Coconut Salt Bar
High-coconut bar with sea salt up to 100% of oils. 20% superfat keeps it from being drying. Spa-feel hardness.
Salt bars use sea salt up to 100% of the oil weight, which makes the bars unbelievably hard, long-lasting, and luxurious-feeling. The catch is high coconut + low superfat = drying skin, so we run 20% superfat to compensate. Salt suppresses lather, but bubbles return after a short cure.
Ingredients (1 kg batch)
| Ingredient | Amount |
|---|---|
Coconut oil 76° Cocos Nucifera (Coconut) Oil | 800.0 g (80%) |
Olive oil Olea Europaea (Olive) Fruit Oil | 150.0 g (15%) |
Castor oil Ricinus Communis (Castor) Seed Oil | 50.0 g (5%) |
NaOH (lye) | 144.2 g (99% purity) |
Distilled water | 330.0 g |
Fragrance / EO (3%) | 30.0 g |
Sea salt | 750.0 g (75% of oils) |
Open the recipe in the calculator to scale up or down by gram, ounce, kg, or pound.
Expected qualities
Step-by-step
- Use individual silicone moulds — salt bars get rock-hard fast and cracking is common in loaf moulds.
- Bring lye-water and oils to 43–50°C (110–120°F) — you need the heat to keep the high-coconut soap fluid through trace.
- Stir salt into oils before adding lye-water. Use fine-grain sea salt for smooth bars, coarser for exfoliating.
- Combine, stick-blend to light trace, pour quickly into individual moulds.
- Cut/unmould early — salt bars can become uncuttable after 24 hours.
- Cure 6+ weeks. Lather builds during cure; the first weeks have minimal bubbles.
Notes & troubleshooting
- Most makers find 50–80% salt is more practical than 100% — easier to cut, still feels great.
- Avoid colourants that bleed at high pH; oxides and ultramarines work well here.
Calculator-flagged recipe notes
- Coconut oil over 30% can be drying. Consider raising superfat to 20% if you go higher (salt bars often use 20%).
- Cleansing score 54 is above the 22 range — bar may be drying.
- Superfat over 12% can leave free oils that go rancid (DOS — dreaded orange spots) over time.
Regulatory disclaimer
FormulaNorth helps organize cosmetic formulation, label, costing, and CNF preparation information. It is not legal or regulatory advice and does not replace Health Canada guidance, professional regulatory review, or the maker's responsibility to verify product compliance before sale.
Selling in Canada?
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