Himalayan pink salt, coarse
For looks: specks in the soap, or scattered over the top. Salt bars: very hard, dense bars. Lovely Greens supplier or guide, Cable, The Natural Soap Making Book for Beginners primary source
Opens the calculator’s starter recipe with this additive in it. No source gives a dose to fill in, so enter your own.
What it is
Himalayan pink salt comes from Pakistan and is mostly sodium chloride, tinted pink by traces of iron oxide; this is the coarse grade, in grains of 1–5 mm. Pink salts sold in Australia held more magnesium, calcium and potassium than white table salt, and differed widely from one sample to the next.
Fayet-Moore et al. (2020) primary source, Lovely Greens supplier or guide, Voyageur Soap & Candle supplier or guide
How much
- 90.5 % of the oils for salt bars (from a published recipe) Cable, The Natural Soap Making Book for Beginners primary source
- 50–100 % of the oils for salt bars Lovin Soap supplier or guide
No dose to fill in: enter your own.
When and how
- Usually: at thick trace.
- Also used: at light trace.
- Stir it in as it is.
Lovely Greens supplier or guide, Cable, The Natural Soap Making Book for Beginners primary source
What it does to the recipe
- It changes neither the lye nor the water: it is only weight in the bar.
Fayet-Moore et al. (2020) primary source, Lovely Greens supplier or guide, Voyageur Soap & Candle supplier or guide
Worth knowing
- Salt bars are usually 80–100 % coconut oil with a 15–20 % superfat. Faiola, Pure Soapmaking primary source, Lovin Soap supplier or guide
- Salt bars set fast: cut them as soon as they are firm, 4 to 8 hours after pouring. Lovin Soap supplier or guide
- Caution: Salt cuts lather markedly. Faiola, Pure Soapmaking primary source
Spoons and drops
- 1 tsp ≈ 5.5 g
- 1 tbsp ≈ 16.5 g
- 1 cup ≈ 264 g
USDA FoodData Central primary source
INCI name
Sodium Chloride
- CAS number
- 7647-14-5
- EC number
- 231-598-3
Recipes that use it
Guides that discuss it
Sources
Lovely Greens, Pink Himalayan Salt Soap Recipe: "pink Himalayan salt is mainly made up of sodium chloride (table salt)"; fine pink salt stirred into the batter, and "sprinkle coarse pink Himalayan salt on top as decoration ... Once you’ve sprinkled it on, gently press it into the soap’s surface so it’s firmly attached."
Kelly Cable, The Natural Soap Making Book for Beginners (Althea Press, 2017), chapter 9, Uplifting Salt Soap and Ocean Salt Soap: each "19 ounces Himalayan or table salt (not sea salt)" for 21 oz of oils at a 20 % lye discount, added at light trace: "Stir with a large spoon before using a stick blender"; out of the mould after 4 hours, "otherwise it can become so hard that it crumbles".
F. Fayet-Moore et al., "An analysis of the mineral composition of pink salt available in Australia", Foods 9 (2020) 1490: 31 pink salts, 87 % of them from the Himalayas; Pakistan "produces Himalayan pink salt for commercial distribution"; "The concentrated shade of pink in pink salt is determined by traces of iron oxide"; mean per kilogram, magnesium 2655 mg, calcium 2695 mg and potassium 2406 mg against 84, 393 and 152 mg in white table salt; "Pink salt in flake form, pink salt originating from the Himalayas, and darker colored pink salt were generally found to contain higher levels of minerals"; one sample, from Peru, held 2.59 mg/kg of lead, over the 2 mg/kg limit.
Voyageur Soap & Candle, Himalayan Pink Salt – Coarse Grain: grain 1.0–5.0 mm; country of origin Pakistan; "INCI: Depending on Country - Maris Sal or Sodium Chloride".
Lovin Soap, formulating salt bars: "50-100% of oil weight in salt"; mostly coconut oil at a 15–20 % superfat; cut when set, "This can be 4 hours after you pour or 8."
Anne-Marie Faiola, Pure Soapmaking (Storey Publishing, 2016): "1 teaspoon of sodium lactate for every 16 ounces (1 pound) of oils or 0.5 percent" (the two disagree: a teaspoon of the 60 % solution a pound is about 1.45 % of the oils, so neither is taken from this book); salt at "½ teaspoon per pound of oil", added to the water before the lye; "Salt decreases lather significantly"; salt bars are 80–100 % coconut oil at a high superfat. Chapter 5: coffee grounds, "For extra scrubbing power, use a coarse grind, while for gentle exfoliation, a super-fine espresso grind is best. Use the grounds to make coffee before adding them, or they might bleed brown halos into the final soap"; "Adding colloidal oatmeal can accelerate trace in your soap recipe; premixing with water can help avoid this"; honey, "start soaping with lye-water and oils both under 100°F (38°C). Add the honey at trace ... Once the soap is finished, place it in the refrigerator or freezer immediately to prevent overheating". Chapter 7: "A half teaspoon of sugar per pound of soap added to your lye-water can help your bar lather up."
USDA FoodData Central, branded labels: a quarter teaspoon of coarse Himalayan pink salt weighs 1.25 g (Cargill, FDC 2588157), 1.4 g (Morton extra coarse, FDC 2561923) and 1.5 g (Frontier Co-op coarse grind, FDC 2607780). A teaspoon is taken as the mean, 5.5 g.