Aloe vera juice - where do you purchase yours?

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Maia

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Hello group! I'm wondering where people buy their aloe vera juice from. I'm looking for pure juice with no extra additives. I had ordered from New Directions Aromatics before but the shipping is crazy high (I'm in California). So I need to come up with another option. Any tips greatly appreciated as always. Thanks!
 
Have you found bottled aloe vera juice without any additives at all? I haven't seen any without at least a little lemon juice or something like that (for stabilization & preservation). I've most often used the one from WalMart (linked above by @dmcgee5034); it contains a tiny bit of citric acid and sodium benzoate. Since I'm a sporadic soapmaker, I like that it's sold in quarts as well as gallon jugs. Trader Joe's sells organic aloe vera juice by the gallon at a good price, too; it's made from aloe concentrate and contains a little bit of lemon juice. The Lakewood brand organic juice sold in my regular grocery store was the first I ever tried, but also contains lemon juice (and is way more expensive!). All of these have worked well in soap, and I really couldn't tell any difference between them.

Maybe mixing your own with the powdered aloe vera that @justsomeguy mentioned would be the best way to be sure nothing else is added? example of 100x concentrate
I'm not sure it's cheaper than picking up jugs from WalMart or Trader Joe's, though there would certainly be less plastic packaging to deal with.
 
Have you found bottled aloe vera juice without any additives at all? I haven't seen any without at least a little lemon juice or something like that (for stabilization & preservation). I've most often used the one from WalMart (linked above by @dmcgee5034); it contains a tiny bit of citric acid and sodium benzoate. Since I'm a sporadic soapmaker, I like that it's sold in quarts as well as gallon jugs. Trader Joe's sells organic aloe vera juice by the gallon at a good price, too; it's made from aloe concentrate and contains a little bit of lemon juice. The Lakewood brand organic juice sold in my regular grocery store was the first I ever tried, but also contains lemon juice (and is way more expensive!). All of these have worked well in soap, and I really couldn't tell any difference between them.

Maybe mixing your own with the powdered aloe vera that @justsomeguy mentioned would be the best way to be sure nothing else is added? example of 100x concentrate
I'm not sure it's cheaper than picking up jugs from WalMart or Trader Joe's, though there would certainly be less plastic packaging to deal with.
This is the one I have now from New Directions Aromatics (that I hadn't refrigerated): Aloe Vera Juice Raw Material. I guess this has some sort of additives in it afterall?

Thanks for all of this information, very helpful!
 
Thank you everyone for the great responses. I think I will go ahead and get the one from Walmart, the pricing sure is much better!
 
This is the one I have now from New Directions Aromatics (that I hadn't refrigerated): Aloe Vera Juice Raw Material. I guess this has some sort of additives in it afterall?

Thanks for all of this information, very helpful!
As it probably will work the same in your soap, it's too expensive. The store bought regular AVJ usually has a minimal amount of additives, but it shouldn't bother you - as the rest have pointed out
 
I've almost purchased this so many times. The only thing holding me back is not knowing how much citric acid is in it.
The amount of citric acid in the juice shouldn't be that much, but if it bothers you - keep your SF low for that particular recipe and everything should be fine
 
The amount of citric acid in the juice shouldn't be that much, but if it bothers you - keep your SF low for that particular recipe and everything should be fine
The recipe for ZNSB is 0 SF and needs to remain that way, which is why I need to know how much citric acid to account for. This is why I've only used home prepared frozen aloe gel, thus far.
 
@Servant4Christ: I've almost purchased this so many times. The only thing holding me back is not knowing how much citric acid is in it....The recipe for ZNSB is 0 SF and needs to remain that way...
Should be able to calculate it using the numbers from the label. The amounts will be tiny and difficult to measure, though, unless you're creating huge batches — like 20 or 30 pounds of soap. That's way above my kitchen counter experience, so I've never worried about it. 😻
BTW, I've sometimes used 0.25 percent SF with ZNSC/ZNSB and it was fine (although again, very tiny amounts to measure accurately!)

FOTE_aloe_vera_label.jpg
 
Should be able to calculate it using the numbers from the label. The amounts will be tiny and difficult to measure, though, unless you're creating huge batches — like 20 or 30 pounds of soap. That's way above my kitchen counter experience, so I've never worried about it. 😻
BTW, I've sometimes used 0.25 percent SF with ZNSC/ZNSB and it was fine (although again, very tiny amounts to measure accurately!)

View attachment 79181
Oh! Lightbulb moment here!

99.8 aloe vera
+ .1 sodium benzoate
+ .1 citric acid.
100.00 total

Thank you!
 
Also, there is an experiment on the forum about soap with negative SF. According to DeeAnna, castile soap with negative SF still had slime even years after being made. Here's the link to that particular message where it's mentioned and explained ‐ the experiment itself is linked in the posts below this one, there are actually 2 separate experiments.

https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/soaps-causing-skin-problem-on-hands.93471/post-1013134

Looks like 0 SF is not the aspect removing the snot from ZNSC - more like it's the combination of salt and baking soda that works. The small amount of citric acid in the juice won't ruin your recipe. Thanks to A‐polly for sharing a label as well, that's useful!
 
I use this from WalMart. AVJ
I don’t know that that is the proper thing to use as aloe juice. That is really a drink. I use Lily of the desert aloe, which is made from whole leaf aloe. It says it’s 99% pure aloe juice. of course it contains preservatives. I don’t think you’ll find anything commercially made that doesn’t.
 

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