Hi.
I spent a lot of yesterday researching the above (inc posts on this forum) and I still have questions!
I followed a YouTube online salt bar recipe as follows:
50% CO
27% OO
10% Shea
7% Grapeseed
6% Castor Oil
12% Super fat
Water / lye ratio 2.7
The recipe called for 10% (90g) salt, but I reduced this to 70g (really finely ground) and I added 1 1/2 tsp of pink clay.
Added some fig FO and was working away not really noticing there wasn't a great deal of trace until I went to mould up. I gave it another blast with the stick and put in to individual moulds and a 1lb loaf mould. I then realised it still wasn't at the trace I'm used to as any top swirl decorations were just disappearing - I left it for 20 minutes then it had thickened enough to spoon up into soft peaks
Recipe advised to put in fridge, so did that overnight.
Next day (silicon) unmoulding was fine, but one of the individual rounds broke in two as I was prising it out....
Uh-oh.
Went to cut loaf and it was like cutting a crumbly cheese.
I know salt soaps are notorious for crumbling, but I went easy on the amount, so maybe I just didn't mix it enough in the first place?
Aside from that it's a beautiful soap! Using the broken round, it lathers up really well, lovely light pink colour - and the fragrance was surprisingly nice considering I didn't like it at all in the bottle...
So my question is - after researching rebatching until I'm exhausted - I can't find anything that would tell me why a crumbly bar should come together after melting down and cooking through. And apart from adding some water, I can't find any info on how to work with crumble and whether to add any more oil.
It's not lye heavy and there are no oils floating about.
Sorry for the long read, but I've included as much info as poss as I find usually the replies ask these questions anyway![Smile :) :)](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
I spent a lot of yesterday researching the above (inc posts on this forum) and I still have questions!
I followed a YouTube online salt bar recipe as follows:
50% CO
27% OO
10% Shea
7% Grapeseed
6% Castor Oil
12% Super fat
Water / lye ratio 2.7
The recipe called for 10% (90g) salt, but I reduced this to 70g (really finely ground) and I added 1 1/2 tsp of pink clay.
Added some fig FO and was working away not really noticing there wasn't a great deal of trace until I went to mould up. I gave it another blast with the stick and put in to individual moulds and a 1lb loaf mould. I then realised it still wasn't at the trace I'm used to as any top swirl decorations were just disappearing - I left it for 20 minutes then it had thickened enough to spoon up into soft peaks
Recipe advised to put in fridge, so did that overnight.
Next day (silicon) unmoulding was fine, but one of the individual rounds broke in two as I was prising it out....
Uh-oh.
Went to cut loaf and it was like cutting a crumbly cheese.
I know salt soaps are notorious for crumbling, but I went easy on the amount, so maybe I just didn't mix it enough in the first place?
Aside from that it's a beautiful soap! Using the broken round, it lathers up really well, lovely light pink colour - and the fragrance was surprisingly nice considering I didn't like it at all in the bottle...
So my question is - after researching rebatching until I'm exhausted - I can't find anything that would tell me why a crumbly bar should come together after melting down and cooking through. And apart from adding some water, I can't find any info on how to work with crumble and whether to add any more oil.
It's not lye heavy and there are no oils floating about.
Sorry for the long read, but I've included as much info as poss as I find usually the replies ask these questions anyway