# Curious about adding food to soap



## Donna (Sep 6, 2013)

Hi All,

I've been making soap for a few years and have yet to try adding any food products to my soap.
I have two questions re: food and soap.
1) Does it really impart any benefit to the soap, or is it just for label appeal?
2) Does it increase the chances of rancidity?

Personally, I'm not sure I would like bathing with something that had pumpkin puree or carrot juice in it, but if there
are benefits, I'd give it a go!

I know there are all sorts of threads re: the addition of food products and how and when to add them.
Just wasn't sure of the point.
Many thanks!


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## sistrum (Sep 6, 2013)

IMO anytime you add an unsaponfiable ingredientit its going to change the character of the soap. Not sure if I would call it "benefits" it is a wash off product after all. I really like carrot, milks and yogurt in soaps.  As far as going rancid I think it would depend on what you use and how you add it.  None of my "food" soaps have gone bad but the oldest I have here at home now is just three years old so I don't really know for sure.

I'm sure some of things I've seen people add could just be for lable appeal but if I don't think it brings a noticeable NICE difference to my product I don't use it.


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## Saswede (Sep 6, 2013)

Hi Donna!
I make a lovely carrot soap, with unrefined cane sugar, which I use as a facial soap - in the hopes that the vitamin A in the carrots (from my garden - which I boil, puree, and add at trace) aren't lost to the lye.  And I also made a cucumber soap which is great for oily skin (a bit drying for me, but a friend really loves it).  I have a few bars of each which I've kept for over a year now, to see whether they do deteriorate faster than other bars, and they still look as good as they did when they were made ....  




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## Saswede (Sep 6, 2013)

Just realized that I neglected to mention oatmeal and honey - I use both fairly regularly, and love them in a plain, unscented bar (either together or with other additives like yoghurt or rooibos tea).


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## Moody Glenn (Sep 6, 2013)

Hi Donna! Your posting set-off my pet-peeve response about soapmaking - adding food items and whole organic materials to soap. *I am probably a minority* but I think soap should be soap without added fleshy, pureed or whole materials. Food items should be eaten and not smeared all over the body or hair. The sole purpose of soap is to clean - that's it.

 I have absolutely nothing against milk-based (it is fat and water) soaps nor soaps made by infusing color into the oils via various herbs and spices since those materials are strained out but adding un-strained, pureed vegetables and fruit makes me ill. I have a mental image of plopping baby food into the soap batter. Over time those items will mold and rot. Sorry - its not for me. I want soap to clean me and make me feel absolutely refreshed without the worry of having unidentified organic materials clinging to my body and hair or clogging the drains. That's the way I feel on this subject. I am now off the soapbox.


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## houseofwool (Sep 6, 2013)

I'm kinda with you on this one! I do use things like milk and beer to replace the water in a batch, but I don't add actual food stuff. The only one I might consider making and exception for is avocado because I can only imagine that some of the fats in it will survive saponification.


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## shunt2011 (Sep 6, 2013)

I've not added anything other than pumpkin puree for the color.  I would like to try avocado as I've heard it makes awesome soap too.  Otherwise the only things I use are milks, tea or beer.


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## OliveOil2 (Sep 6, 2013)

I've done beer, oatmeal milk honey, and I've done carrot two ways, the first time was with pureed carrots, and the second carrot juice. This is just my take on it, I liked using the carrot juice much more.


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## judymoody (Sep 6, 2013)

If the food substance is liquefied or finely pureed, it shouldn't mold or have a negative impact on the soap's shelf life.  That said, I limit my "food" items in soap primarily to beer, teas & other herbal infusions, and pumpkin, carrot, and avocado puree.  The avocado makes a very luxurious, conditioning soap.  Pumpkin and carrot are primarily for color and the natural sugars contribute to a nice lather.

I haven't felt the urge to use blueberries, apples, bananas, or peaches though.


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## Saswede (Sep 6, 2013)

While I don't use many food stuffs in my soaps, I don't really understand why it should be OK to use herbs and spices, tea, coffee, sugar, honey, or milk products of various types, but not fruit or vegetables.  After all fruit and veg have been used for beauty treatments for hundreds of years - from cucumber or avocado for skin treatments through to egg yolks as a protein treatment for hair.

And I really do like carrot soap ......


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## Donna (Sep 6, 2013)

Wow!  Thank you all for posting.  Glen, you are so funny.  I'm glad my post sparked a "pet peeve"!
I can see both sides.  I have used milk and love what it does for soap. I have used things like cucumber, egg yolk, yogurt for facials, but since soap is a wash off product, I'm not sure much is to be gained other than making the soap more luxurious, which in itself might justify using food.
I've used oatmeal and walnut shells (ground finely) as exfoliators in soap,and I do know that sugars contribute to more bubbles, so I have used that as well.
I guess we all have reasons for either using or not using food in our soap, but I just wanted to know what the pros or cons were.  Also, I live in a humid climate and was concerned about soap becoming rancid.
The old saying "If it's not broken, don't try to fix it" comes to mind.  I am happy with my soap, but always itching to try something new and different.
Think I will stick to the aesthetic challenges for the time being.
As always, this forum and it's members are so helpful.  Thanks.


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## jennikate (Sep 6, 2013)

I am for the most part also of the food is food not for in my soap. My exceptions to that rule are milk ground oatmeal and honey once in a while. I want try beer soap but haven't yet. I just have no interest in putting something in that will by its nature rot.


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## lizflowers42 (Sep 6, 2013)

I've done milk, cream, beer, yogurt, pumpkin, banana, carrots, blueberries, honey, molasses, white sugar, sea salt, tea, coffee...so far nothing has rotted!


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## Candybee (Sep 7, 2013)

Well if you haven't tried a soap with freshly pureed avocado in it you are really missing out. Its got to be the most creamiest luxury soap I ever used. Now I have added an avocado soap to my regular line.

Other ingredients I have used successfully in my soaps are:

Milks/liquids: goat milk, coconut milk, buttermilk, yogurt, dairy cream, aloe juice (getting ready to try out oat milk and hemp milk this weekend.)
Fruits/veggies: strawberries, lemons, pumpkin, limes, aloe (I have yet to try pureed carrots and tomato but know several soapers that do and swear by them.)
Grains: oatmeal (extremely fine ground/colloidal)
Honey, sugar, salt

Anything I use in my soap I puree and run through a sieve or filter. For milk and fruit purees I split my liquids and use add the puree to my soap oils or at trace.

I have been making soap for about nine years now and experimenting with different natural additives for most of those years. I have not had one incidence of soap going rancid. However, I have had an oil go rancid on me once so I just threw it out.

Personally I like the way the soap feels on my skin when it has milk in it or a nice pureed fruit. For my strawberry puree I leave the seeds in for an exfoliating soap.

I think its all in the amounts and how I use them that work for me. Milks I can use as a full liquid or a half of my liquid. Purees I tend to use 1 oz of fruit puree ppo.

Personally I don't see anything wrong with trying out something new and testing it. As mentioned, fruits like pumpkin, cranberries, carrots, lemons, coconut, have been used in body products for many years and in some cases for centuries and have well established uses for the body, skin, and hair.

Then you have a variety of herbs and spices. For these I tend to make infusions. For example, I crush lavender buds and put them in a container with distilled water to make my own lavender water. I then strain the water and use it as my liquid. I certainly gives my lavender soap an extra boost of lavender scent and label appeal. I have other teas and infusions I make but won't list them all here.


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## ShayShay (Sep 8, 2013)

I am completely on board with Candybee. Food items have been used as body care for thousands of years. What has only been used for a relatively short time are chemicals and dyes.
Considering that I first used an apricot facial scrub more than thirty years ago, food in soap seems perfectly normal to me. I really like soaps that have food stuff added such as pureed cucumber, pumpkin, avocado, carrot, etc. I even recently bought a soap made with watermelon puree that I stumbled upon at an out of town farmer's market about a month ago. I was skeptical, but wanted to give it a try. I love it and at some point will try making my own watermelon soap. Personally, I would much rather use soap that is made with a food item, giving it a nice natural color and texture than soap colored with dyes.  I downloaded Ruth Esteves' book "Coloring Soaps Naturally" and it is a great guide for using natural colors, including many food items.


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## hlee (Sep 8, 2013)

I have used carrot and pumpkin puree  for color and banana just to try it.
The carrot soap is unscented, a golden color, really mild and one of my favs. 
The pumpkin did not stay orange, turned brown, but maybe because of the fragrance.
The banana is also a really mild and creamy soap.
I have not had a problem with any of them and I love any kind of milk soaps .
Experimenting is part of the fun for me.


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## neeners (Sep 9, 2013)

great thread!

how much ppo should be added for food items?  I've read 1tbsp per lb of oils...


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## Saswede (Sep 9, 2013)

I think the amount varies depending on the additive and your objectives for the soap, Neener.  
For cucumber soap I liquidize fresh cucumber, and for carrot soap I boil and then purée the carrots, and then use the juice/purée instead of water to make the lye solution.  
For yoghurt soap, I apply a water discount for the weight of the yoghurt, which I add at trace (I'm no good at working in pounds, but I generally add about 100g of yoghurt for 1kg of oils - so 10% of the weight of the oils).  
I haven't used avocado yet, but seeing some of the comments in this thread I'm very tempted ......!




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## neeners (Sep 9, 2013)

thanks!  it's avocado season right now, I may put some avocado in my next soap batch!


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## djk17 (Sep 11, 2013)

I often add:
Salt
Honey
Milks (animal & coconut)
Aloe Vera
Pumpkin
Cucumber
Carrot
Oats
Coffee
Cocoa
Sugar...

I've never had anything go bad, and especially the aloe and carrot are gorgeous in soap


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## neeners (Sep 11, 2013)

how do you process aloe into the soap?  I have fresh aloe plants, and have been eyeballing them to put into a soap (maybe aloe & avocado goats milk soap...all of which I can get on my property).  I would assume puree the flesh, can either add at trace or use as part of lye solution?


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## Ancel (Sep 11, 2013)

For aloe I split the leaves and scrape the flesh out. I don't discount my water for the aloe as I already do a 2:1 water lye ratio. I add it at trace. I also chop the scraped leaves and add those too. Do you have noni in Barbados? Noni and aloe make a nice soap together, I also do an aloe and nettle together, or aloe and yogurt.


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## neeners (Sep 11, 2013)

yes we have noni! (have some fermenting on my counter right now). do you put it fresh or the fermented liquid?


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## djk17 (Sep 12, 2013)

The first time I used aloe from my plant, I sliced it lengthwise and scraped out the gel. A couple of weeks ago I thought, oh, why bother! And simply washed it and threw it in the blender with my liquid. No green flecks remained (I blended it for quite a while)
I used red palm in that recipe so I don't know if the green would come through at all in a white bar. 
The soap is already great to use.  I couldn't resist trying a bar before the full cure 
HTH!


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## Ancel (Sep 12, 2013)

For the noni I've used puréed fresh (strained out the seeds), dried and the fermented juice. Of all I prefer the dried - but just because it's easier and I don't have to mess around with discounting my water any further. Having said that I think the best comes from using the fresh puréed. And none of the smell makes it through saponification   I tend to put in about 3 tablespoons fresh ppo.
Have you ever tried noni leaves for a green tea? It's a nice, fresh tasting tea and has many of the properties of the fruit.
You must have sugar apple too? What about that in a soap?


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## neeners (Sep 12, 2013)

sugar apples are harder to find here in Barbados.  there's a local soap company that puts breadfruit into their soaps, and creates a nice lather.  they also do a guava one.  neither of the smells come through, and they're both kind of browny.

i'm definitely going to try the noni.  will have to do some noni hunting....


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## Ancel (Sep 12, 2013)

Was searching for breadfruit soap and came up with akee being listed as suitable for use in soaps - the green fruit, rind and seed. Do you have akee there? Seems odd to me, and I'd be scared of using the seeds, but it's in the soapberry family, so it might produce some beneficial component. Is the soap company you mention Earth Mother Botanicals?


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## MooreThanBags (Sep 12, 2013)

I recently made my first "food" soap using pumpkin puree and turmeric for color to make a nice fall soap. I haven't used it yet but it turned out very pretty.


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## neeners (Sep 12, 2013)

Ancel said:


> Was searching for breadfruit soap and came up with akee being listed as suitable for use in soaps - the green fruit, rind and seed. Do you have akee there? Seems odd to me, and I'd be scared of using the seeds, but it's in the soapberry family, so it might produce some beneficial component. Is the soap company you mention Earth Mother Botanicals?
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPad using Soap Making


 

yes!  earth mother!

um, not sure about akee.  are you taking Jamaican akee (the one where it's toxic until it opens) or the little green ones that are mostly just pit?

I was thinking guava would be nice with the seeds as exfoliant...


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## MooreThanBags (Sep 12, 2013)

After thinking about all the comments regarding whether adding food or anything else to soap adds to its value I had to share one of my customers recent comments. Tara suffers from a debilitating disease at a young age and can no longer hold a job. She had been using my soap for awhile when she lost her health insurance and money was very tight at her house. She told me that using my goat milk soap made every shower a soothing experience. Her husband vowed to make buying the soap a priority. Since then I have decided to just give her the soap. My point is this: for some a luxury bar of soap is about more than just getting clean. I have to say I enjoy my shower much more with my own soap.


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## Ancel (Sep 12, 2013)

The Jamaican akee. I imagine the guava would be nice, the seeds are round aren't they? 

MooreThanBags - beautiful!


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## neeners (Sep 12, 2013)

oh, Jamaican akees are hard to find here.  no one grows them (i'm trying to keep things local).

they're roundish....I would imagine the guava seeds would break a little when pureeing the fruit?


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## Ancel (Sep 12, 2013)

Oh that's too bad. With the guava seeds you'd have to be careful they wouldn't be too scratchy: round is smooth and good, broken seeds have to be pretty much ground up to make them nice on the skin. Earth Mother just says pureed guava, maybe if the guavas are still green and the seeds are soft when pureed. Would be interested in finding out. Respect your desire to keep everything local :clap:


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## Stinkydancer (Sep 12, 2013)

Moody Glenn said:


> Hi Donna! Your posting set-off my pet-peeve response about soapmaking - adding food items and whole organic materials to soap. *I am probably a minority* but I think soap should be soap without added fleshy, pureed or whole materials. Food items should be eaten and not smeared all over the body or hair. The sole purpose of soap is to clean - that's it.
> 
> I have absolutely nothing against milk-based (it is fat and water) soaps nor soaps made by infusing color into the oils via various herbs and spices since those materials are strained out but adding un-strained, pureed vegetables and fruit makes me ill. I have a mental image of plopping baby food into the soap batter. Over time those items will mold and rot. Sorry - its not for me. I want soap to clean me and make me feel absolutely refreshed without the worry of having unidentified organic materials clinging to my body and hair or clogging the drains. That's the way I feel on this subject. I am now off the soapbox.



You have obviously never tried a well made Pumpkin or Cucumber soap or for that matter a soap with honey in it. Google Pumpkin in soap..there are benefits to it even in a rinse off product. I have Pumpkin soap that has lasted years and years with no mold or rot same with milk soaps. I would think a milk or Yogurt soap would rot faster. You know lye is used as a preservative in some foods right?

Not to sound harsh but open your mind man.


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## dalsignum (Feb 13, 2017)

I'm Curious about this... what does adding food in soap benefits? do you still benefit the goodness of the food after adding it to CP soap?


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## cmzaha (Feb 13, 2017)

dalsignum said:


> I'm Curious about this... what does adding food in soap benefits? do you still benefit the goodness of the food after adding it to CP soap?


This is a very old thread and many of the posters have not been seen in a long time. It is better to start a new topic


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## dalsignum (Feb 13, 2017)

I already did... can you reply to it in my new thread? thanks



cmzaha said:


> This is a very old thread and many of the posters have not been seen in a long time. It is better to start a new topic


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