# Soap making supplies in uae



## Sakina.murtaza (Aug 25, 2019)

Which to get soap making supplies in UAE? Can I use any cooking or hair oils available in store? Coconut cooking oil, olive extra,wells almond oil are they all ok for soap making


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## Mobjack Bay (Aug 25, 2019)

You can use oils, fats and butters that are used for cooking or personal use, such as olive, coconut and palm oils, animal fats, and plant butters such as Shea, mango, and cocoa.  Many soapmakers use a lower grade of olive oil than EV to keep costs down, but you should research or test your product because some olive oil is adulterated.  You will also need sodium hydroxide, which is called “lye” in the US and “caustic soda” in some other places.  It must be 100% sodium hydroxide.

If you haven’t introduced yourself yet, please post a message in the introduction forum:
https://www.soapmakingforum.com/forums/the-introduction-forum.16/

If you haven’t already, you will want to read about the different oils and butters and the qualities they bring to soap, both good and bad. Here’s a good place to access basic information and ask questions: https://www.soapmakingforum.com/forums/beginners-soap-making-forum.47/

Many products for soap making are sold on Amazon if that is an option for you.


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## Sakina.murtaza (Aug 25, 2019)

Hi. Thanks for the advice. I always wrote sodium hydroxide and couldnt find anything but I this time I searched caustic soda in ended up finding some products easily available in market near me.
There is huge variety of Shea butter some are raw, unrefined, refined, easy apply, direct apply which one should I buy?
You have also mentioned to test the oils how can I do that?
Should I use extra virgin oils ? What ingredients should I look in extra virgin?
What is fat?


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## Mobjack Bay (Aug 26, 2019)

Sakina.murtaza said:


> Hi. Thanks for the advice. I always wrote sodium hydroxide and couldnt find anything but I this time I searched caustic soda in ended up finding some products easily available in market near me.
> There is huge variety of Shea butter some are raw, unrefined, refined, easy apply, direct apply which one should I buy?
> You have also mentioned to test the oils how can I do that?
> Should I use extra virgin oils ? What ingredients should I look in extra virgin?
> What is fat?



If you search Shea butter here on the forum, you will find that all kinds of Shea butter have been used in soap making.  I have used unrefined Shea from a soaping supplier (Essential Depot) and also a product called African Shea butter which is sold as a skin care product in Walmart stores in the US.

I used the word “fats” to refer to tallow and lard, which both make very nice soap if you are not opposed to using animal-derived products.

One way to test an oil is to make a small batch of single oil soap.  You can record how the batter behaves, the qualities of freshly made soap and then how it changes it over time. It’s a lot of work!  One soap makers saved us time by reporting their results of testing 15 different kinds of single oil soaps over time:

http://alchemyandashes.blogspot.com/2013/03/
http://alchemyandashes.blogspot.com/2014/03/single-oil-soap-experiment-phase-3-one.html

You can use extra virgin olive oil, but you can also used lower grades.  Most of the time, I use a low grade of edible olive oil because it makes a very white soap that I like.

There are many discussions of olive oil qualities and comparisons with other oils in recent and older threads on the forum.  Here are a couple of links to get you started on the research:

https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/olive-oil-in-cp.76084/
https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/deanna-i-have-a-question.42922/page-33#post-569686  (Start at this post and read further on a bit)


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