Teach Soap

My recipe was one I found here. Just coconut oil, olive oil, lye, water and table salt.......and my new silicone mold.
I put the first layer in the mold then added color to the remaining soap and put it on top of the bottom layer. Then I put it in the oven for 2 hours at 190 degrees. Everyone talks about cutting it quick because it gets rock hard. I tried to take it out of the mold in 10 minutes which was way too soon because about 25 percent of it remained in the mold. Gobbed it all back in and and tried to smush down the top. Yuk. Took it out of the mold after 30 minute. All crumbly and every bar broke it half where the layers met. Thank god I don't have much money invested in this mess.

Sorry to hear you had such a hard time.
I keep trying to give my salt bars away... no one seems to want them. I am tempted to try the all coconut with a SF of 20% but am a little leary because of my salt bar flop.

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

I'm going to try the all coconut recipe. I just wish I didn't have to wait so long to find out how it is! LOL

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

Mine was virtually all coconut. 12 oz coconut and 3 oz olive

As I look closer it did not seperate between the color layers but the top got kind of crusty. Maybe it was in the oven too long at too long a temp. I used a small piece of it and it did feel good. Okay. I guess I will stop being mad and maybe give it another try but................1 pounder.

Here is how you can save it. Crumble/grind each color into small pieces. Then add that to another batch.

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

So sorry you had this difficulty! Not to hijack your thread, but I hope I don't have this issue as well. I am currently waiting to cut into my salt bars. I put them in the mold at 5pm tonight (they are an 80/20 blend), but they are still pretty warm to touch. I used a thin cardboard box I had, and covered the top w/ plastic wrap, then wrapped a blanket around it. I had a towel on it too, but took that off after the first 2 hrs. cuz I saw a small crack forming.

I was just wondering how long you all waited before you cut with a similar recipe. Since mine don't go in oven or fridge I had expected to wait from 2-12 hours, and since mine had a little more water than I could have used, I really expected 4-12 hours. Does anyone use a 80/20 recipe that can tell me how long you have to wait?

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

Tammy

I cut mine within 4 hours. The soap got hard fast and I had to use oven mitts to help me cut. It was still quite hot. If I waited any longer, they would have crumbled.

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

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In this world you can be either oh so smart or oh so pleasant. I used to be smart. I prefer pleasant. You may quote me. ~Elwood P. Dowd

Mine came out almost 5 hours after molding. It was hot, but still not hard. It cut easily, but was harder than when I checked it about 15 min. before SB suggested I cut it. I think it will be fine, it looks good and no zap, so I will be interested to see how hard it is in the morning. If I had more sea salt I'd try another batch tonight, but tomorrow will come .

So are you going to add it to another batch PL? Such a shame to loose all that effort. I bet the second time will be a charm!

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

Tammy

I've never Oven Hot Processed my salt bars at all - I always do just a regular CP soap and then pop out as soon as I can and cut.

But whomever mentioned that salt bars don't seem to sell well, I hear that a lot. It's a great novelty bar of soap but when it comes down to it, there are better exfoliating options out there so that might be why salt bars don't sell extremely well. Just tossing that out ... =)

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Happy Soaping!

Anne-Marie
blog: www.soap-queen.blogspot.com
supplies: www.brambleberry.com

Honestly, the only reason I tried making salt bars was because the DH requested them. He loves the ones we bought from the soapmaker who inspired me to learn to make my own soap, but they were just kind of "bleh" to me...very little lather.
BUT...I tried one of the salt bars I made after a one week cure, and it felt fabulous in the shower!!! Creamy, luxurious, almost lotiony lather and bubbles! Of course after I dried off my skin was super-dry from the young soap with a high CO content, but if this goes away with a proper cure time, these may be my new fave...this soap felt so good that the DH was PO'd that I took it out of the shower to finish curing!

Sounds like you are on the right path then! Congrats! I have heard several people say that this is their favorite bar of soap, so some people obviously like it. If it's for dh, then all that matters is that he likes it. I wanted to try it cuz a lot of people were talking about it. Even if I don't like it myself, there is a customer out there for every type of soap, we just have to find them! I think it goes in cycles anyway, sometimes you take mostly x and y to a show and everyone wants z. Next show you take mostly y and z everyone asks for p and q. So I try to have a wide variety of products anyway.

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

Tammy

I saw some bars on a web site and I liked the look of them. Maybe I will try them again in a 1 lb batch.

PLS, I was thinking about doing another batch too. The one I made before was in a box I found, and it ended up being more long than tall, so I really don't care for the look of it. I thought maybe I would use them for samples. Either way though, I would kind of like experimenting with these again.

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

Tammy