Goat's milk salt bar- now I want to try

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Oregon Groves

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Alright, ya'll have me wanting to try salt bars. The thing is I think my recipe is off.
I was using the soapmaking recipe builder but I use goat's milk and this is very high in fat compared to other goat's milk I have bought ( I buy local goat's milk ).
Anywho, I was reading it is mostly coconut oil so I was going to do coconut oil, lard and castor oil with the goat's milk.

I was going to do
18 oz coconut oil
16 oz lard
4 oz castor oil

I was thinking the coconut oil and salt would be drying to some people's skin, so the castor oil being a humectant would be great and the goat's milk is wonderful.
This will be a considerably hard bar. I don't think I am doing this correctly.
 
Salt bars are typically made using 80% to 100% coconut oil. You're proposing a recipe that's a bit less than 50% coconut oil. Is there a reason why you made this choice?

You also don't mention the superfat. What superfat are you thinking you'll use?

There are a ton of threads about salt bars and how to formulate a good recipe. Here's a list of some for starters -- Search results for query: salt bars
 
Personally I love high-lard soaps, but I agree with DeeAnna that your recipe is out of the norm for salt bars. Unless you are doing a fairly low percentage of salt, say 20% of oil weight, your recipe will most likely have fairly dismal lather. You need the bubbly factor of a high amount of CO (or PKO, or a combo thereof) to offset the bubble-killing salt and high superfat.

Although 80-100% CO is drying for most folks' skin, the combination of a higher superfat + salt + a long cure (8+ months) creates a bar with fluffy, non-drying lather. If you are scratching your head about this, know that a good salt bar is one of those soap creations that defies the usual soapmaking rules. To say it another way, the soap calculator does a fair job of predicting soaps with mixed oils, but not so much when making a soap that is composed of one, or primarily one oil. I've made 100% CO, 100% lard, and 100% OO soaps that people have loved, despite the awful looking soap-calculator numbers.

DeeAnna has given you a link to lots of good threads here about salt bars that will explain in more depth. Hope you get a chance to make these and get them on the curing rack. They are worth waiting for!
 
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