaps really were pretty, that orange is lovely. Did you CPOP them?

If you can link me to which soap you're referring to, I can check my notes and tell you. I've made enough soap now, that I'm actually starting to lose track. So glad I keep notes!

 

[not_ally]

If you can link me to which soap you're referring to, I can check my notes and tell you. I've made enough soap now, that I'm actually starting to lose track. So glad I keep notes!

They are the ones in this link. Ciaglia salt bars?. Yours are so beautiful and smooth and finished looking. Mine are not as nice, but I am happy with them for the most part. I actually went ahead and did my batch and CPOP'd day before yesterday and going to make some observations here in case someone searches for ciaglia with salt bars or brine bar shreds in the future.

The specifics for the recipes for the shreds and the new/ciaglia addition batch are above. For the ciaglia, I used two molds, a loaf mold and a snowflake cavity mold for leftover batter. When I SB'd my shreds into the oil mix it was pretty thick, then when I added the lye it got even thicker. I can understand why people have trouble recognizing trace here, the immediate thickness is such that you're afraid to call it traced because if the density is just from the shreds rather than true emulsification, it will separate later. I just kept stick blending slowly for a minute or two to be safe after I thought it was emulsified. I had to slop the batter into the mold and the cavities. I banged the loaf mold really well, but couldn't with the snowflake mold because it was too flimsy. Then CPOP'd by putting it into a pre-warmed 175F oven turned off when I put the soap in, with the oven light on overnight.

I unmolded and cut them about 18 hours after pouring, a little later than my usual wait using sodium lactate and CPOPing because it was softer than my usual batches. The loaf was fine. The snowflakes were almost all marred with gaps/air holes/unfilled details and corners; I had expected that when I poured because the batter was so thick but still kind of fluffy with the shreds (and I couldn't bang it down) and that is exactly what happened. Next time if I want to use cavity molds I will definitely try to get a thinner batter by eg, using a recipe with more liquid oils or putting in less shreds. @Servant4Christ (if you see this and you've gotten this far!) did you have a thin batter with those cavity molds, they are so beautifully smooth?

ETA: picture.

 

[dibbles]

I love it @not_ally!

 

[not_ally]

Thanks, Dibbles! I am working on getting my ombres to be anything close to yours, though

Are you up and about and soaping again?

 

[dibbles]

Thanks, Dibbles! I am working on getting my ombres to be anything close to yours, though

Are you up and about and soaping again?

I'm hoping to give it a try this week

 

[not_ally]

I'm hoping to give it a try this week

Yay! I imagine you in a typhoon of soaping activity doing all the designs you've been thinking of these last months. I can't wait to see the results, they always give me ideas for my own.

 

[Servant4Christ]

They are the ones in this link. Ciaglia salt bars?. Yours are so beautiful and smooth and finished looking. Mine are not as nice, but I am happy with them for the most part. I actually went ahead and did my batch and CPOP'd day before yesterday and going to make some observations here in case someone searches for ciaglia with salt bars or brine bar shreds in the future.

The specifics for the recipes for the shreds and the new/ciaglia addition batch are above. For the ciaglia, I used two molds, a loaf mold and a snowflake cavity mold for leftover batter. When I SB'd my shreds into the oil mix it was pretty thick, then when I added the lye it got even thicker. I can understand why people have trouble recognizing trace here, the immediate thickness is such that you're afraid to call it traced because if the density is just from the shreds rather than true emulsification, it will separate later. I just kept stick blending slowly for a minute or two to be safe after I thought it was emulsified. I had to slop the batter into the mold and the cavities. I banged the loaf mold really well, but couldn't with the snowflake mold because it was too flimsy. Then CPOP'd by putting it into a pre-warmed 175F oven turned off when I put the soap in, with the oven light on overnight.

I unmolded and cut them about 18 hours after pouring, a little later than my usual wait using sodium lactate and CPOPing because it was softer than my usual batches. The loaf was fine. The snowflakes were almost all marred with gaps/air holes/unfilled details and corners; I had expected that when I poured because the batter was so thick but still kind of fluffy with the shreds (and I couldn't bang it down) and that is exactly what happened. Next time if I want to use cavity molds I will definitely try to get a thinner batter by eg, using a recipe with more liquid oils or putting in less shreds. @Servant4Christ (if you see this and you've gotten this far!) did you have a thin batter with those cavity molds, they are so beautifully smooth?

ETA: picture.

I think yours are really pretty. The ones in the picture you linked are made in single cavity silicone molds which makes them smoother. Also, my ciaglia shreds were from a batch of ZNSB colored with turmeric, paprika, and charcoal, which is where the color came from. I powdered my shreds.

 

[not_ally]

Interesting that you powdered the shreds, it had not occurred to me to do that. Thank you for the info, I think I am going to try that with the next batch! It's a really nice effect.