This weekend's experiment

[juliab86]

Tried my hand at layering this weekend...results not what I was hoping for.

Recipe:
Bottom layer

100% Coconut oil
Coconut milk (frozen)
Coarse sea salt 50% of oil weight
1 tsp Oxide - Chrome green colorant
Beach-y fragrance
20% superfat

Top layer

100% Coconut oil
Beer (frozen)
2 Tbsp sand
Beach-y fragrance
20% superfat

Unmolded, looked great! When I went to cut it, the layers didn't stick together. I have a few bar where they are still together, but most of them slid right apart.

This is probably where I went wrong:

1. Layering soaps with two different liquids.
2. Trying to layer a salt soap (has anyone done this?)
3. Putting the salt bar as the bottom layer. I checked before spooning the top layer on, and it hadn't gelled, but it probably hardened up faster than the top layer.

Any other ideas about where I messed up?

It's not a complete disaster. Instead of the intended "Beach" bar, now I have ocean bars and sand bars. Glad I did this experiment, but if I layer in the future, I'll keep it simpler

 

[FGOriold]

Salt bars harden very, very fast and usually need to be cut within a few hours of pouring them or they become extremely crumbly depending on how much salt you use. My gut would tell me that your bottom layer with the salt harden up and set faster than without the salt preventing your top layer from "sticking" to it. Looks like you are making two separate recipes. Have you tried a single recipe, split it in half, color and add salt to one half, pour into mold, then immediately pour the second half on top of it?

 

[juliab86]

This was my first time doing layers, probably over extended myself.

My (flawed) reasoning behind using the beer for the sand layer was I've done beer soaps before, and they come out kind of a sandy color. So I figured I could do that instead of using a colorant. It did come out a sandy color, but probably inhibited the layers adhering to each other.

The split batch approach is probably the way to go from here on out, just wanted to test this one out. Definitely learned from this "failure".