Has anyone added ingredients to soap that has been salted out?

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JayJay

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Hi There,

I am about to salt out a few oops batches of soap that are horribly scented or don't lather due to too many additives.
My questions are:
1. Will I really miss the glycerin on my skin? Has anyone used salted out soap in the shower and compared it to a similar formula virgin CP soap?
2. Has anyone added glycerin to salted out soap? If so, how did it turn out? How did you add it?
3. Has anyone added FO to salted out soap? If so, how did it turn out?
4. Superfat, same questions?

Even though I am asking for actual experience, I am also welcoming thoughts , theories and hypotheses! I can test out some suggestions and post the results.
In my mind, I would like to treat the salted out soap like HP soap-- Heat it up and add what I want. But if anyone has tried this and failed, please let me know.
Some people say that everything extra in soap washes down the drain anyway. If this is true then the salted out soap should feel the same as the original soap right? I plan to test some plain salted out soap and see if I can tell the difference compared with my standard 5% bars.
 
I salted out a batch that had way too much coffee ground and a horrible FO. It removed most all the smell and the vast majority of the coffee grounds but the resulting soap was awful.
It was crumbly and had a very weird texture, it was extremely drying and all around bad. I didn't try adding SF or glycerin, it probably would have helped but I was was so disgusted I tossed it all.

I suggest trying a small batch to see what you think of the end product and the messy process. I'd split it and add SF/glycerin back to a portion. Most people find salted out soap quite harsh.
I really think there are better options then salting out, would any of it work in a confetti soap?
 
I'm sorry, I am still very new to the world of soap making. What exactly is salted out soap?
 
It is soap that has been boiled in salt water to remove everything from the soap- scent, color, glycerin, fragrance, and any other additives that were put into the soap. I am using it to correct some soaps that I will never otherwise use.
 
Oh ok. Thank you for explaining that. Might come in handy when I have a batch misbehave in some way. Which I know will happen since I am starting to play with colors and such I will have to research this!
 
I typed out a whole reply that I accidentally deleted. I will try to recreate.

Obsidian-- what you describe sounds like no fun. Thanks for the feedback. It also sounds like glycerine and superfat do really stick to the skin if this salted out soap felt harsh.

I have about 6 pounds of soap shredded, so thank you for the suggestion of taking a little as a test!

I have never made confetti soap before but I can definitely try that as well.

I salted out a batch that had way too much coffee ground and a horrible FO. It removed most all the smell and the vast majority of the coffee grounds but the resulting soap was awful.
It was crumbly and had a very weird texture, it was extremely drying and all around bad. I didn't try adding SF or glycerin, it probably would have helped but I was was so disgusted I tossed it all.

I suggest trying a small batch to see what you think of the end product and the messy process. I'd split it and add SF/glycerin back to a portion. Most people find salted out soap quite harsh.
I really think there are better options then salting out, would any of it work in a confetti soap?

I am wondering if this texture issue is the reason why commercial soaps are pressed with those industrial super pressurized machines.

Oh ok. Thank you for explaining that. Might come in handy when I have a batch misbehave in some way. Which I know will happen since I am starting to play with colors and such I will have to research this!

The resulting soap won't really resemble your usual homemade soap. Some people use it for laundry. My recipes aren't cleansing enough so I won't want to use it that way. Sigh. I guess I will just play around with a little and see how it turns out.
 
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I am wondering if this texture issue is the reason why commercial soaps are pressed with those industrial super pressurized machines.

I'm sure its part of the reason. The salted soap has a almost curdled like texture and it doesn't like to stick to itself very well.

First time I salted out, I tried to drain the excess liquid off the soap by using nylons as a filter and squeezing the soap, didn't work too well and I got a lot of crumbling.

Second time I salted out, I gently scooped the floating blobs of soap out of the brine and put it in a silicone slab mold. Any excess liquid pooled together and I was able to pour it off. The resulting mess of soap seemed to have a better texture but was still weird and waxy. Luckily it was destined for laundry soap.
 
If you want to mold the soap into a bar form, you need to reheat the soap until it's fluid, similar to what you would do for a rebatch. There may be enough water already in the salted-out soap curds so you won't need to add much, if any, extra liquid. (And this extra liquid would include glycerin, superfat, and/or fragrance, if you use them).

I also added 2-3% sodium lactate based on the starting scrap weight and I'd add it when the soap was melted before molding. SL added fluidity to the melted soap, so it's nice if you can use it, but definitely optional.

If you want to add superfat, go easy. If the original soap is superfatted already, that superfat just doesn't magically disappear -- it's still in the salted-out soap! It is possible to a bit of lye and cook the soap and lye to intentionally saponify free fats. If you did this "boiling" step, it happens before doing any salting out. In that case, you could add a "new" superfat when you melt the soap down to mold it.

If you want to add glycerin, go for it. I didn't and I can't say I miss it, but I might try it next time I salt out. If I did add glycerine, I would add about 5-10% based on the starting scrap weight. Add when you melt the soap to get it ready for molding.

As far as scent -- yes, it works fine. Dosage is similar to HP -- go a little lighter since you're not cooking it off as happens with CP. The FO I used was new to me at the time and I've learned it's a fader, but that is not a problem caused by the soap.

Plan on curing the salted-out bars about a month, just like rebatch or regular soap.

Like Susie said, rebatching and salting out are not things I want to do routinely -- both are time consuming and rather messy. They come in handy once in awhile for specific reasons, but I'd rather make soap, not fix it. :)

I wrote a tutorial based on the thread about salting-out that Boyago started -- click the link at the bottom of this post. The pic is of a bar from the salting out I did earlier this year.

saltedOutSoap.jpg
 
If you want to mold the soap into a bar form, you need to reheat the soap until it's fluid, similar to what you would do for a rebatch. There may be enough water already in the salted-out soap curds so you won't need to add much, if any, extra liquid.

^^^ Just what I wanted to hear :)

I also added 2-3% sodium lactate based on the starting scrap weight and I'd add it when the soap was melted before molding. SL added fluidity to the melted soap...

^^^ I have some SL but I have never used it before. I will definitely give it a try here.

If you want to add superfat, go easy. If the original soap is superfatted already, that superfat just doesn't magically disappear -- it's still in the salted-out soap!

^^^ I was under the impression that the extra fat boils into the water and gets rinsed away. I don't know where I got that impression.
Anyway, if SF remains then I won't need to add any additional.

If you want to add glycerin, go for it. I didn't and I can't say I miss it, but I might try it next time I salt out. If I did add glycerine, I would add about 5-10% based on the starting scrap weight. Add when you melt the soap to get it ready for molding.

As far as scent -- yes, it works fine. Dosage is similar to HP -- go a little lighter since you're not cooking it off as happens with CP.

Plan on curing the salted-out bars about a month, just like rebatch or regular soap.
.

Thanks! That's everything I need to know (I think). Yes something tells me that I may regret this project but I am going to be brave (or foolish) and try it anyway.
:)
 
We're all feeling our way on this technique so I'm sure we'll refine things as we go. I know I would like to tweak things about how I handled it. I went to the melt and mold step too soon. The curds need to dry more first.
 
Before this thread, I'd never heard of salting out before. It sounds very tedious and, after reading all the advice, makes my head hurt to think about doing LOL
 
Of all the ways to deal with "not good" soap, rebatching and salting out are at the bottom of the list. Please let us know how it turns out?

Your statement implied a myriad of other options to deal with 'not good' soap. The only one that I could think of off the top of my head is variations of incorporating it into other batches (confetti, embeds, etc). I am curious what your other suggestions might be as re-batching and salting-out hold no allure for me.
 
While I've obviously done this salting out and I've done one re batch, I'd much rather do confetti soap with nice trimmings. But it's good to have more than one tool to solve a problems.
 
I've only salted out soap and added more lye to take out the excess oils to use for laundry soap. It was a yucky pepto bismulth color soap when finished. But it worked just fine for laundry.
 
I'm surprised your soap had color. For my salted-out soap batch and the other salted-out soaps I've seen that others have done, the finished soap ends up an ivory or almost white color. Mine was an ugly brown to start with.
 
I'm surprised your soap had color. For my salted-out soap batch and the other salted-out soaps I've seen that others have done, the finished soap ends up an ivory or almost white color. Mine was an ugly brown to start with.

Well I had used lots of scraps that were primarily red and brown! Too much
 
I think that people tend to repeat the process until most of the color is gone.

I am not a voice of authority however. My attempt at salting out was a disaster. Maybe someone more knowledgable will chime in. :)
 
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