The trick to making salt soap is to use a multi-cavity silicone mold to pour your soap into because it will harden to what feels like a block of concrete and will be useless if not cut at the perfect temperature and timing is tricky and hot soap burns... ow... There was a time when I'd make a sea salt soap in a loaf pan and I'd put it in the oven and when it was "done" cooking, I'd have to remove it from the mold and cut it with a large butcher knife. This entailed holding the loaf to secure it while cutting with the other finger. I think I burned my fingerprints right off my fingertips! So now, I don't cook my salt soap, nor do I cut them! Now, I just use a multi-cavity silicone mold and pour. Wait 12 hours and unmold - - POP! Out they come. They don't fall apart, or burn my fingers and they are all pretty much uniform!
I have always loved sea salt bars. They have a creamy lather and the soap seems to last forever! Because salt inherently diminishes lather, we used 100% coconut oil to get the biggest bang for the lather. Yes, a very cleansing bar of soap, but that is why we superfatted it at 20%. That counteracts the drying feeling that too much coconut oil can cause. If there is too much coconut oil in your batch of soap, you'll get lots of bubbles, but your skin will feel overly cleansed, or dry. This bar has the best of both worlds.... with some extra superfatting.
If you do not know how to make cold process soap, please do not attempt this until you have a full understanding of how the process works. A beginning tutorial can be found here or here for basic cold process soapmaking.
This is the recipe I used but you can adjust how much you make by putting in the number of ounces or lbs of oil you will use in Soapcalc.net:
- 36 oz Coconut Oil
- 10.55 oz Distilled water
- 5.28 oz Lye
- 1.13 oz Fragrance (Snow Witch, available at Arizona Soap Supply)
- 36 oz Fine Sea Salt
- 8 grams Aphrodite Blue Mica MAD MICAS (one sample jar)
I made this soap once the lye water and oils were both warm, but not at room temperature (about 100 degrees F).
In the melted warm (not hot) oils, add all the mica and blend with a silicone spatula until fully incorporated. Add the lye water and blend until emulsified until you reach a light trace. Add the sea salt and blend until fully blended and so that the salt is suspended and not resting at the bottom of your bowl. Add the fragrance last and blend well with your stick blender until fully incorporated.
Pour into silicone molds. Let sit overnight or for at least 12 hours. Pop out and let cure for 4-6 weeks. They turned out great and of course, I washed with a bit of a broken off piece and the lather is better than just creamy, there are lots of bubbles and the scent is intoxicating!
