Just extreme soda ash on these salt bars?

[FaebulousFormulas]

Salt bars have been weird for me in general. They are always lovely to use after a nice long cure, but as for appearance and cutting, it's always a little bit wonky. All my salt soap gets soda ash and a sort of white film to some degree, which i think is just the nature of them because of you know...all the salt. These past few batches fully take the prize for most coated of anything I've ever made through my eight or so years of soaping.

I love love love the way salt bars make my skin feel and i'm 99.8% sure this is just a cosmetic issue, but I figured I owed it to myself as a soaper as well as my customers and friends to check what others thought.

I'm thinking it's got a lot to do with temperature and lack of rubbing alcohol(I JUST got some more in at a reasonable price, which i couldn't find before due to COVID). I've been keeping my house colder than usual this summer and so after getting hot ,as coconut oil soap is want to do, it probably drops temperature pretty rapidly and get's super ashy. I also can't help but wonder if me changing salt brands has something to do with it. I used to use Morton or sea salt from a nearby bulk store, but switched to Always Save , which has Yellow Prussiate of Soda instead of calcium silicate as an anti caking agent.

They clear up quite a bit with the first washing, and after a couple days of use are pretty much true to their actual colour. Steaming however doesn't really work unless i STEAM the ever living hell out of them.

Possible solutions i'm thinking of

1.) Just embrace it, it's just soda ash.
2.) Try, as weird as it sounds for coconut oil soap, to CPOP it at the lowest possible temperature
3.) Go back to sea salt
4.) Spray every side liberally with 98% rubbing alcohol once unmolded or cut

Photos are un-used loaf bar. Same bar after one use. Unused cavity bar.

 

[SeaSuds]

I feel your pain...that salt bar on the left of my profile pic should be a lovely green

 

[Obsidian]

Salt bars are know to ash heavily. I just embrace it, after all, it washes right off when used.

 

[shunt2011]

I too have struggled with ash on salt bars. However, I've found that spraying them alcohol and covering them tightly after taking out of the mold so no air can get to them for a few days up to a week helps. They still get a light ash sometimes but not the heavy ash I was getting. I think having them exposed to the air too soon caused a bigger issue. I do embrace light ash and don't worry about it. However, I've had some in the past get a thick ash that wouldn't easily come off. I live salt bars but they can be finicky.