A question about oils

[topofmurrayhill]

Thank you for an excellent post. Very informative. Can you please point me towards resources (url's) that will go into more depth on this subject. You have really whetted my appetite for more info.

Interesting question. I've been making soap for 9 or 10 years and gathered snippets of information here and there. There's actually no specific place I can think of that has more info than this board, but I'm always searching for more bits and pieces. The last big thing I learned came from a 100 year old patent. My sources have been all over.

A lot comes from experience. Soapcalc has been around for a long time and led me astray like it does most people. I can thank it for helping inspire some underwhelming batches. I spent a year working almost every day to figure out some of the practical relationships between fatty acids and soap.

I helped prepare a book for publication called Scientific Soapmaking by Kevin Dunn. It has a lot of technical info, some of which might be interesting to you and some not, but I recommend going through it and having it on your shelf. However, it doesn't really focus too much on recipe formulation.

 

[LisaAnne]

Thank you for an excellent post. Very informative. Can you please point me towards resources (url's) that will go into more depth on this subject. You have really whetted my appetite for more info.

Yes! I hope that this thread keeps going and information is added to in a style that TOMH has. Excellent teaching abilities.

If you Google soap making oil properties and soap fatty acids, you will get all kinds of charts.

 

[LisaAnne]

Interesting question. I've been making soap for 9 or 10 years and gathered snippets of information here and there. There's actually no specific place I can think of that has more info than this board, but I'm always searching for more bits and pieces. The last big thing I learned came from a 100 year old patent. My sources have been all over.

A lot comes from experience. Soapcalc has been around for a long time and led me astray like it does most people. I can thank it for helping inspire some underwhelming batches. I spent a year working almost every day to figure out some of the practical relationships between fatty acids and soap.

I helped prepare a book for publication called Scientific Soapmaking by Kevin Dunn. It has a lot of technical info, some of which might be interesting to you and some not, but I recommend going through it and having it on your shelf. However, it doesn't really focus too much on recipe formulation.

I didn't know you had input on Kevin Dunns book. I have that book. I pick it up all the time. Wonderful book, but I understand your explanations much easier. I will keep checking back for your posts.

 

[PerthMobility]

Interesting question. I've been making soap for 9 or 10 years and gathered snippets of information here and there. There's actually no specific place I can think of that has more info than this board, but I'm always searching for more bits and pieces. The last big thing I learned came from a 100 year old patent. My sources have been all over.

A lot comes from experience. Soapcalc has been around for a long time and led me astray like it does most people. I can thank it for helping inspire some underwhelming batches. I spent a year working almost every day to figure out some of the practical relationships between fatty acids and soap.

I helped prepare a book for publication called Scientific Soapmaking by Kevin Dunn. It has a lot of technical info, some of which might be interesting to you and some not, but I recommend going through it and having it on your shelf. However, it doesn't really focus too much on recipe formulation.

A good lead and thank you. I am really quite happy with my recipe maker which is improving all the time. Amazing what can be achieved with Excel and Macro's. I shall set off in pursuit of Mr Dunn's book.

PS: Found it easily online and it will be mine by end of next week. Thanks again.

 

[topofmurrayhill]

I didn't know you had input on Kevin Dunns book. I have that book. I pick it up all the time. Wonderful book, but I understand your explanations much easier. I will keep checking back for your posts.

I did the final proofreading and made about 400 edits. I have been through that book page by page, sentence by sentence, checking for grammar, style, clarity, technical accuracy, correct answers to the chapter problems, and whatever else -- so I'm pretty familiar with it. The description of the book at the top of the Amazon entry is my writing, or at least rewriting.

 

[rosyrobyn]

Just bought the book. Eagerly awaiting its arrival.

 

[penelopejane]

This is something we debate a lot on here. The general consensus is that soap is a wash-off product, so no, the skin-loving benefits are not left behind. tc.

I am one those who do believe that ingredients in soap are absorbed by the skin especially with the assistance of a warm shower.


Additives (FOs, EOs, botanicals, CO,colours, can give people rashes, migraines, and nausea. I think this is part of the reason a lot of people decide to make their own soap. More importantly than these I also want to avoid the "chemicals" used in commercial soaps.
Just my point of view.