What's the Deal with Salt Soap?

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majstor said:
When i was kid i used to go to the sea every year and was instructed to bathe parts of body with bruises and such . Sometimes it was really painfull but wound healed much faster. I guess this salt soap works in similar fashion and it seems that best way to utilyze it is to just drop soap in tub and let it melt.

You can just add regular salt to your tub to make salt water. For the salt soap, you use it just like regular soap. If I have an area that needs healing (my new tattoo for instance), I suds up and let it on the area for awhile, then rinse.
 
At the beginning of this thread someone said not to use epsom or dead sea salt, why?
 
Ha! I'm an idiot. I was thinking bath bombs. I think in soap it will end up dissolving and leave pitted soap.
 
bettacreek said:
Ha! I'm an idiot. I was thinking bath bombs. I think in soap it will end up dissolving and leave pitted soap.

ok, so regular table salt or regular sea salt.
 
Ooooh... salt bars...!

I've been lurking on this forum for several months and even though I've been making soap for several years, I'm not a very inventive soaper so haven't felt I've anything to contribute.

The first I'd heard of salt bars was on this forum and eventually I worked up the courage to try them. Mine have been curing for nearly 4 months and I just this minute tried my first one in the shower. Oooooh....!!!! It's like I used Ginger Ale for the water! I'm thinking BB's Champagne might work well. I'm in love! Such a lovely, clean lather - and my skin feels great. Yeah, salt bars are definately part of my repetoire now.

Man, and I thought beer soap was the cat's meow....

Mary in BC
 
salt soap

could one just add a geneorous amount of salt to a recipe? Or do I need to follow a genuine salt soap recipe? By generous I mean if the oils were 600g just add 200g ? Just to benefit from the 'extra' lather? Thanks
 
Re: salt soap

brandnew said:
could one just add a geneorous amount of salt to a recipe? Or do I need to follow a genuine salt soap recipe? By generous I mean if the oils were 600g just add 200g ? Just to benefit from the 'extra' lather? Thanks

You don't have to follow a specific recipe or add a specific amount of salt, but there some general guidelines to follow seeing as how adding salt will actually diminish your lather instead of adding extra lather.

Because of the diminished lather factor, salt bar recipes are formulated to contain a very high amount of the uber lathering coconut oil. This is because coconut oil soap is pretty much the only kind of soap that has shown itself to lather in the presense of salt water. It's very possible that 100% PKO or 100% babassu oil soap will do the same since they are also high lathering oils, but I don't know of anyone who has put that to the test yet.

Having said that, the kind of lather you can expect from a salt bar is somewhat different from the lather of a bar without salt. Depending on how much salt you add in a 100% CO salt bar, it can range from very foamy/creamy (that's with 100% salt added), to more of a foamy bubbly mix with lesser amounts of salt. The ratio of bubbly lather to foamy lather increases the lower you go on the salt (i.e. it will be more bubbly than foamy with less salt).

Some people like to go with 100% CO to 100% salt as per oils. When I first started making salt bars, those were the ratios I used as per Iben's recipe. Then I started playing around and experimenting until I reached the recipe I use now, which I like even better. And that's what everyone needs to do- play around with ratios to see what they like better. My present fomula contains 25% salt, 100% CO and either coconut milk or goat milk as my liquid, superfatted at 13% because that's what I ended up really liking better.

Other people use 80% salt, some people use 50% salt, ect.., some people lower the CO a little and add in some extra oils. It'll be different for each person as to what they like better (you'll have to play around), but you'll want to make sure to keep your CO level fairly high to squeeze some bubblage out of it- I would say at least 50% CO, but that's based on what others have said. I've only ever used 100% CO with my own.

So, to answer your question- yes, you can add 200 grams of salt to a 500 gram batch.


IrishLass :)
 
salt soap

THANK YOU Irish Lass!!! All the info gives me something to relect upon....I think I'll pass til I'm ready to do a PROPER recipe, more than likely yours!! I wasn't going to add it to a high in CO recipe...I really appreciate the help you experienced soapers give us newbies!!!
 
flavapor said:
At the beginning of this thread someone said not to use epsom or dead sea salt, why?

I've heard the minerals in DDS causes problems with saponification. There have been comments about the soap oozing liquid/oils.

Several people have said soap made with Epsom salts also oozes and doesn't harden up. However, I have heard you can use both DDS and Epsom in MP soap. I don't know if this is true. I've never tried either in any type of soap.

I tried DDS in bath bombs. The oil did seep out by the next day and eventually the surface of the one bomb I had left became pitted.
 
Hazel said:
flavapor said:
At the beginning of this thread someone said not to use epsom or dead sea salt, why?

I've heard the minerals in DDS causes problems with saponification. There have been comments about the soap oozing liquid/oils.

Several people have said soap made with Epsom salts also oozes and doesn't harden up. However, I have heard you can use both DDS and Epsom in MP soap. I don't know if this is true. I've never tried either in any type of soap.

I tried DDS in bath bombs. The oil did seep out by the next day and eventually the surface of the one bomb I had left became pitted.
Thanks Hazel
 
You're welcome. I forgot to mention I have seen Dead Sea Mud soap in stores and I know someone on another forum made DSM soap. It appears the mud would work in CP. There must be some difference in the mineral concentration which lets mud work in soap. You could also try Dead Sea clay in soap.
 
I used Dead Sea Mud in my salt soap once as a sort of colorant to give my soap a black, spotty granite look to it. It worked great. I used 1 tbsp ppo and hand stirred it in at medium-thick trace right after mixing the salt in so that it would remain spotty in order to make my soap look like a block of natural granite.


IrishLass :)
 
Hazel said:
You're welcome. I forgot to mention I have seen Dead Sea Mud soap in stores and I know someone on another forum made DSM soap. It appears the mud would work in CP. There must be some difference in the mineral concentration which lets mud work in soap. You could also try Dead Sea clay in soap.

thanks.

Could you do me a favor and repost that 4 dog pic that your avatar came from. I wanted to show my husband and cant find it now. I think its a riot.
 
Salt bar curing Time

I just made my 1st batch of salt bars! They are peppermint, and I can't wait to try them... my only question is how long of a cure time should I do?

By the way this soap making is addicting!!
 
Re: Salt bar curing Time

Clemmey said:
I just made my 1st batch of salt bars! They are peppermint, and I can't wait to try them... my only question is how long of a cure time should I do?

By the way this soap making is addicting!!

It sure is! I would think the same as regular soap for curing but I could be wrong.
 
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