As many soapmakers know, extra minerals in soap will reduce the lather of the soap. People with hard water know this too. Most soapmakers add a little extra coconut oil to compensate, but several were concerned that too much coconut would make the soap drying to your skin. I decided to go with 50% coconut oil, but I've read that others go up to 70%. I then did 30% olive oil for moisturizing and 20% palm, but I don't know that I needed the palm to make them hard because I think the salt does that for you.
I couldn't decide what scent to make these. I wanted it to be uplifting and wonderful to go along with a spa or beach experience. I found a small bottle of an essential oil blend called "euphoria" and I thought that would be perfect. I really liked the smell of the blend when I bought it, but never could find the right soap to use it in! I know, that is just silly, but I'm glad I saved it.
I read several blogs about other's salt soaps and I decided to use a 1:1 salt:oils ratio. I also read that you have to be ready to move once you add the salt, so I had my everything ready to go! I mixed to a very thin trace and added my eo blend and mixed some more. I think the essential oil might have contributed to a little bit of acceleration, but I didn't experiment with it before, so I'm not sure (this is why you should always test first...oops). I added my salt and for some unknown reason, I tried to stick blend it in. I quickly figured out that it wasn't a good idea, so I hand-stirred. I started trying to get it in my individual molds and it was really thick. I meant to smoosh it down before I filled up the molds completely, but I realized I had a problem and panicked. So, I just put more soap on top of the soap in the mold. The result looks like two layers smooshed together.
 |
| Not so smooth because it didn't pour nicely. The other three cavities are filled with soaps that I was testing FOs on. See, I do test! |
As you can see, the soap was thick and hard to work with, but I smoothed it out nicely. I used my blunt-edged cutter to shave the tops off before I removed them from the molds. They came out of the molds perfectly! I'm so glad I used a smooth mold because the bars are so smooth and glossy on those sides.
 |
| I do wish they were more even in the middle, but I'm still in love! |
So, why did I panic? I didn't take into account how much salt was being added when I made my recipe! So, I had more soap than would fit in my mold. Of course, I didn't have any other molds lined or available. I usually have several extra molds lined for such an occasion! So, that was oops #2. I found some bar molds to use and the soap went in and came out nicely.
 |
| Not the molds I would have preferred, but they worked nicely. |
Lessons for next time:
- Use an FO or EO that I've already tested and does not accelerate trace. The soap does a great job of that.
- Resize my recipe to account for the salt.
- Get it into the mold quicker and maybe get a helper to smoosh it into the mold evenly.
- Euphoria smells even better in soap than I expected. Buy more!
