Salt Soap Bar

by Heather
(Colorado Springs)

I tried to do your Salt Soap Bar recipe. I've been making soap for a while now...no problems. But this recipe has me stumped.


I made it exactly as yours only corrected my numbers for a 3 lb recipe. As I generally do with yours.(which I tripled checked)

The process went off fine. I checked on my soap after 12hrs to see if it was ready to remove from the mold as you suggested. It completely wasn't. Still very very soft. After about 20hrs I managed to remove it from the mold.

It was still soft but held it's shape. Cutting on the other hand turned to mush. After about 40hrs it's still quite mushy and never cut as lovely as your soap looks.

Any suggestions as to what might have happened? I've never had my soap so mushy before.

Answer:

Oh Dear! I'm sorry to hear that Heather...It's just so disappointing when a batch fails on you!!

Since this recipe is 70% coconut oil, it should NOT have gone mushy at all....in fact, it goes really hard, really fast.

Even though you've checked your amounts, I can only guess that somewhere along the line, the amount of lye or water used was incorrect. Perhaps an error was made in the calculations or in the measuring?

I double checked my recipe that I have posted online and the amounts are correct there.

I'll run you through the process of calculating a salt soap recipe.

The amount of oils needed for a salt soap are calculated at 80% of that needed for a regular batch and the salt is 80% of that amount.

It's a little confusing to explain...

A regular batch of soap for my molds has 900 grams of oils. So....

900 grams x 80% = 720 grams of oil needed.
720 grams x 80% = 576 grams of sea salt needed.

If your mold usually requires 3 lbs (or 48 ounces) of oils, then...

48 oz. x 80% = 38.4 oz. of oils needed.
38.4 oz. x 80% = 30.72 oz of sea salt needed.

Your recipe should read as below...

Coconut oil - 26.88 oz.
Castor oil - 3.84 oz.
Grapeseed oil - 7.68 oz.
Water - 12.67 oz.
Lye - 5.45 oz.
Sea salt - 30.72 oz.

Water as a % of oils = 33
Superfat/Discount = 15%

Hopefully this will help find what went wrong.

Other than that, I honestly don't know what it could be.

Good luck :)
Cathy

Comments for Salt Soap Bar

Average Rating starstarstarstarstar

Click here to add your own comments

Rating
starstarstarstarstar
Dead Sea salt
by: Christine

Do you think making as HP would help if using Deaf sea salt?

Answer:

Dead Sea Salt contains other minerals that interfere in the soap making process so I don't think that changing the method will fix the problem.

You would be better to stick with regular sea salt or Himalayan salt.

Cathy

Rating
starstarstarstarstar
Calculating Water and Lye Amount
by: Hollie

You say to use 80% of oils you would usually use and then 80% of that would be salt...buuuut would the water and lye be calculated according to the new 80% oil measurements or the old 100% oil measurements? Lol did that make any sense at all or am I making this more difficult than it should be?? 😃
Thanks!!

Answer:

In the example above, the 80% rule just figures out how much oil is needed for the size of your soap mould. Since such a large amount of salt is being added, this adjusts the soap batch to be approximately the same size as your standard soap without overflowing your soap mould.

However much oil is calculated, you run that recipe through the lye calculator to determine how much water and lye are needed to turn that much oil into soap.

Using the example recipe above, the total oil amount to be used in the recipe is 38.4 ounces and the water is calculated at 33% of that amount to equal 12.67 ounces.

If you are still confused, try plugging the oil weights, water percentage and lye discount from the recipe above into SoapCalc to see how the amounts of water and lye are calculated.

Good luck,
Cathy

Rating
starstarstarstarstar
Thanks for the advise
by: Anonymous

I love these soap forums. Everyone is so helpful and great advice on making soaps. I have learned so much from reading everyone responses.
Big Thank You Jamie

Rating
starstarstarstarstar
Dead Sea Salt Soap
by: Sheila

Oh arggggg..... I just made my 4th batch of Sea Salt Soap. Batches 1,2,3 were wonderful! In batch 4 I used Dead Sea Salt. The batch is mushy and feels kind of waxy.

I've been researching what went wrong and I just came across your comments above about Dead Sea Salt. I'm guessing that is my problem too. I just put a few bars of it in the oven @ 150-degrees to see if I can quick cure it a little more. It's like it didn't saponify, but it isn't harsh.

I'm positive my measurements were correct with my other three batches but the other batches used different sea salts. Another note - at 12 hours the batch was literally dripping with water.

Rating
starstarstarstarstar
Dead Sea Salt
by: Melissa

I, too, had made this recipe with dead sea salt. LOL...It was a mess. I did research and found...not to do dead sea salt..due to the high mineral content. I then made this recipe with regular sea salt..and it was perfect. So, if the person..that had trouble, had the misfortune of using dead sea salt..then, I would say that is where the problem lies.

I love your site! I have tried a few of your recipes..and love them! Your soaps are gorgeous by the way!

Rating
starstarstarstarstar
Thanks
by: Heather

I didn't realize you wrote back to this one! I will double check with what I used with my recipe and what you suggest for a 3lb recipe and see if they match up.

I did however recently read that using dead sea salt is not recommended is salt soap. Something to do with it's high mineral content. But I will try this again and let ya know how it worked out.

Thanks for all your help Cathy.

Click here to add your own comments

Return to Submit a Question.


Like This Page?