SEA SALT AND BUTTERMILK SOAP: THE STORY BEHIND SKINNY DIP

Sea salt, buttermilk and a fresh, herbal scent with a cool peppermint finish. This bar has a few layers to it.

Why sea salt and buttermilk?

I’ve always found cold process soapmaking fascinating because it gives you a reason to look at familiar ingredients from a different angle. Sea salt is something most of us use without thinking twice about it. Buttermilk is just as familiar, whether you know it from cooking or from recipes handed down through the family. In soapmaking, however, both ingredients come with their own quirks.

That’s the thinking behind Skinny Dip, our sea salt and buttermilk soap bar. Rather than treating ingredients as decorative extras, we look at what they can contribute to a recipe and what we need to account for when making the soap. It’s a process of curiosity, testing and balancing—not simply adding a handful of interesting things to a pot and hoping for the best.

Salt in soap is more complicated than it sounds

Sea salt can influence the hardness and texture of a soap bar, depending on how much is used and how the recipe is formulated. But more salt doesn’t automatically mean better soap. Higher amounts can reduce lather and make a bar more brittle, so the proportions matter.

That’s particularly important because people often judge soap by its everyday performance. Does it feel solid in the hand? Does it lather the way they expect? Does it hold together through regular use? Those qualities are shaped by the entire formulation, including the balance of oils and butters, the amount of salt and the way the soap is made. A salt soap needs to be formulated with its own characteristics in mind; it isn’t simply an ordinary soap with salt sprinkled into the mixture.

What does buttermilk bring to the recipe?

Buttermilk introduces another interesting variable. Milk ingredients contain sugars and other components that can influence the heat and behaviour of a cold process soap batch. During production, they need to be incorporated carefully so that the recipe remains manageable and the finished bar develops as intended.

The oils and fats still do the essential work of becoming soap through saponification with sodium hydroxide. The milk and salt are part of a larger recipe, and the final experience depends on how all those elements work together. That’s why we pay attention to the whole formulation rather than making a product’s entire identity rest on one ingredient.

For us, Skinny Dip is an example of how a traditional craft can be both creative and technical. There’s room to experiment, but the experimentation has to be grounded in an understanding of the ingredients.

A fresh, herbal scent with a cool finish

Skinny Dip is scented with tea tree, peppermint and patchouli essential oils. Tea tree brings a distinctive fresh, herbal character, while peppermint adds a cool, crisp lift that you can almost imagine as a breath of fresh air. Patchouli sits underneath with an earthy, woody depth, giving the blend a little weight and keeping the brighter notes from feeling too sharp.

Together, the three oils create a scent that feels fresh but not one-dimensional. The opening is lively and herbal, the peppermint brings that unmistakable coolness, and the patchouli leaves a deeper, earthy impression in the background. It’s a combination with a bit of contrast: crisp and grounded, bright and earthy.

That contrast suits Skinny Dip. The name might be playful, but the formulation is considered. We want the scent to complement the bar rather than overpower it, adding character to the bathing experience without needing a complicated fragrance story.

A bar with a story beyond its name

Skinny Dip represents the sort of ingredient combination that makes us stop and ask questions. How does salt change the texture? How does a milk ingredient affect production? How do we balance these details while still making a bar that does its everyday job well?

If you’re curious about sea salt and buttermilk soap, explore Skinny Dip on WhySoCurious. Read the ingredient list, discover its fresh herbal and earthy scent, and check the product page for current availability.

We think soapmaking is at its best when the curiosity behind a bar is matched by care in how it’s made. Skinny Dip is our little reminder of that.