# Sunflower oil



## Sebonllyd (Mar 9, 2016)

Hello everyone, this is my first post here so go easy on me! I'm a newbie soap maker, with some success in bar soap making.  I'm vegan, which is why I've ended up making my own soap.  I've recently made my first batch of liquid soap, using all coconut oil (recipe from thesoapkitchen.co.uk) and I've found it quite drying.  I'm just learning about the chemistry of soap making, and all the various important aspects of this, and I have a few questions. Firstly, is shop bought sunflower oil just as useable as the kind you can buy from soap making suppliers (the shop bought one is a lot cheaper)? Secondly, is the whole neutralising thing absolutely necessary? People sharing recipes online seem to use 'borax', and neither this, nor boric acid, seems to be available in the UK.  Is it possible to use another acid, like citric? Making clear soap isn't an absolute priority to me, but obviously I want to avoid burning my skin!  Many thanks for reading this.


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## Soapsavvy (Mar 9, 2016)

I think I read somewhere that you can use citric acid.


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## DeeAnna (Mar 9, 2016)

"...Secondly, is the whole neutralising thing absolutely necessary? People sharing recipes online seem to use 'borax', and neither this, nor boric acid, seems to be available in the UK. Is it possible to use another acid, like citric?..."

I take it you are wanting to know more about liquid soap? If so, you might want to ask the mods to move your thread to the liquid soap forum -- you might get more responses since the beginner forum is more for absolute beginners and almost all of them are asking about bar soap. 

Short answers -- Yes sunflower from the grocery/shop is fine. There are two basic types of sunflower -- high oleic and regular (high linoleic) so you will want to know that. High oleic is the stuff labeled "good for sauteeing or frying" or "high temperature" or something like that. Each type has a different fatty acid profile and that will affect your recipe formulation.

You don't need to neutralize your soap at all, if you build in a small superfat (no more than 3% typically) to ensure your soap is not lye heavy. That is the type of liquid soap (LS) that most of us make on this forum. Make sure you know your KOH purity so you can calculate the amount of lye correctly. Set your lye concentration to 25% to ensure your soap batter has enough water in it -- you will want a bit more liquid for this type of soap than for CP bar (NaOH) soap. 

No-neutralization Liquid Soap Tutorials:
Irish Lass: http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?p=428988 see posts 8 and 9
and: http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=57974
Susie: http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=49852

Hope this gets you started! Susie and/or Irish Lass will be along to help you with the details.


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## osso (Mar 9, 2016)

Highly recommend the threads Deanna posted above. I've had easy success with the glycerin method outlined by IrishLass.

I love high oleic sunflower in my liquid soap at about 50-60%. I use a 3% superfat and my soap turns out great every time.


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## KristaY (Mar 9, 2016)

osso said:


> Highly recommend the threads Deanna posted above. I've had easy success with the glycerin method outlined by IrishLass.
> 
> I love high oleic sunflower in my liquid soap at about 50-60%. I use a 3% superfat and my soap turns out great every time.


 
Oooohhh, thanks for the tip, osso! My last couple of LS batches I've absolutely hated. Maybe HO sunflower will help as I have a stock-pile at the moment. I never thought of using it at such a high % though. 

For those of you that have access to Trader Joe's they have Sunflower oil, 33.8 oz (1 liter) for $3.99. The ingredient list says Total Fat 14gm, Monounsaturated Fat 12gm. This should mean it's 86% HO if I did DeeAnna's math right and understood her post, lol, on the Geek Tips thread which is here:

http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=57129&highlight=geek+tip


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## Sebonllyd (Mar 10, 2016)

Thanks for the tips everyone. I've seen the first set of links before, but I am not looking to use glycerine at the moment (maybe I will later). The "geek tips" link was handy explaining further what was meant by the differences in sunflower oil however. Thanks for looking after me, as I said earlier - I'm very new to this.


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## Susie (Mar 10, 2016)

If you don't want to use glycerin, and you have made some bar soap, you can grate 14 g into your hot KOH/water mixture to help speed trace.  (but only use hand made soap, not commercially made soap)  The extra is absolutely worth it to save a lot of time.


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## OliveOil2 (Mar 20, 2016)

I just made a liquid soap using Trader Joe's Sunflower oil, and love the way it came out. I adjusted a recipe that I found in Jackie Thompson's Liquid Soapmaking book because I just can't leave things alone.

I used a 3% superfat
65% Sunflower 
20% Coconut Oil
10% Castor Oil
and 5% Cocoa Butter

For a 36 Ounce recipe I mixed the KOH with 13 Ounces of water, then added 10 Ounces of Glycerin to the Lye water. It was pretty quick to turn to paste. I used unrefined Cocoa Butter, and I can still smell it. So will have to decide what I add for EO or if I leave it unscented.


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## cmzaha (Mar 20, 2016)

Sebonllyd said:


> Hello everyone, this is my first post here so go easy on me! I'm a newbie soap maker, with some success in bar soap making.  I'm vegan, which is why I've ended up making my own soap.  I've recently made my first batch of liquid soap, using all coconut oil (recipe from thesoapkitchen.co.uk) and I've found it quite drying.  I'm just learning about the chemistry of soap making, and all the various important aspects of this, and I have a few questions. Firstly, is shop bought sunflower oil just as useable as the kind you can buy from soap making suppliers (the shop bought one is a lot cheaper)? Secondly, is the whole neutralising thing absolutely necessary? People sharing recipes online seem to use 'borax', and neither this, nor boric acid, seems to be available in the UK.  Is it possible to use another acid, like citric? Making clear soap isn't an absolute priority to me, but obviously I want to avoid burning my skin!  Many thanks for reading this.



If you want to fix this batch you can do it. You can make up some single oil LS batches or just a very mild LS and mix with your high coconut oil LS. When I first started soaping I made up single oils batches including Sunflower, Shea, Olive oil, SAO and Castor Oil, Rice Bran Oil and Coconut oil. I vaguely remember the castor not making a hard paste. But I do remember for sure the Sweet Almond and the Rice Bran Oil did not make a hard paste but made a nice LS. I would start with approx 20% coconut oil and start adding the other diluted liquid soaps until I had one I liked. I did write down how much was added so later I would know the percentage of each. After I had one I loved I used the percentages to make up my ls recipe. Hopefully I explained it well enough to understand. A "Teacher" I would not make....
I also love high coconut LS for cleaning


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