# another salt bar question



## Anita Martin (Dec 26, 2007)

I used the recipe in the sticky for the salt bars yesterday. It did not gel, or even get hot or hard like the regular batch I did right after that, although I was able to unmold today. They do not seem quite right. I am wondering about the lye measurment. Do we use a different percentage of lye for the salt bars? I ran the recipe through the lye calculator twice and it it said for 28.8 oz coconut and 10.2 oz castor, I would need around 6 ounces of lye. The sticky recipe only calls for 4.5 ounces, which is what I used. 


I would like to do another batch, but I want to be sure to use the correct amount of lye for my oils. 
Thanks


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## Kalne (Oct 25, 2007)

I'm not sure about the posted recipe as I haven't looked at it recently. But I calculate my lye based on a 20% superfat. It takes a looooong time to trace. This is one recipe I wait for trace to add something, the salt, which is 80% the weight of my oil. Adding it too soon makes it difficult to tell when you've got trace. Now my fragrance doesn't affect things at all so that might come in to play for others. My soap heats up right away and I cut it after only ONE hour in the mold. At that point they have gelled almost completely.


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## Anita Martin (Dec 26, 2007)

yikes, I have no idea what a 20% superfat means. Oh, boy. I guess I need to do some more searching.


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## Anita Martin (Dec 26, 2007)

Well at looked at the calculator at soap calc. I can't figure out how to use it. The one at the sage just has you enter your oils and then it figures up how much water and lye to use. At soap calc. you have to enter how much water and lye or something like that and I have no idea how much I need, which is why i need a calculator! I know, I'm missing something. Ho hum. what could it be. Maybe I just didn't let these bars come to full trace before adding the salt. I'll try the same recipe again. I used EO's so they did not accelerate and no problem. 
Thanks,
Anita


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## Kalne (Oct 25, 2007)

No, on soapcalc you do not *have* to enter anything about the lye or water unless you are wanting to set it specifically to a certain percentage. I rarely do. Just enter you oils and superfat percentage.


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## Anita Martin (Dec 26, 2007)

I did that and it didn't give me anything for water or lye that I could figure. I do know that I do not know how to use the soap cal. site. Also, I have no idea what I want the superfat percentage to be, since I really don't know what that is.  Anyway, I thought that goat milk soap was already "superfatted" because of the cream, not that I know what that percentage is. 

So, can I use the sage calculator and just do their lye amount or will that bar fail on me?


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## Kalne (Oct 25, 2007)

On soapcalc, the default superfat is 5%. On the sage I believe they give you a range to choose from with the superfat % next to it. With salt bars the superfat is typically much higher (20%) than regular soap to combat the normally drying affects of such a high percentage of coconut oil. I just checked the sage and their range only goes up to 10%. On soap calc, once you calculate your lye you have to click on the *view recipe* button to see the lye amount.


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## Anita Martin (Dec 26, 2007)

Thanks, I am going to try it again. I used the salt bar I made in the shower this morning. I will say that although it looks a tad brittle to me, due I am sure, to the fact that it did not gel, it turned out to be a very creamy, very sudsy, moisturizing bar. It's very nice. I did another batch this morning, and waited to add the salt till it was gloppy in the pot. The salt mixed in well, as did the essential oils and I poured without a hitch. It did not seem to be gelling though, even though I covered it, so I popped it in a warm oven and it did finally gel for me. I have to leave and won't be able to cut till this evening. Hopefully they won't be too hard.
Thanks for the help.
Anita


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