Salt bar with lard?

[Obsidian]

Has anyone ever used lard in a salt bar? I just made a small batch with 80% CO, 15% lard and 5% Castor. Used 62.5% salt, scented with tea tree oil and a touch of coconut lime FO.
I'm hoping the lard will increase the creaminess and conditioning.

 

[cmzaha]

It should be great. I love lard in soap

 

[sunfloweracres]

Sounds great. How did it turn out?

 

[Obsidian]

I love lard too, all my soaps have at least a little. Not sure why I never thought about using it in a salt bar before this. So far they look really good. My salt bars never harden as fast as other peoples do, I won't be able to unmold until tomorrow.
I'm really surprised by the scent. I had very little of the lime coconut to mix with the tea tree oil but it really helped cover the medicinal smell.

 

[judymoody]

My understanding is that the only oil that reliably will produce lather in salt water is coconut oil. That's why they used to call CO soap "marine soap" and it was used by sailors on the open sea. However, I am very curious about your results. Received wisdom isn't always accurate. Please report on your soap when it's ready.

 

[Obsidian]

I normally use 80% CO, 15% OO and 5% castor for my salt bars and they lather just fine. I think the lard might have helped keep it from hitting instance trace too. It was still relatively thin when I poured, just thick enough to keep the salt suspended which worked great for my cavity mold.

I did a experiment once, made a 100% PKO salt bar and it had 0 lather. Was like trying to wash with a piece of plastic, really weird. I definitely will report back on these bars.

The salt bars I made with neem and pine oil have improved a great deal too. At first there was very little lather, it was extremely thin and watery. Now it lathers like a normal salt bar should. I need to move it into the shower to see how they do on my skin issues.

 

[girlishcharm2004]

I did a experiment once, made a 100% PKO salt bar and it had 0 lather. Was like trying to wash with a piece of plastic, really weird. I definitely will report back on these bars.

Ha ha! Forgive me for saying, but that sounded hilarious and I had this great mental image of washing with plastic!!!

And you're bar sounds absolutely delightful! Lard sounds like a great addition to a salt bar soap!

 

[Crombie]

Salt bars

I made some salt bars using 80% CO, 15% avocado oil, and 5% castor oil, superfatted at 20%. I held back 1.5 oz of the avocado and mixed with my FO and added at the end of the cook as a SF. I used 50% fine black lava salt. The bars have amazing lather. Once they firm up some, but still warm, you can use a planer on them and get rid of the crumbles. I called these Santa's Chimney Bricks.

Add-on comment. I made these a week ago and was going to wait 2 weeks to use but husband wanted to try them. We are both in love with this soap. It could not possibly have more lather than it does and it feels really good on your skin. Remember, with salt bars you don't use a washcloth - you use them right on your skin. They were not drying at all. I was planning to give these out for Christmas gift but my husband begged me to save him some so I will be making more this next weekend.

 

[Crombie]

Salt bars

I forgot to add that I added 1 tsp ppo Sodium Lactate to lye water right before adding to melted oils.

 

[CaraCara]

Nice! For HP do you add the salt at the end of the cook or during? Might be a silly question but I've only ever made it CP and the results have been meh.

 

[shunt2011]

May I ask why you used Sodium Lactate? I've never used it in my salt bars as I usually only use it in my other recipes to make it harder and easier to unmold but find that my salt bars are hard after about 2-3 hours. Just curious if maybe I'm missing something that add goodness to the salt bars.

 

[cmzaha]

My understanding is that the only oil that reliably will produce lather in salt water is coconut oil. That's why they used to call CO soap "marine soap" and it was used by sailors on the open sea. However, I am very curious about your results. Received wisdom isn't always accurate. Please report on your soap when it's ready.

80% coconut will still give a nice lathering salt bar. It is very true that 100% coconut soap is the "Sailors" soap. Used it many times when out fishing to wash my hands in the salt water. But I find adding in small percentage of shea or avocado make a nicer salt bar.

Your salt bar will not harden as fast with only 62% salt. I use up to 110% salt in my bars which harden in 45 min to 1 hr

 

[Obsidian]

Just did a test lather and I think I've found a keeper. These bars have a much richer lather then any of my other salt bars. I do love lard

 

[Ancel]

Me too, Oink oink

 

[Crombie]

Salt Bars SL Question

CaraCara: In HP you add the salt at the end of the cook (and work really, really fast!) I also highly recommend using silicone molds with cavities instead of a regular loaf mold - then you don't have to worry about when to cut them.

 

[Crombie]

Shunt2011: I use SL in all my HP soaps - not for the hardness, but for the fluidity and smoothness it gives the soap.

 

[Ruthie]

This is great to read. I REALLY WANTED to add lard to my first salt bar experiments, but was not brave enough. I am a huge fan of lard. But personally, I do not find the salt bars to "feel" as good as what I have read. They are fine, but nothing special IMO. I'm thinking the lard would help.

 

[Obsidian]

I'll let you know in 4 weeks how much of a difference there is.

 

[thunderwagn]

Is there any update to this? I've been kicking around the idea of using some lard in a batch of salt bars.

 

[Obsidian]

I haven't used one of these bars in quite some time so I just pulled one out and washed my hands. It has lather like you would expect from a salt bar, thick and creamy but it seems to take more work to get the lather built. If I use lard again, I'll also use 5% castor.
I still prefer my 80% CO, 15% OO and 5% castor salt bars. Beer or coconut milk adds extra creaminess and bubbles.