Great Salt Lake Brine Soap

I have to admit that until a few years ago, I hadn’t ever considered visiting Antelope Island State Park. My first visit taught me more about Antelope Island than I thought it would. I’ve started making time to visit and I’ve been practicing photography of the island, water and the bison herd.

When I visited in mid-November of last year, I walked out to the water and filled a 1 liter bottle with water from the lake. My intention was to make a batch of soap for a friend of mine. We are visiting Antelope Island later this spring and I wanted to make the memories of the trip last longer than the day of our visit. They will get a personalized souvenir that will remind them of the visit each time they use the soap.

I’m not advocating to bring a tanker of water home from your next vacation, but it is fun to make a small batch of soap that extends your memories of your trip. My family does this by making jam every time we go on vacation. My most memorable batch of jam was the blackberry freezer jam that we made in Portland over our hotel room’s white carpet! I couldn’t help giggling every time we opened a jar.

Let’s head off to the kitchen to make some Great Salt Lake Brine soap!

Collect needed items:

Ingredients Hydrogenated Soybean Oil Coconut Oil Olive Oil Shea Butter Sodium Hydroxide (Lye) Water from the Great Salt Lake

Equipment Scale Microwave Safe Container Spoons Jumbo Heat Sealable Teabag Immersion Blender Soap Mold

Recipe:

Recipe in Grams 170 grams Hydrogenated Soybean Oil 142 grams Coconut Oil 113 grams Olive Oil 29 grams Shea Butter 64 grams Sodium Hydroxide (Lye) 177 mL Great Salt Lake Water

Recipe in Ounces 6 oz Hydrogenated Soybean Oil 5 oz Coconut Oil 4 oz Olive Oil 1 oz Shea Butter 2.26 oz Sodium Hydroxide (Lye) 6 fl oz Great Salt Lake Water

Recipe in Percentages 37.5% Hydrogenated Soybean Oil 31.25% Coconut Oil 25% Olive Oil 6.25% Shea Butter Q.S. Sodium Hydroxide (Lye) Q.S. Great Salt Lake Water

My bottle of water with brine shrimp.

Filtered water ready for the addition of sodium hydroxide.

Before starting I strained the water through a Jumbo Heat Sealable Teabag to remove any physical particulate, like brine shrimp. I then weighed my water and set it aside. I weighed the oils into a microwave safe container. Then I placed into the microwave and gently heated the oils until they were mostly melted. While the oils were heating, I weighed the lye. I slowly added the lye to a container of Great Salt Lake Water I had measured out before melting the oils. DO NOT add water to your container of lye.

Adding the lye solution to the oils.

Blending the oils and lye solution together.

Once my lye solution and oils were within an ideal temperature range*, I slowly poured the lye solution into the oils. I used an immersion blender to mix the oils and lye solution together until I reached trace. After I achieved trace, I poured the soap into the mold and allowed the soap to sit undisturbed for 24 hours.

I’m almost at trace!

The first batch of Great Salt Lake Brine Soap is in the mold!

I came back after 24 hours and cut the soap into bars. Then I placed the cut bars of soap on a piece of cardboard and arranged them to allow for good air flow between bars. I placed the bars on my curing shelf and made a note of their starting weight. As the curing process is the time that allows for any excess water to evaporate, soap cures fairly quickly in our dry climate.

Adding Great Salt Lake mud to my second batch.

The mud is sinking in my raw soap!

I did make a second batch of this soap with the addition of 1 tablespoon of mud collected from the Great Salt Lake. The brownish grey color isn’t appealing, but the source has a wonderful story!

Molds filled with raw soap.

Cut bars of Great Salt Lake Brine Soap.

Soap Notes: This soap is a hard bar and has a nice lather. I’ll be making a batch with regular salt to replicate this!

*Temperature Note: For most soaps, you will want to mix your oils and lye solution when both are somewhere between 110°F to 130°F. In the winter when your soaping area is cooler, you will want to soap at higher temperatures. In the summer when your soaping area is warmer, you will want to soap at cooler temperatures. This particular batch had temperatures around 120°F.

I had so much fun making this soap! What kind of soap would you make to give someone as a vacation souvenir?

P.S. If you are looking for information about the Great Salt Lake and its water, you’ve reached it!

How much minerals and salt were in the water you used?

I have to admit that I do not know for certain. The point where I collected water is noted to have between 17-20% salinity. That is not guaranteed. There are points of the Great Salt Lake that have a mere 5% salinity and yet other points that have 27% salinity! I’ve included a chart below that will help you understand the general composition of the water in comparison to a typical ocean and the Dead Sea.

Chemical compositions (dry weight percents) of Great Salt Lake, typical ocean, and the Dead Sea waters. Information found from the Utah Geological Survey.

Source	Sodium	Potassium	Magnesium	Calcium	Chloride	Sulfate
Great Salt Lake	32.8%	2.0%	3.3%	0.2%	54.5%	7.2%
Ocean (typical)	30.8%	1.1%	3.7%	1.2%	55.5%	7.7%
Dead Sea	12.3%	2.3%	12.8%	5.3%	67.2%	0.1%