Salt in my soap?

[ballininthamix]

Hi everyone,

I'm all set to make a batch of soap from a recipe that someone recommended a while back:

30% Olive Oil
25% Coconut Oil
25% Palm Oil
10% Castor Oil
10% Avocado Oil
with 10% superfat

Then i started poking around on the forum here and started seeing posts about salt soap and this piqued my interest. Do you add salt to your batch purely for it exfoliating effects?

Most of the posts I saw, people were using mostly Coconut oil in their recipes. Can I use salt in my recipe? I like a nice exfoliating bar, but I don't like it to be too harsh. I usually use steel cut oats as an additive in my bars. What percentage of oil weight is recommended for salt? Would I need to up my superfat percentage to counteract the drying effects of the salt?

Thanks!
J

Oh, also: Could I use sugar instead of salt? Does it have the same effect?

 

[falldowngobump]

A couple of months ago I made a sea salt soap. I used CC oil 80%, olive oil at 15% and some castor oil to finish it off. I superfatted 20% and used fine sea salt--I think it was 70% of the weight of the oils (more or less). It's cured, hard as a rock (it hardened really fast), very smooth. It's like washing with a smooth rock that bubbles. I don't know how it works, but it really does 'polish' my skin. I really like the ones I made. Hope it goes well for you! Good luck!

 

[falldowngobump]

I think the sugar would just melt--I'm not sure...someone smarter than me will have to chime in.

 

[ToniD]

You can use salt in your recipe, but most people prefer a high coconut oil recipe. the salt will diminish the lather. Like 80% CO and your avocado and castor with that. A higher superfat is usually good with that bar. 18% or so.

I use 75% of my oils weight in salt.


I like to use individual molds because a salt bar will harden quickly and you have to watch it to cut at the right time so it does not crumble.

 

[falldowngobump]

You are so right about that individual mold thing. It is VERY hard to cut once it sets up.

 

[ballininthamix]

Hmmmm. My original goal with this recipe was to have a nice rich lather, so maybe I'll try the salt in a different batch. Thanks for the replies!

 

[judymoody]

100% CO with 20% superfat with 50-75% salt lathers beautifully. However, it needs a good long cure to do so. I tried one at 4 weeks, so-so. At 3 months - wow!

 

[falldowngobump]

At 80% CC oil mine lathers really well. I think the Castor helped with the bubble factor too.