Teach Soap

My husband wants me to make him some salt soap...he loves the sea-salt bars we buy from the soapmaker who inspired me to make my own soap. I searched this forum along with many other web sites, but I would very much like any advice/guidance.
I'm thinking of doing 90% coconut oil and 10% castor oil, with sea salt at 80% of my oils, and a 15% superfat. Not sure yet how to run this through a lye calc, since I usually use soapcalc.net and I think it only goes up to 10% superfat...I'll play around with some others...just in the planning stage so far. Thanks to the advice I found, I know the added salt will make my batch a bit larger...taking that in consideration.
Do these percentages sound OK? And from my research, am I correct in thinking that I make my CP soap as I normally would, adding my FO at thin trace, then blending/stirring until I reach medium/thick trace and then adding the salt? Also, can I use the sea-salt that is readily available at the grocery store, or should I be using something different? Based on what I've read, I should cut this soap after about 4 hours, instead of the 18-24 hour time-frame when I usually cut. Do I need to wear gloves when cutting? Is it still caustic?
Sorry for all the questions...I really did try to find the info on my own...

I tried making a salt bar that was very different in method that what everybody else was posting. Honestly, I was quite pleased with the results as were some of the testers (mostly friends & family) that I gave samples for evaluation.

I used my standard recipe (olive, coconut, palm, shea, castor, canola, etc.) and instead of using a 5% superfat I increased to 8%. Good old Morton's table salt at 1 tbs PPO added at medium to medium-heavy trace to ensure a good distribution. I was expecting it to weep but it didn't. Got a nice gel. After a 3 week cure I tried it in the shower and had the same thoughts all my beta testers reported. It felt like you were applying lotion at the same time you were lathering yourself. Lather was normal but the feeling on my skin afterwards was incredible. I believe it is because NaCl ionizes 100% in water and will hydrate your skin. Overall just a very nice bar of soap.....and I'm quite critical of my own work.

Some weeks ago I also tried the 85% coconut oil with 12% sea salt and hated the results.

As I mentioned, my method is unorthodox compared to everyone else but had to applaud the results. I enjoy trying new things and if it doesn't work, lesson learned.

I make mine with my regular recipe, about 7% superfat and added regular table salt calculated at 50% of my batch. Sea salt has more moisture, so there is a possibility that your soap could weep. I cut mine within 4 hours and had to use gloves as it was extremely hot as I was cutting it. If I waited any longer, the soap would have crumbled. A way to cut down on the crumblies would be to make it in individual molds. They should pop right out and you won't have to worry about cutting.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

I think I'll try this with a 1# batch of regular recipe annd see what happens. Just need to get more lye before I can do anything else!

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Linda
I know the voices in my head aren't real, but they sure have some great ideas!

I think a long time ago I tried the coconut/castor salt bars and they weren't my favorite. Now my main 2 recipes are coconut/shea butter and coconut/canola. I use sea salts, I would guess it'd be the same you'd find in the cooking section but I buy 50lb bags. I like the sea salts much better than table salt.

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April

I like the idea of trying salt bars with one of my recipes... the coconut and salt was sooo drying. I blamed it on the salt, but yet I can add bath salts to the tub and have no problems... so on further evaluation...maybe it's the coconut oil?? Will put this on my 'try list', thanks for the nudge.

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Susie
Sometimes A Mistake is so much fun, You just have to do it again!

I would make this with your standard recipe with no more than 20% of the coconut oil as total, or try it as 100% coconut with 20% superfat. You can add salt to either one.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.