My first salt bars

[bombus]

Last night I made my first batch. At 11pm it had been 2 hours in the mold, I knew (from reading here) that I needed to cut,
but the log was hot- in the middle of gel. I posted a question- should I cut anyway?

Then, without waiting for an answer, I cut them. The log did not have the usual 2/tone -center translucent, outer edges
opaque of a normal soap gel stage (thank goodness). I did not separate the slices, but stuck a thick towel over all. This
morning I was able to bevel the edges easily- no big crumble. Now to wait for the shower!

 

[Guest]

WOW those are beautiful, the swirls and the colors are awesome . You Rock

Kitn

 

[ChrissyB]

Bombus they are great. Great job!
I've never coloured my salt bars, it's like I've got too many things happening at once and my brain gets overloaded....but you've inspired me to colour them!
You wait till you try them, they are so nice. And they just get better and better with time, I've got some from a batch I made about 8 months ago, and they are so nice!

 

[bombus]

Thanks, Kitn. I think they look pretty good. Now that I've passed that first hurdle, I can't wait to do another.

Crissy- I took out the swirl soap before I added the salt to the main pot. I'm not sure that was best, as I got
some clumps of unsalted color, but they are small in relation to the rest of it. I felt like if both parts were salted,
it wouldn't swirl well.

I decided to try swirling in the pot, then didn't take my stirring all the way to the bottom, so had some pure white
at the bottom. That's why the finished soap almost looks like a funnel swirl. The pure white went in on top of the
green/white & filled the center, pushing the swirls out toward the edges. I kind of like it, though.

 

[Guest]

Beautiful blue! they look awesome

 

[retropants]

Wow, beautiful swirly salt bars! betya can't wait to use one?

 

[Dixie]

They are really beautiful! Love the color. What percentage of salt did you use?

 

[LJA]

Bombus those turned out BEAUTIFUL!! I love the blue "marbling". Salt bars are fast becoming a fave of mine.

 

[bombus]

Thanks, all

LJA- I purchased a salt bar from a soaper on Etsy to see what all the fuss was about.
Now I'm think'n -Why do we bother making any other kind of soap? Although I'd have
to admit that prolonging the shower to play with & compare 3-4 different bars would be such a loss!

Dixie- Following advice I've read here, I used about 64%. That was figured by multiplying the total oils by
.8, then taking the resulting number and multiplying that by .8 Supposedly that works for any existing recipe.
But I did have extra, so put it in fancy molds that I had on hand. Next time I will have plain ones, as the salt
stuck in the details of the fancy molds I used.

Retro- I'm gonna have to hide them from myself!

SFB- I love the color, too. I expected it to be more green, but it is closer to a teal-
very oceany (is that a word?) I used one of Brambleberry's ultramarines, called Hydrated Chrome Green.

 

[Deda]

They are beautiful! I love the swirls. I've never tried to swirl a salt bar, now you have me thinking!

 

[heyjude]

Great job! Salt bars are definately on my "to do" list.

Thanks for sharing,

Jude

 

[artisan soaps]

..

 

[topcat]

Magical colours - very 'oceany' (yes it is a word - I have spoken :wink: )

Tanya

 

[eucalypta]

Gorgeous soaps - very sealike colour - fabulous

 

[Avalon]

Gorgeous. ou've inspired me to give salt bars another try - first one, 4-5 years ago, was not succesfsul