Acne prone skin - Grape seed oil

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grapeseed

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Hello everyone! I'm looking to make some type of soap with lye/grape seed oil. Now I understand that this will not make a bar, but my situation is that my skin is very very acne prone. I can get away with other soaps on my body, but not face! Grape seed oil is the only oil that I've found that doesn't break my skin out. I understand it changes after it becomes soap, however I've read there are "leftover oils" and perhaps that's what's troubled my skin when using coconut oil based soaps? I don't mind if it's goo or liquid as long as it works. Just curious if anyone has experience with this, or has any tips. Thanks!
 
The tip I would offer would be to make small batches, and buy fresh oil for each batch. Grapeseed oil doesn't have a very long shelf life, and you don't want the oil or the soap going rancid on you.

Also, the superfat % of your soap will effect how much oil is left in it, so you might experiment and see what % works best for you.

If you use the correct amounts of lye and oil, I don't see why you wouldn't get bars. It just might take it a little longer to harden in the mold, and the bars might stay somewhat soft even after curing.
 
From what I can see by running the numbers through Soap Calc, it will be a very soft bar, very conditioning but with little to no bubbles. If your skin likes grapeseed oil, cleanse with grapeseed oil.

When I was in my teens, I couldn't use soap on my face at all. I only got zits when I used soap so I washed with warm water only.
 
Another thing to keep in mind is that because you can use it straight up, it will not be the same in soap. It's no longer an oil its a salt. Kind of like coconut oil is great neat but extremely drying in soap. So, I would make a very small batch and then give it a good cure and test it out.

What worked extremely well for my daughters and myself was using a salt bar. High coconut with a high superfat and salt added (30-100%). I still use it on my face 3-4 days a week as I'm getting older and my skin is changing. My daughters use them more frequently and we all have the best skin we've had in many many years.

Also, grapeseed oil has a very short shelf life and would be more prone to going rancid over time.
 
I have made 100% grapeseed oil soap in my single oil soap experiments. It set up very slowly, required a bit of extra heat to help it along to come to trace (a hot water bath helped with that), individual molds took 72 hours before I could unmold them. It was a softer soap, but it was still soap. I made it with a 0% superfat. My notes beyond that are rather sketchy, so I guess I wasn't very impressed as time went on.

So my suggestion would be to make the smallest batch you can and keep very carefully detailed notes during the course of your experiment, including your final impressions of the soap and exactly why you reject or accept it as a desirable soap. How long it lasted; if it produced DOS and when; how long you let it cure; how your facial skin responded to it, etc.
 
One thing to keep in mind... lye-based soap does not work for every skin type. True soap will always be highly cleansing and have a much higher pH than our skin's pH. Some people need to stick to pH-balanced cleansers like Cetaphil, Cerave, etc.

But there's definitely no harm in trying a small batch of homemade soap to see how your skin reacts to it.
 
I use grape seed oil in my bars. It works best if you use more olive oil than grape seed.. my typical recipe for a small batch is

20oz olive oil and 10oz grape seed. Then calculate the lye based on your super fat. I use 5%and it sets up in a day. The more super fat the longer it takes to set up.I tried 10% for facial bars 3weeks ago and still waiting (probably a bad batch)
 
I use grape seed oil in my bars. It works best if you use more olive oil than grape seed.. my typical recipe for a small batch is

20oz olive oil and 10oz grape seed. Then calculate the lye based on your super fat. I use 5%and it sets up in a day. The more super fat the longer it takes to set up.I tried 10% for facial bars 3weeks ago and still waiting (probably a bad batch)
This post is two years old and the original poster hasn’t been here since.
 
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