All of these new oils on the market!!

[debikers]

I'm sure you have all seen the new oils in the grocery stores where it a mixture of canola and olive or olive and safflower, etc. these cannot possibly be used can they? You have no idea what amount of each oil is in them. So how could you configure a recipe with it? Am I right or wrong?? Just curious as to what you all think. Thanks Again!!

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

If you know the mix and it has the nutritional information on the bottle, you can give it a go.

If there are two oils and one is 60% saturated and the other is 23% saturated (these figures can be found on soapcalc and other places) and the mixture has 39% saturated, you can use trial and error to work out the ratio of the two oils gives a total with 31% saturated fat. In this example, it will be more of the second oil than the first as the total amount is closer to the second oil.

Edited to add - I did email the manufacturer but they wouldn't tell me the exact mix, so this was my only option

That's how I did it for one mixture I was using.

 

[dixiedragon]

I just figure out which oil has the highest SAP value and use that oil in the lye calculator.

For example: an olive/sunflower combo. (I got it cheap at Big Lots).

Olive: 0.1353
Sunflower: 0.1351

The difference is miniscule. I put in Olive and type in my notes that it is an olive/sunflower blend.

Now, as far as labeling purposes - I would not feel comfortable selling this. (Not that I sell.) I don't think labeling an ingredient as "olive oil/sunflower oil blend" is allowed.

 

[debikers]

So you're saying it had more olive oil than sunflower oil, so if my recipe calls for 10 oz of olive oil, I can use 10 oz of this and it will work the same??

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

Not always - if the properties of the oils when saponified are different or one is prone to dos and so on, it might not be a straight swap for another oil from that point of view. The numbers in the calc for hardness and so on might be wrong. Not that they tell the whole story anyway.

For the lye calculation you can go on the one that needs the least lye, which is safest, but will up your superfat too.

 

[dixiedragon]

Yes, I choose olive oil for the purpose of calculating my lye. I have no way of knowing what the proportions are. Honestly, I assume it is mostly sunflower b/c sunflower is cheaper than olive. I only purchased it b/c it was deeply discounted. I use 5% of sunflower oil in my recipes and I used it for that part of the recipe. So in soap calc I entered it as olive, just be safe, but in my mind and in my notes I put it as sunflower.

 

[Obsidian]

I'd never buy a blended oil. I want to know exactly how much of what is going into my soap and some oils I don't like. Canola is one and so is sunflower.