Salt Bar Blues

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Navaria

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I want to like salt bars. I REALLY want to like them. I love the idea of them. I love the slight scrubby feel of them. However, my skin does NOT love the high coconut oil content, even with a high SF. I tried a bar again last night after a 6+ month cure. Made my skin feel almost rubbery for some reason. I know the coconut is supposed to help the lather which the salt kills. But lather isn't all that big of deal to me. Has anyone ever made a salt bar without all the CO? I know it's possible, but does it create a product worth using? Or is it just nasty and a waste of good oils? Any suggestions on this?
 
I have not, but somebody here made a salt bar with mostly Palm kernel oil (maybe even 100%) and said it was like washing with a block of plastic.

Google brine bars or solieseife bars. This uses salt but much less, and uses a "regular" soap recipe - meaning a blend of oils.
 
That's what I was afraid of :( To get the scrubby and still have it be good soap I have to use the coconut oil. The brine bars look interesting, and I think I'll give them a go, but they won't have the exfoliation I like. Maybe another mild exfoliant instead? Can you use sugar in a soap bar for exfoliation? Maybe like a cross between a soap and a sugar scrub? Would that help with the lather? Has anyone tried this?

Edited to add: Obviously I would have to pop this baby right in the freezer to keep it from volcanoing if I used enough undissolved sugar to get exfoliation from it.
 
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I never thought about using coffee grounds. Duh! I use them in my Kitchen Sink Soap I guess because I use them for the deodorant properties more than the exfoliant it didn't occur to me lol
 
Has anyone ever made a salt bar without all the CO? I know it's possible, but does it create a product worth using? Or is it just nasty and a waste of good oils? Any suggestions on this?

I make 100% OO and 50% salt bars and I like them, DH loves them.
I've made 80 % OO/20% CO but it's not old enough to test as I usually wait for 6 months. I can test it today if you like but can't compare it to pure OO as they are all gone! I don't use Pomace.
 
I want to like salt bars. I REALLY want to like them. I love the idea of them. I love the slight scrubby feel of them. However, my skin does NOT love the high coconut oil content, even with a high SF. I tried a bar again last night after a 6+ month cure. Made my skin feel almost rubbery for some reason. I know the coconut is supposed to help the lather which the salt kills. But lather isn't all that big of deal to me. Has anyone ever made a salt bar without all the CO? I know it's possible, but does it create a product worth using? Or is it just nasty and a waste of good oils? Any suggestions on this?

I'm trying to figure out how to say this...Please take it with the respect that I intend it to have, not as a criticism, but is there any chance you could be ... well, imagining the problem with CO because you know in your head that's what it's "supposed to" do? Confirmation bias is extremely powerful.

I only ask because I imagine that you have been able to handle lower "doses" of CO in other soaps before - or you wouldn't have bothered trying the 100% in the first place (or 80% or whatever you used). If that's true, that should mean that you're not actually allergic to it, shouldn't it?

Any way you could arrange a blind test with another soaper?


And lest you think, in spite of my protestations, that I'm questioning your judgement, I have a story:

I once brewed a schwartzbier for competition at the Indiana State Fair which won 1st place. (A schwartzbier is a German beer that is as black as Guinness, but should taste and smell just like a good German Pils, say Beck's.)

After the fair was over we used the beer in a beer judge class to test conformation bias. When we gave this black beer to judge students without telling them what it was, the tasting notes mentioned things that apply to stouts and porters - roasty, coffee, chocolate, burnt toast, etc. Mind you NONE of those flavors and aromas were actually present in that beer; their minds put them there because they assumed from the black color that they were being given a stout or porter.

Later in the evening after judging several other beers to confuse things, we blindfolded the same, trained judges and gave them my same beer again. Guess what? All those stout/porter descriptors were gone from their notes and they described it like a German Pils.

Then to drive the point fully home, the following week we tested them again without blindfolds, but this time told them it was a schwartzbier. Again no stout/porter stuff.

So the point is that they found those flavors in the black beer only because they expected them to be there. It might be possible that you're finding high levels of CO intolerable because you expect to find it intolerable.
 
That's what I was afraid of :( To get the scrubby and still have it be good soap I have to use the coconut oil. The brine bars look interesting, and I think I'll give them a go, but they won't have the exfoliation I like. Maybe another mild exfoliant instead? Can you use sugar in a soap bar for exfoliation? Maybe like a cross between a soap and a sugar scrub? Would that help with the lather? Has anyone tried this?

If you have some M&P base lying around Soap Queen had a solid sugar scrub recipe. I think it was a cup of sugar to 10-20oz base? I made it once and it was ok but my mom complained about ants.
 
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I'm trying to figure out how to say this...Please take it with the respect that I intend it to have, not as a criticism, but is there any chance you could be ... well, imagining the problem with CO because you know in your head that's what it's "supposed to" do? Confirmation bias is extremely powerful.

I only ask because I imagine that you have been able to handle lower "doses" of CO in other soaps before - or you wouldn't have bothered trying the 100% in the first place (or 80% or whatever you used). If that's true, that should mean that you're not actually allergic to it, shouldn't it?

Any way you could arrange a blind test with another soaper?


And lest you think, in spite of my protestations, that I'm questioning your judgement, I have a story:

I once brewed a schwartzbier for competition at the Indiana State Fair which won 1st place. (A schwartzbier is a German beer that is as black as Guinness, but should taste and smell just like a good German Pils, say Beck's.)

After the fair was over we used the beer in a beer judge class to test conformation bias. When we gave this black beer to judge students without telling them what it was, the tasting notes mentioned things that apply to stouts and porters - roasty, coffee, chocolate, burnt toast, etc. Mind you NONE of those flavors and aromas were actually present in that beer; their minds put them there because they assumed from the black color that they were being given a stout or porter.

Later in the evening after judging several other beers to confuse things, we blindfolded the same, trained judges and gave them my same beer again. Guess what? All those stout/porter descriptors were gone from their notes and they described it like a German Pils.

Then to drive the point fully home, the following week we tested them again without blindfolds, but this time told them it was a schwartzbier. Again no stout/porter stuff.

So the point is that they found those flavors in the black beer only because they expected them to be there. It might be possible that you're finding high levels of CO intolerable because you expect to find it intolerable.


No offense taken at all. You're right, I can handle CO at lower levels. However I've posted before that I wear gloves every time I have to measure it out because I can't stand to get it on my skin straight up. Even today my hands feel very dry and my turgor is terrible! I was hoping the very high SF would make a difference. I know it's not an allergy, just more of a sensitivity or general incompatibility. Maybe it is in my head, but if so my skin is in cahoots with my brain lol. Maybe I can make a different soap with jojoba beads in it and try a blind test that way? So the texture is close to the salt bar and doesn't give it away?
 
I make 100% OO and 50% salt bars and I like them, DH loves them.
I've made 80 % OO/20% CO but it's not old enough to test as I usually wait for 6 months. I can test it today if you like but can't compare it to pure OO as they are all gone! I don't use Pomace.

Just tested the 80/20 OO/CO oil.
One is 6 months old with 35% salt and doesn't lather much and doesn't feel as nice as I remember the OO salt bar. One is a week old with 50% salt and doesn't lather at all. (Not reasonable to expect it would.)

I am not making that recipe again and will stick to 100% OO or my standard recipe and add salt to it as we all preferred the 100% OO or my standard recipe with 35 or 50% salt. We don't have any of these salt bars left which shows something!
 
Salt bars are not really scrubby. You should never use any salt other than fine or extra fine and they will actually become smooth like a river rock. Salt is a natural exfoliant. You could try 50:50 pko & coconut


Really? Mine are slightly scrubby. I don't remember what size I used, but I'm pretty sure it was fine. It has never been smooth to the touch. It almost feels like a fine pumice stone.

Edited to add I just checked. it's extra fine salt
 
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I make 100% OO and 50% salt bars and I like them, DH loves them.
I've made 80 % OO/20% CO but it's not old enough to test as I usually wait for 6 months. I can test it today if you like but can't compare it to pure OO as they are all gone! I don't use Pomace.


Does 100% OO salt bar take as long to cure as a regular OO bar?
 
Does 100% OO salt bar take as long to cure as a regular OO bar?

My 100% OO salt bars never make it to the 6 month mark as DH uses them up.
They are certainly hard enough to use at 3 months. The first batch I made did sweat a bit for 2 months. None of my other soaps have so I don't know what happened there.
 
My 100% OO salt bars never make it to the 6 month mark as DH uses them up.
They are certainly hard enough to use at 3 months. The first batch I made did sweat a bit for 2 months. None of my other soaps have so I don't know what happened there.

Sounds like I'm going to have to give this a try!
 
Have you tried babassu? It's kinda expensive but is a good alternative to co in salt bars.
Maybe get a small amount and see if you have sensitivity to it.
I was gifted a 100% babassu salt bar before, really couldn't see much difference in lather from a co salt bar.
 
Really? Mine are slightly scrubby. I don't remember what size I used, but I'm pretty sure it was fine. It has never been smooth to the touch. It almost feels like a fine pumice stone.

Edited to add I just checked. it's extra fine salt

Did you use pink himalayan salt? If so, that would definitely be a problem. It may say "extra fine" on the packaging but in soap, it's a LIE!!!

I have used corn meal and like it. It is scrubby, but feels a little gentler, some how.

Thanks for stating that. Since i'm STILL SICK. I have not had a chance to make chili and cornbread like I wanted.
 
Did you use pink himalayan salt? If so, that would definitely be a problem. It may say "extra fine" on the packaging but in soap, it's a LIE!!!
You are definetly correct about Himalayan salt and it is the reason I do not use it except as a brine, Gray Sea Salt is another that will be scrubby. I don't want the scrub to come from the salt and chance causing abrasions to my skin, I only want the benefits I get from the salt so I add in oatmeal to make my salt bars scrubby. I usually use around 110% fine Pacific Sea Salt.
 
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