Soap Experiment: The Salt Bar
I’ve had some ideas for new soaps. This week I will attempt to make a salt bar. I’m going to test a small batch to make sure I can figure out the process. The salt bars you see in the picture are ones that I received in a soap swap. They are very nice! The one on the left was made by Cindy Buttles of Oh Loverly Soaps in Arcadia, Ohio. She used a regular sea salt in her soap. The other was made by Rosie Bennett who used Hawaiian red sea salt and pink sea salt. The idea is that the soap is made from all or mostly coconut oil because it is the only oil that will produce a lathering soap in salt water. The salt creates an extremely moisturizing soap, believe it or not. Many claim that you won’t have to use lotions when you bathe with a salt bar. Other soapmakers have had difficulty either with having the salt settle to the bottom of the bar, or with it setting up so hard that they were unable to cut it. Hopefully I am prepared for both. Wish me luck!
May 27th, 2008 at 8:43 am
I’ve seen these around a lot lately….some have turned out perfect, others, not so well. I recall reading someone saying to make sure to cut the bars before the soap was ‘too’ set up to aviod the hardness issue
Good Luck!
May 27th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
Thanks! I’ve heard that putting it in the oven at 150 degrees for a couple hours will help with the hardness issue, so I’m about to try it…just waiting for the lye water to cool.
July 10th, 2008 at 7:28 pm
I’m going to give this a try. I enjoying making home made soap and this is something new and looks fun to try! Thanks for this post.
November 8th, 2008 at 5:09 pm
Hi , I’m Chris
Just want to say your handmade soap is lovely. I make glycerin based soap at the moment and will venture into lye once i pluck up the courage. Just getting inspiration from your lovely site. I’m UK based so i am not trying to compete, just to let you know. plus we are still on our kitchen table.
Cheers
November 8th, 2008 at 5:32 pm
Chris - Thanks for your comment, and best wishes with your business. Lye isn’t so intimidating once you’ve tried it. Ventilation and safety gear are essential though!