Salted Tops

[Grod]

Good evening,

Long time lurker, first time poster.

I am still a novice soap maker and I am likely doing something wrong, but when i put salt on the tops of my soap, it "weeps" as it cures, or otherwise stays wet until it completely dissolves as the soap cures.

I get that my soap is releasing water as it cures, but how do I prevent this? I can't seem to find anyone else with this issue and see a lot of recipes calling for salt on the top.

Currently, I am using sea salt, CP method and it is happening with a variety of different recipes.

Thank you in advance,

G

 

[Obsidian]

Any change you live in a humid area? Salt will pull moisture out of the air and puddle like that.
You can put a small fan on your soaps to help keep them dry or just skip the salt decorations. It might look pretty but if you are using big chunky salt, it can slice skin.

I got a nasty cut on my chest from large salt. I'll never use it again. In fact, I don't use anything on top anymore. Pretty to look at, pain in the butt to actually use.

 

[Grod]

Any change you live in a humid area? Salt will pull moisture out of the air and puddle like that.
You can put a small fan on your soaps to help keep them dry or just skip the salt decorations. It might look pretty but if you are using big chunky salt, it can slice skin.

I got a nasty cut on my chest from large salt. I'll never use it again. In fact, I don't use anything on top anymore. Pretty to look at, pain in the butt to actually use.

Thanks for the reply and advice.

I live in a very dry area however I do my house does use a central humidifier. Still makes it pretty perplexing.

 

[DeeAnna]

It's pretty normal actually. Salt is hygroscopic and it's going to absorb water wherever it can find water. Only dry winter air keeps my salt soaps from absorbing water vapor and getting weepy. In our humid summers, they stay fairly damp unless I store them in airtight packaging. I haven't noticed that cure time makes all that much difference.

 

[earlene]

I have never put salt on top of my soap and don't quite understand why one would want to. I have however made salt bars which had a lot of salt in the soap. The salt bars attract a lot of moisture from the air with water pooling on the surface. It was much more obvious when we were in areas with high humidity, but even in a home with Central Air Conditioning some rooms can be more humid than others. Bathrooms & Kitchens, for example when showers are used, or water is boiled for tea, or making soup (that kind of thing), so salt attracts the moisture from the air.

My experience with preventing the pooling of water with salt bars is that as long as they are shrink-wrapped (air-tight), they stay dry even in humid conditions until I remove the wrapper.