something wrong with my salt bar but what is it?

[kumudini]

I have a head scratcher here, please forgive my long story.
The soap in question is a mini rebatch of several slivers off of a chunk of soap made in a shoe box ' mold'. Cut way too much off trying to get decent looking soap. It was a second batch of my first recipe, a regular soap recipe with only 26% CO and 10% lye discount. So, I thought of trying a rebatch.At the last minute before molding up I threw in some salt, roughly 50% oil weight. Wasnt a brilliant idea but I just wanted to get a feel of it.

The parent soap was fine. So far all my soaps behaved well, passed my dry skin test ( I had very dry skin when I was using commercial bar soaps, so much so that within half an hour after shower my skin would start feeling stretchy and itchy if I didn't smother it in a ton of moisturizer right away. So I figured if any soap could let me put the lotion bottle/ bb jar away for a day or two, it is good soap).
I have not zap tested any, don't have ph strips either. I know I was going to be taught by soap someday but didnt expect it from this particular bar. I had used one of these about 3 weeks after it was made, it was fine then, was not wow, but didn't do any harm, I even finished that bar. Fast forward to now, I recently started thinking of experimenting with 100% CO HP soap and then adding different oils/ butters at 20% SF along with salt and scent to kind of see which one would give the best results. So I remembered this soap, gave it a go AND my skin saw hell again. It was very dry, itchy and actually burned some.

I really don't understand how this could happen. Perplexed, flabbergasted really. It was processed twice, fully cured almost 4 months.The same Soap without salt was good, even with it was good, just not right now. The soap was unscented and I used kosher salt. Soap is not at all scratchy, I guess the heat just dissolved the salt entirely. I read that salt soaps are not drying and they are very good for skin. So how did it suddenly become drying? Now I am scared to touch it again, and Im not sure if I want to go ahead with my experiment, which is kind of silly because I see that salt bars are among the best sellers for many soap makers and there must be a good reason for it.
If they are not suitable for people with very dry skin( which is not what I read btw), how did I tolerate it the first time?
Ok, I'm not going to pull out any more of my hair. Hoping that the experts here could throw some light on this situation. How do I go about finding out? Would zap testing it now tell me anything? Even if it had lye pockets to begin with, it has been sitting for months, wouldn't the lye be cured out by now?

 

[galaxyMLP]

I would still zap test it. It doesn't take much time. I did it in the shower with a couple of my bars. That way just in case I did get zapped, I had the water right there already running. If your skin had any cuts on it, the salt can irritate them (think going into the ocean) other than that I'm not sure. I have very sensitive skin and I love my salt bar that I made (its 100% oo so it doesn't lather but I don't mind) its very gentle but a very hard bar.

Eta: did you add another fragrance in the rebatch? That could be it too! (More likely that!)

Oh wait, you said it was unscented... My bad

 

[lsg]

Are you sure it wasn't your skin reacting to the salt? If the parent batch was OK, I don't see how the rebatch could be lye heavy.

 

[dixiedragon]

Are you rubbing the salt bar directly on your body? The salt bar is full of tiny salt crystals that can scratch or cut you.

 

[kumudini]

Thank you Galaxy, for trying to troubleshoot. I have no cuts or scrapes as of now. so, no salt on wounds case here. It was just dryness all over. Don't know what went wrong. It caught me off guard, as it all has been such nice experience with the handmade stuff until now.
I might just try the third and last bar, zap test and use on my hands to see how that is. I will update the result afterwards.
Also, can you tell me how much lye discount in your 100% OO salt bar? I would include it in my experiment if and when I do it.

 

[kumudini]

Are you rubbing the salt bar directly on your body? The salt bar is full of tiny salt crystals that can scratch or cut you.

The salt bar surface is quite smooth DD, could it still have micro crystals? I do use soap directly on my skin. But, I did that with my previous bar too, it did nothing like this. I guess it's better to use a bath pouf with salt bars.

 

[galaxyMLP]

I used a 5% lye discount. I use it directly on my body since it doesn't lather AT ALL. It is very smooth though and I don't have an issue with my skin drying out. I just have to make sure I rinse it really well. Otherwise if the salt stays on me, and that can feel drying. Oh, and I use 30% very fine salt

 

[kumudini]

Are you sure it wasn't your skin reacting to the salt? If the parent batch was OK, I don't see how the rebatch could be lye heavy.

I didn't think it was lye heavy, I was just answering an inevitable ' did u zap test' question in the responses. I also thought something was wrong with my skin. Could be, all that salt drew out water from my skin. After all, salt lather must be very hyperosmolar. Hypertonic saline has some medical uses for that same reason. Then, shouldn't everyone using a salt bar experience this? Shouldn't I have experienced it the first time?

 

[dixiedragon]

The salt bar surface is quite smooth DD, could it still have micro crystals? I do use soap directly on my skin. But, I did that with my previous bar too, it did nothing like this. I guess it's better to use a bath pouf with salt bars.

Yes, it still has salt crystals. in my salt soap the surface is quite smooth, but if I scrub myself with the bar I can definitely feel the crystals.

Also, if your skin is that dry, you may want to try a bar with 10% or less of coconut oil.

 

[Obsidian]

I have very dry skin and most the time I can use salt bars with no trouble but sometimes they will make me dry. If that happens, I stop using them for awhile. Mostly its during the winter when the air is dry in the house, once summer comes around I start using the salt bars again I am fine.
making salt bars HP is a challenge, they behave much better if you do CP. don't forget to use 20% SF and cure for at least 4 months.

 

[kumudini]

Thank you all for your replys. May be I picked the wrong time to use it. It is spring time here, furnace output is minimal. Last time I used it successfully was middle of winter. I will try again in July. Obsidian, thank you for the suggestions, I will do CP but I also want to try HP.
For the rec, I zap tested another bar. My first time, never touched a 9 volt battery to my tongue either but the soap was just that, salty soap, no shorting.
I scrubbed my hands with that bar, no dryness after an hour.

DD, I do try to keep CO under 20% of oils. In Bastille soaps, it is under 10%. I like bubbles. None of my soaps were drying until this one. But may be I could make even better soaps if I limit CO and eliminate the ounce ( <3%) or so of PKO flakes I use for hardness and bubbles. I need to experiment more, lack of cure space has been my limiting factor.

 

[Seawolfe]

Im sure you already know this, but just to cross something else off the list: Salt bars with significant amounts of salt need significant amounts of coconut oil - 80% coconut oil is pretty typical. Because coconut oil soap is the only soap that will lather in salt water (except maybe babasu?) because salt kills lather. Other people have reported that they basically end up with bars of plastic when they use other oils.

If Im not mistaken, your original recipe is 26% CO and 50% salt ppo. I wonder if you aren't just scrubbing with a big old bar of salt, with no real soap action going on? That would be kinda rough on the skin I think.

 

[kumudini]

Yes Seawolfe, it's not a typical salt bar. It wasn't even supposed to be a salt bar if not for my impulsive actions at the last minute. But the soap is not at all scrubby/ scratchy. I added salt to a hot rebatch, it instantaneously dissolved. I guess my question was why one bar out of an otherwise perfect batch would dry me out so badly that I go out asking for help.
I will make atleast one proper batch of salt bars and use it during warmer months before I write them off. Thank you for taking out time to comment. Really appreciate it.