Single oil soap experiment

I find myself constantly referring to the Zen Soaps Single Oil Soap Swap because I find it so interesting, and think it is helpful to determine which oil you may or may not want to use in your formula.

However, part of me wishes it was a bit more "scientific"...since the single oil soaps were made for a "swap" by different people in different environments with different water and such, there's no real way to determine what caused the DOS, or to really validate some of the results.

So I decided I am going to try to replicate the experiment myself, as scientifically as I can, so that all the soaps will be made in the same environment, with the same water, and the same method.

I chose 12 oils based on common usage, availability, and cost:
(I will list brand, price and place of purchase with the results)

CANOLA
CASTOR
COCONUT (LouAna 76 degree)
CRISCO (New)
GRAPESEED
LARD
OLIVE (Refined)
PALM (Hydrogenated Organic)
RICE BRAN
SAFFLOWER
SUNFLOWER
TALLOW

I will soap each oil with full water (distilled) with a 5% superfat and pour them into individual molds. I will (hopefully) gel all of the soaps. I will keep one of each soaps in two different places: one in a cool, dark room and one in a moist bathroom cabinet.

I'm hoping to start this experiment after my next show, so it will be the beginning of February before I gather all the oils I don't personally use. I will post updates to this thread and to my blog.

Does anyone have any suggestions or requests? What oils would you like to see in my experiment?

I have looked at that site before and wondered about how it would have compared coming from just one persons methods!

How about soybean or corn oil since they are cheap cooking oils?

Also since Crisco is a blend of oils wouldn't you think in theory that it would hold up better?

Crisco is Soybean and Palm, so maybe I will swap that out for just Soybean? I was trying to think of oils a lot of soapers use that can be found in a grocery store...so Crisco came to mind, but since I'm already doing Palm, I should just do Soybean too.

When I was browsing oils yesterday, I noticed Pompeii makes a blend now, of olive, grapeseed, and I forgot the other. Maybe you could use this, just to see how a preblended oil mix saponifies? Just a suggestion. What does DOS mean?

DOS = Dreaded Orange Spots, a sign of rancidity in soap

I'm experimenting with single oils so that we can see exactly how they react in soap and curing conditions...if I use a blend, I won't know which oils caused what roblem:

You know, I've always wondered what a single oil jojoba soap would be like. It would be an expensive experiment though, lol. Good luck with your experiments!

Since Jojoba is actually a wax and not an oil, I don't imagine it would saponify completely the way an oil would...I know some people add it as a superfat in HP, but its a little too pricy for my purposes :wink:

Yeah true. It would probably be very sticky!

I think it is a great idea. Good luck with your experiment! Look forward to the results.

As mentioned in another thread, my mission is used corn oil from the fryer. It's the most common oil used in deep fryers so I would like to know more about how it performs.

Not only is it cheap but for anyone with a fryer, it's free.

Jack

I am excited to follow your progress! I know alot of people use Avocado oil in their soaps, maybe try that one?

I will be glad to see your results. I have wondered if the results would come out the same as that other one oil test that you refer too. Looking forward to it.

I too would like to try this... how are you doing your recipes? 100% of the oil at hand, then what % water discount?

I would like to see what a 100% peanut oil soap is like. It is mostly monounsaturated (oleic) so will it behave like a castile?

I have been using recycled peanut oil from deep frying as part of my utility liquid soap. Promising so far.

Looking forward to your results for any oils!

green soap said:

I would like to see what a 100% peanut oil soap is like. It is mostly monounsaturated (oleic) so will it behave like a castile?

I have been using recycled peanut oil from deep frying as part of my utility liquid soap. Promising so far.

Looking forward to your results for any oils!

Click to expand...

Utility liquid soaps...as in laundry/dish soap? If so that is a brilliant recycling idea! I always wonder what to do after I make eggplant parm!

As for stuff to monitor (just off the top of my head), I think it might be interesting to monitor pH and hardness over time. One way to do a hardness test is to find some sort of indenter (ball bearing or some sort of conically shaped item) and put some constant weight on top of it. You could then measure the width of the indentation, which would give you a relative comparison of the hardness across the samples. You could do this over time to see how it changes. You could measure the pH with tape and plot that vs. time too. This could help people understand what to expect as far as pH reduction/hardening rates if they change their recipe.

Good Point, PaintGuru!
Things I will monitor (some will have to be anecdotal/opinion based since I'm not a "real" scientist):
Hardness (indentation or solubility in water?)
pH (with strips)
Lather
Color
Texture
Odor
Anything else?
I could do 24 hours/1 week/1 month/etc
I will add Corn and Peanut oils to the list.
I'm excited! :-D I may start sooner than February...

Clemmey said:

I too would like to try this... how are you doing your recipes? 100% of the oil at hand, then what % water discount?

Click to expand...

Each soap will be 100% of a specific oil
Superfat 5%
Distilled water
Gelled
Individual silicone molds
Soaped @115 degrees F

I was not going to do a water discount and use full 38% water/oil, but I may change that and either master batch my lye or use 30% water/oil. Either way, I will use the same formula for every oil.

Cool. I too refer to the single oil swap results.

How about butters? Shea, cocoa?

Also would suggest blind testing. Preconceived notions will influence how we think something performs. Have someone else (or a small panel) rate the attributes that are more subjective using "soap #1, #2, instead of coconut oil, peanut oil etc

Look forward to knowing results!

Will you be blogging the experiment?

I think you should add avocado as well, but that's because I love avocado

There's another soaper that I've seen that has done this as well and blogged about it.
http://curious-soapmaker.com/big-test-100-one-oil-soaps-part-i.html

I look forward to hearing about how it goes.