Alternative sweeteners for bubbles?

[cherrybleach]

Re: sugars/sugar alcohols for bubbly lather, I have experimented with sugar, honey, agave nectar, and sorbitol. For me, honey produces the finest texture, and sorbitol is an amazing bubble maker as Kenna's tests over at MS indicate. All of them can overheat, as evidenced by my many volcano'd and partial gel batches..agave nectar tends to burn whenever I use it.

And to be honest, my favorite bubble enhancer isn't a sugar at all, it's sodium citrate.

But anyway, I found myself, as one does, browsing Jedwards, and saw that they offer a number of sweeteners/sugar substitutes that I have not yet tested in soap that look to be interesting to use as bubble enhancers:

Coconut sugar
Coconut syrup
Maple syrup
Monk fruit (powder and juice concentrate)
Yacon syrup (!?)
Stevia
Erythritol

I imagine coconut sugar/syrup and maple syrup produce results similar to sugar/ honey/agave nectar, so I'm really curious about your experiences using monk fruit, stevia (would that even work?), yacon syrup, and/or erythritol (similar to/better/worse than sorbitol?).

Speaking of erythritol, what about the other sugar alcohols? Xylitol, mannitol, isomalt?

What alternative sweeteners have you used to improve bubbles in your recipes? What benefits/drawbacks have you encountered?

 

[artemis]

The only thing in can contribute is hearsay. I've heard that Maple syrup can make soap turn out sticky.

 

[IrishLass]

I used crystalline fructose once. I remember it turned my lye water red, and my resulting soap came out tan.

My favorite is honey. I use 5% ppo. It does not cause overheating or other ornery issues like separation and/or honey spots in ones soap if you mix it in with your cooled-off lye water first.

Plain white sugar is my next favorite, even though I use it much more often than I do honey. I use sugar @ 5% ppo as well.

One of these days, I want to try sorbitol.


IrishLass

 

[David Gregory]

Is saccharine a viable bubble enhancer ?

 

[earlene]

I have used maple syrup in soap. It did turn out too soft and bendable. I did not try again with less, but I did determine that it's not a good idea to use the same amount of maple syrup as one uses honey.

I tried agave a couple of times, but don't recall it burning. Perhaps it had to do with how I added it. I mixed it with the oils before adding the lye solution.

Confectioner's sugar is one I keep meaning to try, but never remember that when putting a recipe together. I hope one of these days I do remember to give it a try.

 

[Bladesmith]

I’ve switched completely to sorbitol. Seems to perform the best to me. I use quite a lot but since I hp, overheating is not a concern.

 

[shunt2011]

I’ve purchased sorbitol on Carolyn’s high praise but haven’t tried it yet

 

[Lin19687]

While I LOVE Jedwards and get just about everything there... wish they had more... The prices for those items are not cost wise for soap.

 

[gloopygloop]

I use white sugar which seems to work fine in my HP I avoid honey because I HP not sure of the chemistry regarding adding before saponification or adding after whether it does the same thing or not? I have bottle of Sorbitol but haven't tried it.........yet!

 

[KDP]

I've used regular sugar and confectioner's sugar. I prefer the confectioner's sugar simply because it melts easier, plus, in my opinion, the lather/bubbles are better.

 

[Dawni]

I use white sugar which seems to work fine in my HP I avoid honey because I HP not sure of the chemistry regarding adding before saponification or adding after whether it does the same thing or not? I have bottle of Sorbitol but haven't tried it.........yet!

I added my honey, diluted in hot water, after my cook but I don't remember why this is what I did lol.

Haven't tried adding it to the oils. One advantage I can think of is there's less chance of the honey cooling down n hardening up if it's mixed with the oils. My soap had honey bits throughout, not too many and not too big but they're there.