Wednesday 28 April 2010

Salt Soaps - Help?


Here are the 3 salt soaps I tried... They all have 80% Coconut Oil, as recommended for the suds... but WOW - they sweat and sweat or shall I say dripped and dripped. They have almost sweat all the scent out! The first one on the left was my first attempt and I made it with chunky dry salt (sal gruesa y seca). I left it to incubate for 12 hours but it was almost impossible to cut... it just crumbled at the bottom. The colour comes from Olive Oil light coloured with Alkanet Root. The second one I tried, in the middle, was made the same way except no incubation. I just put it in a pre-heated oven for 2 hours, then cut straight away. Slightly more Alkanet coloured Olive Oil. I still had problems with cutting and as I noticed they both started sweating like crazy, I tried a third attempt, this time with fine salt. The colour is from Alkanet coloured Castor oil, but steeped for a lot longer. Nice purple!! But I was aiming for a Mediterranean Sea soap and blue! I used the oven method again. This one was slightly easier to cut. But the three sweat or rather shed water like crazy. Even after 1 month of curing they still drip! The third one is nice and sudsy, but with the fine sea salt, I am not sure what is so special about the salt? It is not that noticeable. I prefer the feel of the chunky salt. Can anyone provide any guidance?

10 comments:

Heidi said...

I like the purple one, really nice colour! Did you use equal amount of salt and oils? I wonder if it would help if you used less salt?

Mónica said...

Es lo que pasa con los jabones de sal si no los cortas casi al instante no se pueden cortar porque se ponen como piedras. Yo lo pongo dos horas en el horno a 70º y en cuanto puedo los corto. En cuanto a los de la humedad, la sal es higroscópica, es decir, atrapa y retiene gran cantidad de agua, si vives o los tienes en una zona donde hay mucha humedad le puede pasar ésto que cuentas. De todas formas, y sobre todo al principio los jabones de sal siempre sudan.
Besos

Mónica said...

Se me olvidó decirte que me encantan tus jabones de sal, el aspecto rústico en los jabones de sal, para mi gusto, es fantástico, y me encanta cómo dejan la piel (eso sí le pongo mucho sobreengrasado).
Besos

Erin Napier said...

Try using all coconut oil with a high superfat (about 15%), and then a third of that as salt. For instance, 1kg coconut oil and 350g of salt. They will sweat, that's normal, but they shouldn't be dripping. Best of luck :)

Ambra said...

I used regular table salt for my first salt soaps in equal amounts to the oils. I used small molds. They did not sweat at all. I just pour the soaps into the molds on the kitchen counter and let them sit there. It's probably easier to avoid sweating in small molds. I never incubate. Could that be the problem?

Cocobong Soaps said...

Here's my recipe..I don't get much sweating from it. Since salt draws water you're always going to get some sweating, especially in warmer climate.. but what you describe is rather unusual. How much salt per gr/kg oils did you use?
60% Coconut,10%Lanolin, 10%Shea, 10%Castor, 10% Palmkernel
with 500gr oils/fats you take 1kg Salt and 50gr Sugar (helps with the lather)
Superfat at 12%
Into preheated oven (50-60C)
With salt soaps it's best to pour your soap into individual silicon shapes (like for baking..), because there is virtually no cutting the bars without breakage.

Jennifer Young said...

Hello all, thank you for all the help!!!
Heidi - yes I have been using same quanties of salt and oils. I may try less salt? Have you tried a salt bar? Fine salt or course salt?
Monica - gracias por los consejos! Si... vivo al lado del mar asi que mucha humedad. Me alegro que te hayan gustado las fotos de mis jabones de sal! Es mi primer experimento con ellos y ahora los estoy usando a ver si me gusta!
InnerEarth - thank you - will try!
Ambra - I think your idea of using moulds is great... but I have problems getting soaps out of plastic moulds. Sometimes they get stuck. Do your salt soaps come out easily?
Cocobong - thank you for the recipe! I have still never tried using Lanolin in soap. I have some, now I have to try it! I will try using silicon moulds, but the silicon moulds I have are either big (need cutting) or ice-cube size. I will try some ice-cube size salt bars!
THANKS EVERYONE! GRACIAS!

artesanias y manualidades said...

Hola, Con respecto al Aceite de coco te recomiento Que No le pongas mas del 30% del total de Grasas Que ya Tiende una resecar La piel de Cuando hayexceso ESE de Aceite.
y sal no debe La Pasar del 1% del total de ingredientes, Contando El Agua y El hidróxido de sodio.
Espero te SIRVA mi Comentario.
saludos

Dreaming Tree Soapworks said...

It's not the recipe or the molds, it's the type of salt/humidity. If you use Sea Salt, Brazillian Salt, or Dead Sea Salt, they all have a higher moisture content. Switch to plan idodized salt and keep them in a low humidity area and they should be fine. Also Salt bars set up fast, it's easier to cut them 2 -3 hours after they've been poured. They'll be hot but they'll be much easier/neater to cut.
Good luck! Also some blue colorants morph pink in high temps/ ph.

Sergio said...

Acabo de descubrir tu blog. Enhorabuena por tus jabones de sal y por el blog en si. Te invito a que visites mi blog. Un saludo desde Calpe.
http://enjaboname.blogspot.com/