MarieJeanette

Then is your recipe:100%coconut oil Tussa Niol Silk is this the silk that looks like strands, Carrie had coop a while ago. and supperfat at 9%I have never made any and would like to try to see if i liked it. Thanks for the help

You're welcome. :smiley2: Yes, my recipe is 100% coconut oil, 100% sea salt, a pea-sized pinch or so of Tussa Noil Silk disolved in the lye water (yes, that is the strand kind. I get it from Scent Works), and I superfat mine at 9% using Soap Calc for my calculations.

To Ladysj,

I add my F/O at light trace, and then if there is no acceleration, I keep stirring until soap is at medium trace and then I add my salt and pour into molds before it gets too thick. Then I pop my log molds in the oven at 170-180 degrees F until soap gels, and once it does I turn off the heat and let the soap cool down and harden for a half hour or so before cutting. Soap is still hot when I cut, so I use gloves.

My method for determining when to cut is this: After soap gels and oven is turned off, I check on the soap every 10 minutes or so and lightly press my gloved finger onto the top of the soap. When the soap is somewhat hard, but soft enough still to just slightly give in to the pressure of my finger, is when I unmold and cut. If you wait until it is too hard, it will crumble on you or it won't even cut at all. I've heard of people waiting too long to cut it and they end up being able to only cut it with a bandsaw!

I believe you can use table salt if you wish. I used to think it was a 'no-no' because of what some people had written about it, but I've recently read of other people using it with no problems. I just prefer to use sea salt myself because it has no anti-caking agents in it or added iodine. Plus, I've never encountered any problems while using it. I guess if it ain't broke, don't fix it!

Also, for doing a search, you may want to try typing in "Sea Salt Spa Soap" or "Spa Bars". I personally gleaned mostly all of my salt bar info from Iben's tutorial over on the SoapDish forum. Iben is the originator of the recipe, and everything I know about salt bars I learned from her generosity in sharing it with everybody. HTH!

MarieJeanette

For my salt bars, I always use the same amount of fine sea salt that I do in oils. For example, since I have 2 lbs. of oils in my batch, I add 2 lbs. of fine sea salt.

From all I've read, using the percentage of equal weights of oils to salt seems to work the best, and from all my experience so far, I really must agree. No complaints in my household at all- except for the one time my husband cut himself doing something and then used my salt bar in the shower afterwards. He said there was some mild stinging from the salt where he cut himself, but then again, he also said that the salt in the soap actually made his wound heal quicker.

MarieJeanette

Hi friendlyMOM,

I've got roughly 7 salt bar batches under my belt now and I never add extra F/O in them. I just calculate my F/O amount based on the actual oil weight of my recipe, even though I know my batch will be doubled because of the salt content.

For instance, I usually make 2 lb batches (which swell to roughly 4 lbs because of the added salt) but I always only use a total of 1.3 oz of F/O per 2 lb. batch, which comes out to being between .6 and .7 oz F/O per pound. At this usage, my salt bars always come out smelling great and they are plenty strong even though I don't use the full, maximum 1 oz of F/O per lb! I firmly believe that if you were to double your F/O rate to 6 oz. instead of 3 oz. for your 3 lb. batch, that it would be way too much and too over-powering. I really think you'd regret it. HTH!

MarieJeanette

To Blazerina-

I love salt bars more than all my other soaps. They are very easy to make if you follow a few simple rules. They are also long lasting, hard as a rock, and as smooth as a polished stone. I make mine with fine sea salt, 100% coconut oil and Tussa Noil Silk, and I superfat at about 9%. Some people complain that the salt bars they make do not lather very well, but with the high percentage of coconut oil that I use in my recipe, my bars lather up wonderfully easy and with a real nice, lotiony, yet bubbly lather. I don't have to lather up with a pouf either- I can just use my hands and it lathers up richly and so beautifully. I also like them because of the way they make my skin feel. When I'm done with my shower, I don't feel so dry that I just absolutely have to put on lotion. My skin feels nice and moist, yet clean and refreshed. My DH loves to shave his face with them and I love to shave my legs with them. Besides being great to use all over, they just seem to make the razor glide ever so smoothly over our skin. I've practically come to the point that that's all I want to make now. - MJ

I've used as high as 25% cocoa butter with absolutely no crumbles at all. Here is the recipe I use:

http://www.teachsoap.com/rulessoap.html

The soap turned out nice and creamy and smooth. HTH!

MarieJeanette

I have WSP's oatmeal base, too. I love it, but was frustrated with the problem of the oatmeal sinking to the bottom, too. Instead of fussing with it, though, I decided to work with it by buying some soap molds in the shape of feet. The oatmeal sinks to the bottom, but it looks really cool on the foot mold- like a dirty foot. I call it my 'Dirty Feet' soap.

MarieJeanette

I use sea salt- not Dead Sea Salt, but regular sea salt- in my soap just about all the time. I use the exact same amount of salt (in weight) as my oils. They are known as 'Spa Bars', or 'Sea Salt Spa Bars', or 'Salt Bars'. I love making Cp soap this way and I love the feel of it on my skin. Are these the kind of bars you're looking to make? If so, I've done a lot of reading on making soap this way, and from what I've read so far, Dead Sea Salts do not work very well in these kinds of bars, unfortunately. People who have used the Dead Sea Salt in these bars reported it to be very problematic, but regular sea salt works just fine. I guess the chemical makeup between the two is different. I suppose you could try it with a much lesser amount than the same weight as your oils and see what happens. Whatever you decide to do, I would steer away from making any kind of therapeutic label claims about them, though, because that's how you get in trouble. I would just list the salt as an ingredient along with all the other ingredients in the soap. HTH!

MarieJeanette

Wow! Those rocks are AMAZING! I would love to get a batch of my salt bars to look like that. Awesome job!

MarieJeanette

I think someone just wanted to get fancy with the names.

Bingo!

MarieJeanette

I make a 100% coconut oil Sea Salt Spa Salt Soap with a superfat of 7 and it doesn't dry my skin at all. I was fully expecting it to dry my skin out when I first tried it, but it actually leaves my skin feeling great!

MarieJeanette

I for one, love their Salty Mariner f/o. It is excellent and very strong. I'm sorry that some have had yucky service, but I've always had great service from them. No complaints here.

MarieJeanette

I just call my BRV, 'Blackberry Tea', because that's just what Black Raspberry Vanilla smells like to me. HTH!

MarieJeanette

New and searching too. I would have thought that you would want the shiny side on the inside touching the soap?

I believe that's what Jhahlton meant, it just depends how you look at it- the shiney side should be out, touching the soap, as opposed to inside, touching your mold. HTH!

MarieJeanette

I get freezer paper at my grocery store in the same aisle as the foil and plastic wrap and sandwich baggies. I don't know any other name for it except for freezer paper, unfortunately.

I do know, however that it is not the same as wax paper. Unlike wax paper, which is thin, transparent, and has a wax coating on it that can be scratched off, freezer paper is a thick, opaque, white paper that is lined on one side with some kind of smooth, shiny, waterproof-like barrier that cannot be scratched off.

I can't vouch for the book-binding paper because I've never seen or used it, but maybe someone who has had experience with it will chime in. Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

MarieJeanette

Hi Jewel,

The best releasing I know of is to stick your molds in the freezer for about 10 to 20 minutes after your melted soap in the molds has come down to room temp. This always works great for me and I use no releasing agents in my MP molds at all. Just the heat from my own hands when they are wrapped around the ice cold mold cavity is enough to cause the soap to form an air bubble between it and the side of the mold that will help it to release quite easilly when slight pressure is applied.

I know some people don't like to put their soaps in the freezer because of the sweating issue, though. I live in a very dry climate and so I've never had to deal with my soaps sweating except for that first 10 minutes fresh out of the mold. After that, they are high and dry and then I shrink-wrap them.

If you have sweating issues, the next best thing IMO is to line your molds with a light coating of mineral oil. I actually use mineral oil as a releasing agent for my CP soap when I pour it into my 3# plastic container, and it always slips right out with no problems at all. You may want to try that and see what happens. If there's any residual mineral oil on your soap, just do what I do with my CP- spray the finished soap with alcohol, lighty rub it off with a lint-free cloth, and let dry. HTH!

MarieJeanette

Just starting to do MP soaps. I'm interested in your opinions on which molds to use. I would like to use a 3 oz. or 4 oz. round mold. I have tested with a milky way mold and just wanted to know if there is something better.

Also what do you wrap your soaps with?

Thanks for the advise.

Marty

Hi Marty,

I personally hate round molds for the reason that it's too hard to get my hands around the soap from it. It's just not comfortable for me to use.

My favorite is a 3.5 concave mold. It's kind of an ovalish shape that's rounded on top and flat on the bottom and it's the perfect size for my hands. I also use them to make aquarium soaps.

I also like these small (1.75 oz) celtic molds that I have. They make great little soaps to keep by the sink to wash your hands with. They look so nice and pretty and the finished soaps are easy to hold and use.

I have a 4 or 5 oz foot mold that I love, too, because the soap is so easy to hold and swish around in my hands.

I have some 3.5 rectangular molds as well, but I hate them because the soap shape that comes from it makes it too hard for me to hold.

I do MP in a log mold at times as well and I just cut and bevel the soaps into a nice soap shape after unmolding.

After I umold my MP soaps, I let them air out until they are dry (usually 10 minutes in my dry climate) and then I shrink-wrap them with the special shrink-wrap bags I get from WSP. HTH!

MarieJeanette

OK I made my batch of OMH w/ GM. It set up beautiful, BUT... where is this great smell you all are talking about? I added some cinnamon but I figured that I wouldn't smell any of it. When I took it out of the mold, it smelled really bad. Like rotten eggs or something. Even my kids were gagging. Will this smell go away? Does this nice smell come later? Could my GM have been bad? Sorry about all the ??'s but I really want this to work.

I've been doing a lot of reading and research about making goat milk soap because I am getting ready to make my own first batch here soon, and from all that I've read on the different forums and archives, I'm prepared for the soap to be really stinky when it is unmolded. From what I understand, it will remain stinky for a few days or so, but then as it cures, the awful smell will completely go away and then it will smell nice. I'm thinking that if you just give it time to cure that it should be fine. I'm preparing to stick my yet future unmolded goat milk soap out in the garage while it's curing so that it won't stink my house up! HTH!

MarieJeanette

P.S. Edited to say I must've posted at the same time as MichelleB.

I just rebatched a small part of a rebatch this morning. Turned out great!

MarieJeanette

I think you just went through part of your soaping initiation. You have to screw up at least one recipe to be initiated. You are on your way. I've screwed up my fair share of batches in my time so you are not alone.

Very true! I screwed up royally last week and ended up with a batch that ended up to be 25% super-fatted. The next batch of CP that I did the next day turned out really nice. You live and learn, and who knows- your biggest mistake can turn out to be the nicest soap down the road. At least that's what I'm hoping for my screwed up soap once it cures. Oh please, please, please turn out nice!

MarieJeanette

The Super Walmart by us sells coconut oil and Armour brand lard. I've learned from other threads that the Armour brand doesn't add a piggy smell to your soaps like Morell's lard does. I can't find Armour brand anywhere locally except for Walmart, and I can't find coconut oil anywhere locally except the healthfood store or Walmart. It's cheaper at Walmart. I just bought some olive oil from them for CP the other day. They had a really good price compared to my regular grocery store. HTH! Happy shopping!

MarieJeanette

It could be an MP quality issue, I don't know for sure. The only sure thing I do know and can offer is my own experiences with doing MP for the past 4 weeks or so. I bought all my bases from WSP and SFIC and do the double boiler method, and so far, I've never had an issue with the soap getting too cool to pour.

My bottom pot with the water in it is a heavy Le Creuset pot and my top pot is a Pampered Chef, stainless steel, chocolate melting, double boiler pot, complete with handle and pouring spout. It was made to fit inside many sizes of pots and all I can say is I love that thing. I put my cut-up MP in it and put it over the Le Creuset pot full of water and turn the heat up high.

Once the water's boiling, I just turn the heat to medium until the soap starts to melt, and once it's melting at good rate, I turn the heat off and take the double boiler out of the pot of water and finish melting. The Pampered Chef pot retains enough residual heat to finish melting completely.

When it's as smooth as silk, I then add whatever goodies I want to add to it and stir and pour. I also use a rubber spatula to get all the soap out out of the pot and into my mold. Works great.

So far, my bases have never seized up or gotten too cool to pour, and they've never become sudsy in their melted state at all either. I figure if they ever did get too cool for whatever reason, I can just put my pot back over the hot water to keep the soap melty.

Re: the non-sudsyness in the pot- At first, I was bothered by the fact that my base didn't suds up upon stirring in the pot and it made me wonder if my finished soap would have any lather at all, but no worries there, as it turns out. My finished soaps lather wonderfully. I usually do only one soap at a time, too, sometimes only as little as 2 oz. It probably only takes me about 10 minutes at the very most to do a soap from start to finish (I wish I could say that about CP!) .

Maybe you should try to experiment with a different base and see what happens, or try the double boiler method and see what happens with that. On my next soap, I'm going to try the sugar thing to see what happens. I just love MP! It's very forgiving and versatile, and lets me go to the boundaries in experimentation.

MarieJeanette

I put mine in the freezer as well and then place it on a cookie drying rack right away. Any condensation that forms on the soap after unmolding from the freezer is completely gone after about 10 to 15 minutes on my rack and then it's completely dry to the touch from there on out. After that, I shrink-wrap it. HTH!

MarieJeanette

I make a real nice, scrubby coffee soap for the kitchen using MP and espresso grounds. It feels and smells great on dirty, grubby hands.

MarieJeanette

Thanks, Carolgrant. Hopefully bumping this up will cause Eugenia to revisit this thread.

I unmolded my 'stupor-fatted' batch of soap this morning (that's its' official name for the time being) , and the soap came out of the molds in one piece and it was like butter to cut through, but it is exremely soft and oily feeling.

It didn't fall apart or collapse into a mass of mush or anything like I was expecting it to (it kept its' molded shape), nor did it have a horrible smell or pools of free-flowing oil laying on top that I could see to pour off or to sop up, so after bravely doing a 'zap test' on it and finding no zap in many different places (with all that oil, no wonder!), I tried a little sliver to wash my hands with and the lather was so wonderfully creamy and bubbly.

It did dry out my hands, though, which I was fully prepared for and expecting beforehand from reading the many different threads on the subject. The threads also stated that while many people break off a sliver of newly unmolded soap to try out on their hands, that they should hold off on using it on the rest of their body right away until it has had sufficient weeks to cure, because soap gets much milder as it cures. That's very good advise to follow.

Until I hear from Eugenia about maybe adding more lye/water solution to it to balance things out or not (which I'm ready and willing to do if she advises it), I'm just going to let it sit on my rack. I figure if I don't hear from her, or if she advises against adding more lye to it, then at the worst it will at least have had time to cure, and I'll be able to see if curing helps it all all or if it'll go rancid pretty quick. It would at least be a lesson learned for me and better than just tossing it out at first, because I know that if I just toss it out right off that my experimental side will always wonder what would've happened if I let it cure (providing I didn't try to balance things with another lye/water solution first).

The texture of the soap is the texture of a very soft, oily feeling cheese, but while it's very soft and pliable, it still holds it's shape. It's surprisingly not oozing or sweating oil or anything either(yet) after having been sitting on my rack for at least 4 hours.

Well, for the time being and until I hear further from Eugenia or any other like-minded, kindly soul willing to take pity on me, I'm just going to set this batch aside to either await further instructions or to go through an experimental cure to see what happens. In the meantime, I'm going to go and make a new and correctly fatted batch. :smiley2: Thanks for putting up with me! You guys are great! Here's hoping that I'll recieve further advise about adding more lye solution to my 'Stupor-fat'. :smiley2:

MarieJeanette

Aaaarggghhh! I'm so mad I could kick myself. I found out today that somehow I had a brain fart while measuring my oils last night and instead of putting 12 oz of Canola in my batch, I put in 20 oz. instead, making my batch 8 oz. too heavy on the oil side (to say the least!). Please pardon my language, but crap, crap, crap!!!! I guess that's what I get for making soap so late at night.:undecided Grrr!!!!!

I'm guessing that would be considered a "way, super-duper fat", or maybe even a 'stupor-fat'. I kinda like 'stupor-fat', to be honest. That pretty much explains it best. Sheesh! I'm pretty sure I'll have a good for nothing pile of mush as a result. I punched in my botched batch calculations on Soap Calc a few moments ago before posting here and it came back with something like a 25% super-fat.

Do you think I can remelt the whole thing and add more lye to it to correct the problem, or should I just toss it and start over? Although I hate the thought of my soap going to waste, I'm okay with tossing it and going back to the drawing board since I still have enough on hand to do a fresh batch (with 12 oz. of canola this time, gosh darn it!), but if there is a way to somehow save my stupor-fatted soap, I'm willing to give it a go. What would you advise in your experience?

MarieJeanette

Well, I took the plunge late last night, into the wee, early hours of this morning, pouring at 1:30 am. I decided to use Snowdrift Farm's calculations at a 5% SF, substituting beef tallow in their calculator for coconut oil. I used 10.3 oz of lye to 28.8 oz. water for my 5 lb. batch. Everything so far has seemed to go smoothly. I mixed the lye into the oils when both were at 100 degrees F., and alternated manually stirring and stick-blending. It took about 35 minutes to trace and then I poured into my prepared molds. Since I'm planniing to rebatch, I did not color or scent it. When I got up this morning, the soap was in gel stage. So far, so good! I'll let you know how it turns out. I can hardly wait for it to cool off so I can unmold! Thank you for all your kind help. Maybe I can get my hubby to help me post a picture of the finished soap when it's done.

MarieJeanette