KimR
Well-Known Member
April? How long do they need to cure prior to usage?
Salt bar questions
- Thread starter DKing
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Part of the curing factor will depend on the amount of salt used. A bar with only 20% salt will be pretty decent at the 4-5 month cure. My bars with 100 % salt to Oil I prefer a min of 8 months with 12 preferably. Anything after twelve months they just get better and better. I have a bar here I cherish that is somewhere around 7 yrs old. Any bar with less than 100% salt I still feel is better with a 6-month min cure.
I have always waited 6 months, but just this week I started using one that is a little more than 4 months into cure (because I wanted to use the smell). It was 50% salt, and I have to say the bar is very nice, and lathers like a champ.
MarnieSoapien
Well-Known Member
Based on @dibbles and @cmzaha posts, I decided to try my salt bars. Wowza! I have been converted! The batch I made isn't as pretty as @DKing's and they had some ash. I got immediate later and so many fluffy bubbles! I can't wait to make more and now I know that a 4 month cure is good for this recipe.
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Inspired by the buzz about salt bars I thought I’d try out how versatile they can be. I’ve made 3 batches: the white one is 30% (of total weight) fine sea salt and I hope to use it as a facial and ladies shaving bar. The one on the left is a lovely green under that thick layer of soda ash. It has 50/50 mix of fine salt, fine pumice powder (at 30%) with some seaweed powder and green clay which I intend to use as a working hands scrubby soap. The black one has fine sea salt, pumice and poppy seeds with charcoal powder which will hopefully be a foot scrub. All the recipes have coconut milk powder too. The black one was just unmoulded today so it will be interesting to see how much soda ash appears. Maybe in the future I’ll just keep them white because of the soda ash. The black one still seems to be a bit soft after 24hrs which may be due to all the additives? Anyway it was a fun experiment and I hope they turn out as expected!!
I made salt bars last year and after a 4 month cure my husband and son loved them but my daughter and I found them too drying and left us with itchy skin. I pulled them out again last week and the verdict is still the same between the male and females but interestingly I do love them on my face. I have rosacea and have definitely seen an improvement.
I made salt bars last year and after a 4 month cure my husband and son loved them but my daughter and I found them too drying and left us with itchy skin. I pulled them out again last week and the verdict is still the same between the male and females but interestingly I do love them on my face. I have rosacea and have definitely seen an improvement.
I owe you guys an apology. The salt bar I mentioned earlier as being really nice at 4 months was actually made in October 2019. So it's actually 10 months old - no wonder I loved it. I discovered this when I was doing some organizing - I didn't have the date written on the label of those salt bars and my memory failed me.
I tried one that is actually 4 months old in the shower today, and while it is getting there, and I liked it well enough it's been put aside to rest a few more months. This particular bar is also a little different from my regular recipe in that I used 10% shea oil that needed to be used up instead of my regular avocado oil. The lather was good, but not the explosion that a longer cured salt bar gives me. Also my skin is feeling a little bit drier.
All this to say - try it at 4 months and see how you like it. I make a couple of batches of salt bars 3 or 4 times a year so I always have some fully cured.
I tried one that is actually 4 months old in the shower today, and while it is getting there, and I liked it well enough it's been put aside to rest a few more months. This particular bar is also a little different from my regular recipe in that I used 10% shea oil that needed to be used up instead of my regular avocado oil. The lather was good, but not the explosion that a longer cured salt bar gives me. Also my skin is feeling a little bit drier.
All this to say - try it at 4 months and see how you like it. I make a couple of batches of salt bars 3 or 4 times a year so I always have some fully cured.
I hesitated to respond to this thread, because everyone who posted seemed to absolutely lover their salt bars, and I didn't feel that my experience was the norm, but since you mention that both you and your daughter still find them too drying and results in itchy skin for you both, I decided to share my experience.
I still have some salt bars I made over 2 years ago with100% CO and 20% SF with salt at 1:1 weight of oils, fragranced with Tea Tree Oil. I was undecided when I first used a bar and every time since. At 2 years, I still found them too drying, resulting in uncomfortable itchiness. The salt I used was plain non-iodized table salt, since I never did buy any popcorn salt as planned. I had not thought of offering one of the bars to my husband. He may like them while so far I do not.
I really should try another recipe with a more conditioning oil in the mix as others have mentioned. Perhaps it is my high sensitivity to the cleansing factor of Coconut Oil OR maybe the Tea Tree Oil is a factor. So perhaps I'll give it another go with one of the recipes suggested here and forego the EO and use an FO that I know my skin has not reaction to (I don't know that the TTO has anything to do with it, but it's worth considering.)
But in the meantime, I will put one in my husband's soap dish and ask him what he thinks.
I’d like to make a salt bar that is %80 CO %15 AVO %5 Castor that would be good and ready in 4-5 months. What would be the max salt PPO I should use?
AlexanderMakesSoap
Well-Known Member
I've made one salt bar so far, and it's the Wife's favorite soap of the three dozen I've made...
70% CO 14% OO 8% Shea 8% Castor with 12% SF and 10oz Him salt (fine) to 25oz oils. I used a 45% lye solution and began using the bar at about 4 weeks.
It's got a great lather, and nice exfoliating feel to it that's mild enough for the face.
70% CO 14% OO 8% Shea 8% Castor with 12% SF and 10oz Him salt (fine) to 25oz oils. I used a 45% lye solution and began using the bar at about 4 weeks.
It's got a great lather, and nice exfoliating feel to it that's mild enough for the face.
Why such a high lye solution?
AlexanderMakesSoap
Well-Known Member
Why not!?
I figure the less water I put in, the less I need to wait for the water to come out. I make all my soaps now with 40-45% lye solutions and haven't had any issues with quick trace. I haven't been doing anything fancy, cosmetically though.
That green is gorgeous!
I like salt bars fine, but they are to harsh for me to use daily (especially since I don't regularly use lotion). I have only tried 100% CO as well, but I have a batch with 20% shea curing now. I'll have to see if I like that one better.
I like salt bars fine, but they are to harsh for me to use daily (especially since I don't regularly use lotion). I have only tried 100% CO as well, but I have a batch with 20% shea curing now. I'll have to see if I like that one better.
Can a salt bar be HP to speed cure time?
I’d like to make a salt bar that is %80 CO %15 AVO %5 Castor that would be good and ready in 4-5 months. What would be the max salt PPO I should use?
I’d like to make a salt bar that is %80 CO %15 AVO %5 Castor that would be good and ready in 4-5 months. What would be the max salt PPO I should use?
HP only speeds up saponification, not the cure. You can use less water like @AlexanderMakesSoap so that it hardens faster, but it still needs cure time. I've only made 50% salt, so I can't speak to any difference that salt % might make, but @cmzaha says that less curing is necessary when you start reducing the salt below 100%. I don't know why salt bars need so much time to become gentler; perhaps someone else can explain the chemistry behind that.
You could make some 50% salt bars now and try them in 4-5 months to see what you think. But trying them that early might give you a false impression of salt bars. My experience with my 50% bars is that they start getting nice around 6-8 mos, but are awesome at 10-12 mos.
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But none are at their best, in my opinion at less than a 1 yr cure. I just find with less salt they will still lather at the shorter cure time but with the 100% salt that I use they usually do not lather much if any under a 1-year cure. BTW a 5 year cure time makes such a fantastic salt bar you will never want to use it up.
At least I do not!
%
You can use up to 100% of your oils, depending on what you like.
I have made them at %100, but not used them yet.
I wanted to make some ready by valentines, but the time got away from me.
So now I was wondering if %70 vs %100 salt ppo might be ready sooner. Sounds like maybe not.
The only way to tell is to try them out.
I’d like to add some tallow to salt bars. Maybe %20. Would that be a terrible idea?
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