Soleseife soap

[Steve85569]

"...Sodium hydroxide has a much higher affinity for water than salt or sugar or most other additives)..."

I agree about NaOH being more soluble than NaCl (table salt) so you have to add the salt first to get the desired result.

The issue with adding table sugar into lye solution vs. into plain water is not related to solubilty. There is a chemical reaction between components of the sugar and NaOH. If this reaction occurs when the table sugar is still in large grains, the sugar granules clump together into a mass. If you get the sugar dissolved first, the reaction still happens, but on a molecular level.

My bad. I forgot about the caramel that I got when I did that. Once....

 

[cascarral]

I usually run the salt down at 20% and then add the NaOH. The lye then looks normal but the bars do need to be cut sooner than a "regular" recipe. The salt does harden the batch quicker.

I think what's going on here is that the Sodium hydroxide has a much higher affinity for water than salt or sugar or most other additives) so it must be added after the other additive are completely dissolved or the additive can only achieve a solution. Thus it will precipitate back out. If 26 or 27% salt is in the water the sodium hydroxide will strong arm the water molecules away from the salt (NaCl)

Hello! Can you explain me more about how you make brine bars? I want to make a batch in a loaf mold but haven't been successful even at 15% salt, cutting them the day after.

You said with 20% you don't have to cut sooner than a normal bar, how much do you wait to cut? Is your recipe mainly soft oils? Mine is OO 40% and still cracking...

 

[Steve85569]

I said that I DO need to cut sooner since the salt hardens the soap quicker. If memory serves me correctly I would make soap in the morning and cut in the evening. It may even been as early as the afternoon. The do bear watching - just not as much as salt bars which are an entirely different thing.

Nearly all of my recipes are Lard at close to 50% with palm, coconut, shea butter, olive , soy wax and 5% castor. coconut oil is 10 to 14% with the amounts of palm and olive being the ones that vary the most. I usually would NOT put soy wax in either a brine or salt bar recipe.

 

[Nona'sFarm]

This is extremely interesting. Can't wait to try making some soleseife soap. All the recipes I've found so far call for making a brine first with 4 parts distilled water and one part fine plain salt; then add lye. They vary around the amount of CO, some call for 100%, and other recipes use less. They all recommend using flat molds (not loaf). So I'm going to try :
50% CO
25% OO
20% PO
5% Castor oil
with 10% SF
Brine water at the 4 parts /1 part concentration

I've got a couple of projects ahead of this one. But as soon as I get to it, I'll report back. So much fun!

 

[LBV]

Hi, most of my soaps are brine soaps as I am like my bars quite hard. I also made a CO brine bar for laundry. Salt is 20% weight of water). I was thinking that the brine would lower the foaming of the CO (I have a front loader). I have just got a new machine and instructions say don't use salt. So the question is does the salt stay in the bar or does the chemical reaction alter it?

 

[cascarral]

Hi, most of my soaps are brine soaps as I am like my bars quite hard. I also made a CO brine bar for laundry. Salt is 20% weight of water). I was thinking that the brine would lower the foaming of the CO (I have a front loader). I have just got a new machine and instructions say don't use salt. So the question is does the salt stay in the bar or does the chemical reaction alter it?

For what I can understand it does stay in the final bar. When I make my brine solution the salt appears to be completely dissolved (I use a very weak solution, like 10%), however after adding the lye some of the salt separates again and you can see the crystals, I've even filtered it and a lot of the salt crystals stay on the filter so I'd guess there's still most of the salt in my soap as well.

 

[smengot0]

The tricky part is pronunciation, "soul-lay-say-ef-aye"

LOL

 

[Mtn5ro]

". They all recommend using flat molds (not loaf). So I'm going to try "
50% CO
25% OO
20% PO
5% Castor oil
with 10% SF
Brine water at the 4 parts /1 part concentration

I did a loaf.
Don't forget the water needed for the lye to dissolve in. Otherwise the salt will precipitate out as I found out. (Thank goodness).
I followed your plan except 33% coconut, 10%Avocado, 7% castor, 30% evo, 20% Shea butter.