Teach Soap

hi all,

I've been soaping for a couple of year now and tend to make the same recipe over and over again but I've been thinking about salt bars for a long time and decided to definitely make a batch tonight. 100% coconut oil with 20% superfat...now I know this is a stupid question but I always use a calculator and have never worked out superfat percentage manually. so my problem: all the calculators I know go up to 10% superfat, does that mean I just double the amount lye to get 20%? I know it sounds stupid but really want to make sure I'm doing the right thing

thanks!!

Anais

I use SoapCalc http://www.soapcalc.net - it allows you to set your own superfat percentage, not a predetermined amount. I believe BB's lye calc also lets you pick your own superfat. You never ever want to change a recipe without using a calculator to get the new recipe amounts.

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

thanks both for such a quick response!! I went on soapcalc and yes you can manually enter the desired %, thank you so much I'm off to make my first salt bar! Anais

Good luck on your batch.

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

If you're using only one single oil (coconut in your case), you can run your calculator with 0% superfat and then reduce the calculated lye amount to 20% .
Don't you think it would be very soft with only coconut oil?
I've tried it once and was not very satisfied with the results. Wish you good luck however

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Genius is 1 % inspiration and 99 % perspiration

I've made 100% CO @ 18% superfat for my salt bars, and they were hard as bricks in 12 hours with about 50% salt. I do have some plain 100% CO bars planned in the next couple of batches. I've seen plenty of other people who make full CO bars and don't have a problem with softness.

so I made my salt bars last night and it was an eventful night to say the least first of all thank you ladies for all your replies and help!

I made 100% coconut bar, 20% superfat with about 40% salt. I attempted to colour the soap light violet with wholesale supplies plus matte violet pigment which mixed with oil into a lovely violet, however as soon as I added it to soap it turned an ugly grey. Luckily this morning its only a very pale grey. any idea why this happened?

I unmoulded it after about 2 hours, when it was still warm but already hard. Digressing slightly - earlier yesterday morning my lovely boyfriend (who is not a carpenter) after several hours of hard work made me a very basic cutter (see pic below) which I of course decided to try very late last night after unmoulding my batch. A nightmare! The whole thing eventually broke and detached from the frame, with wires firmly stuck inside the bars As a side note definitely recommend wearing gloves when dealing with soap so fresh - super caustic!

Anywhoo I tried one of the bars this morning and loved it! Soap is rock hard, lathers beautifully and feels scrubby to touch without actually being scrubby ...if that makes sense. we managed to save most of the bars, they are not pretty but will make nice gifts to family and friends

thank you all for your help I will definitely be making these again!

Your soap most likely turned gray because you didn't use enough colorant. Also salt soaps tend to eat up the color. Mine started out blue and turned to almost white.

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

Also, salt bars should be cut as soon as possible (even when still warm) because they get hard so quickly. A lot of people use individual molds for salt bars just so they won't have to try to cut the bars.

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

Linda, that reminds me of a woman here that makes bread to sell on the online farmer's market. She called it cracked wheat bread, but WE called it crack-a-tooth bread. It was like trying to chew small rocks when trying to eat the crust.

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

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