First try at salt bars

[Dawni]

I had paprika infused RBO and really wanted to use it before it starts going rancid so it's 15% of this soap, the rest being coconut. Sea salt is 50% because I was too chicken to try higher lol

I haven't unmolded everything but here's a sneak peak, as well as some questions for the experts.

See that one bar, bottom left? I've been eyeing that for about 3hrs now and it's the only one "sweating." Why is that?

Also, I was under the impression salt bars harden very quickly. I'm counting 9hrs since molding and they're not hard yet, and I've spoiled a piece testing it coz it stuck to the mold. Did I use too much water (30% lye concentration)?

And oh.. Paprika and annatto did speed up trace for me, and smells a lil weird lol which is unfortunate coz I forgot to scent these.

Edit:
Finally unmolded!

 

[cmzaha]

Those look really pretty.

 

[dibbles]

Those look so nice Dawni! I don't know why you have sweating on only one bar, unless you poured all the soaps without stirring during the pour and more salt settled into that one. Was it the last one poured by any chance?

I use individual cavity molds for my salt bars and find that they usually need a nudge to heat up and gel. I think the loafs generate a lot of heat, and those are the ones that need to be watched and unmolded within a couple of hours.

 

[jcandleattic]

I agree with dibbles,

And yes, they are very pretty.

 

[Dawni]

Thanks guys!

Those look so nice Dawni! I don't know why you have sweating on only one bar, unless you poured all the soaps without stirring during the pour and more salt settled into that one. Was it the last one poured by any chance?

I use individual cavity molds for my salt bars and find that they usually need a nudge to heat up and gel. I think the loafs generate a lot of heat, and those are the ones that need to be watched and unmolded within a couple of hours.

No it wasn't the last to be poured but maybe there could be salt clumps that weren't properly mixed under there?

I'm too off to deal with babysitting a loaf so I used individual molds this time but thanks for the reminder. I do know that loaves generate more heat than single cavity molds but I forgot lol

 

[Marilyn Norgart]

I really like how these look--can ya say dreamsicle?

 

[Mobjack Bay]

They look great! 50% makes a very nice salt bar as far I can tell based on my vast experience .

 

[runnerchicki]

Nice! I have salt bars on my bucket list. I think yours look really pretty!

 

[Dawni]

Thanks loves

I've unmolded n edited the first post. Scroll up ^^

 

[scard]

They came out great, I like that shade of yellow.

 

[Mobjack Bay]

I don’t know why I though paprika made red soap. I LOVE the color of your soaps. They remind me of the daffodils and forsythia that are everywhere in my part of the world in the spring! Happy color

 

[KristaY]

They look terrific Dawni and I love the yellow you got. Great work!

 

[Dawni]

I don’t know why I though paprika made red soap. I LOVE the color of your soaps. They remind me of the daffodils and forsythia that are everywhere in my part of the world in the spring! Happy color

Thank you! I thought I'd get some shade of darker oranges... Maybe it was the salt?

 

[Tasha]

Hi Dawni, what do you mean by 50% salt?

 

[cmzaha]

@Tasha, not Dawni, but the 50% salt usually pertains to adding 50% of your batch oil amount. I make salt bars with 54 oz oils and 54-60 oz salt. So I add in at least 100% salt. I do not include the percentage using total batch weight only oil weight.

 

[SunRiseArts]

Whoa, great job!

 

[Tasha]

@Tasha, not Dawni, but the 50% salt usually pertains to adding 50% of your batch oil amount. I make salt bars with 54 oz oils and 54-60 oz salt. So I add in at least 100% salt. I do not include the percentage using total batch weight only oil weight.

I was just trying to see if it was 50% of the total soap recipe or of just the oils. Thanks for clarifying!

 

[Dawni]

@cmzaha, or anyone else actually... Have you tried different percentages of salt and noted the difference? And what made you choose the amount you did? I'm suddenly curious..

I want to try to make my next salt bars in a loaf mold, and I'm thinking if I should stick to the 50% I tried or use a higher % this time. But then having to wait so long for a good enough cure is putting me off from doing it just for testing..

 

[earlene]

Dawni, only once did I make a salt soap in a loaf mold (well more like a slab mold than an actual loaf) and cutting it was a huge pain. It has to be cut while still very warm to hot; it crumbles too easily; and after a longer cure it still is very rough around the edges.

Whereas my salt soap made in individual molds are almost as smooth as silk around the outer surfaces and remained so during the entire cure (over a year now).

I used a Stainless Steel pastry scraper for cutting that slab mold salt soap, not a wire. I have no idea how well a wire cutter works with salt soap.

 

[Dawni]

I don't think I'm gonna make salt bars until I find a way to minimize sweating...

Check out re-crystallized salt on the surfaces of these ones. I was gone and hadn't checked on em for about 2wks and for some reason, wasn't surprised to see this.

I also noticed my surfaces aren't as smooth as they initially were... Is this a result of the sweating also? What do these two effects mean for the soap?