Teach Soap

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Melissa

luvsoap, do you garden? If so - last year I grew my own loofa. Living in Florida you have even better growing conditions for it than we do up here. It can make an exfoliating bar, just be careful not to add too much.

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

Yes, I do like to do some gardening! And I was thinking the exact same thing just the other day. Will see if I can find some seeds to buy online!

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Melissa

You can probably start your plants outside right now. I will start mine this year next month inside. They do have a long growing season. If you need a web site to read let me know.

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

Okay, so this dead sea salt issue has really been getting under my "I love to know why" skin. Finally, I think I got it! It isn't so much the "salt" that is the issue, it's the minerals and types of salt in the mixture. Dead sea salt has 27% salts, compared to the 3% in ordinary sea water, but, where about 80% of sea water is sodium chloride, dead sea salts have just a small amount of the sodium chloride, and have more magnesium, potassium and calcium chlorides. From what I have garnered, these ingredients make it unsuitable for the soap.

For anyone interested, I found this soap review http://soapersreview.com/blog/?p=8 and the OP made soap using dead sea salts and then again, regular sea salt. She did a great job explaining and picture taking!

Now it makes more sense to me and I can sleep easy tonight! And....yep.....Anal Annie is my middle name!


And growing loofah is a kick, just remember that you have to get to the fruit so don't grow it up the light pole unless you have a really tall ladder! Don't ask me how I know this, just TRUST me that I do!

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Remember, it's not just that we weather the storm, but how we dance in the rain.

Tammy

isnt it drying with all the coconut oil?

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ASH

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Remember, it's not just that we weather the storm, but how we dance in the rain.

Tammy

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~Alyssa
We ascribe beauty to that which is simple; which has no superfluous parts; which exactly answers its end; which stands related to all things; which is the mean of many extremes. -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Alyssa, it appears to me, from what I have read tonight (even though I found a recipe on e.com or some such, that specifically called for dead sea salt) that it is the dead sea salt that cause the issue, not ordinary sea salts, because of the many types of salts in it (most other sea salts are made up of mostly sodium chloride, Dead Sea salts have very little sodium chloride).
And, unless you use the salt as an add in, meaning that you do not dissolve it for use in the lye liquid, but add it after trace, then it won't really be an exfolliant in the bar. You can have it as both the moisturizing, lathering bar, and an exfollient, you just have to add the salt at both times, in the liquid phase and just before you pour it into the mold.

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Remember, it's not just that we weather the storm, but how we dance in the rain.

Tammy

Thanks everyone for your replies I have got so much information on this thread. Thanks for the info on dead sea salt I know I won't be using it. thanks Tammy for the link on soapreview and the recipe I will try it as it looks like it produces a soap with lots of bubbles, I think that I will try to increase my salt % to at least 50% to get better exfoliation even though I am tempted to go up to 80% salt. I have experienced weeping with sea salt but only when the weather was really humid otherwise no weeping. I wonder if anyone can tell me why the recipe given here uses grapeseed oil, is this an oil that produces bubbles or is it just to give the bar some moisturizing effect, I've noticed that a lot of soapers use this oil I always thought that it had very short shelf life and more prone to DOS.

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Remember, it's not just that we weather the storm, but how we dance in the rain.

Tammy

Grapeseed oil is one of my favorite oils. I just used it in a soap batch, I wouldn’t say its anything special in soap but as a carrier oil for skin care products its very nice~ like LavenderLady said :]

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~Alyssa
We ascribe beauty to that which is simple; which has no superfluous parts; which exactly answers its end; which stands related to all things; which is the mean of many extremes. -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Hi there DenverSoap, just a quick message to say that I tried the salt bar recipe you posted, I used a Chamomile & Calendula infusion with the distilled water, and wow.
They do to the back of your hands, what my fresh lemon juice and salt scrub does. Much nicer though. Thank you for your inspiration, I will be making a few of these in the future, maybe with a few additions, but the basic recipe is just great, and will be used by many I would think.

Ok so I tried the recipe today. Wow it hardened up quick! I used regular size sea salt and have now decided that wasn't a great idea. Almost impossible to cut after 6 hours! I think I will try again tomorrow minus the course part.

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Melissa