Butter-only soap?

[AliOop]

My daughter has mast cell issues, and it most certainly is not made up. My heart goes out to you! Please let us know if you make soap, and how it works out.

 

[Arimara]

@AttackedByCoconutOil It's mostly self-centered ignorant folk that don't believe less common/ less heard of ailments exist. I'm still trying to figure out how I acquired it but I have anomic aphasia (and other neuro issues). It's crazy how most people don't know what aphasia is, with all the stroke survivors around.

 

[BubblingBrooke]

My husband has a number of things he cannot eat without suffering moderate to severe pain - and most recently a pretty severe infection (diverticulitis). Found out it's a family problem and his grandmother had to have sections of her intestines removed. Has totally required major changes in how I prepare food for the family - so I totally understand how ailments can cause distress. I think a lot of people get on the soap making train because of allergies or alternate living choices. Anyhow - I don't have much to offer as far as a recipe goes. Finding a coconut and olive oil free one may be a little tricky. I know babassu is a good alternate for coconut and off Shea works well for you then that's definitely worth a shot (and is amazing in soap). You could also try different plant based milks maybe? Aloe vera juice also a great suggestion. I'm a little too new to this arena to offer much advice but I know a lot of the people in this forum are beyond helpful! Best of luck - look forward to hearing back on your experiments!

 

[Iluminameluna]

I'm going to offer some help because of something I read elsewhere in this forum, but I'm not remotely veg, so I can't offer any help with a recipe. I can sympathize however because I have Lupus, the systemic kind, and I've become slowly intolerant to many foods and chemicals, to the point that I cook and clean separately from the rest of my family. It surely sucks rocks.
What I found was a thread on using potatoes and/or the water from boiling them to replace the CO for bubbles and lather. I know it's probably a minor matter, but those who tried it also said that adding either, the mashed potatoes and/or their water also left a nice feeling on the skin. If I find the thread, I'll come back and post it.
ETA: Here's the thread I was talking about Potato soap update
I hope it helps in some way.

 

[Catscankim]

I'm going to offer some help because of something I read elsewhere in this forum, but I'm not remotely veg, so I can't offer any help with a recipe. I can sympathize however because I have Lupus, the systemic kind, and I've become slowly intolerant to many foods and chemicals, to the point that I cook and clean separately from the rest of my family. It surely sucks rocks.
What I found was a thread on using potatoes and/or the water from boiling them to replace the CO for bubbles and lather. I know it's probably a minor matter, but those who tried it also said that adding either, the mashed potatoes and/or their water also left a nice feeling on the skin. If I find the thread, I'll come back and post it.
ETA: Here's the thread I was talking about Potato soap update
I hope it helps in some way.

I am sorry if I missed it, I just looked again to see if I did, but what about a salt bar made from coconut oil. I put a small amt of castor oil in mine, but they traditionally are made with all coconut oil, right?

 

[AliOop]

I am sorry if I missed it, I just looked again to see if I did, but what about a salt bar made from coconut oil. I put a small amt of castor oil in mine, but they traditionally are made with all coconut oil, right?

Unfortunately the OP is allergic to coconut.

 

[Arimara]

Is aloe vera juice or gel an option?

 

[J-Soaper]

I'm wondering if you can actually make soap using butters and no liquid-at-room-temperature oils, and if so, which would be the best candidates. I will take anything that cleans well enough to deal with germs. Preferably it would lather a little and not completely fall apart, but I really just need this to hit the reset button on all these pseudo-allergies and at that point, I can probably add some rice bran oil.

I have what amounts to an extremely large number of allergies. As far as I can tell, none of them are life-threatening. If it would help to know which oils I've tested and determined that I react to, I can do so, but I'm not including them in this post because the list is absurdly long. The least bad of the oils I react to are refined olive oil and rice bran oil. I have never tried oat oil but oats are pretty safe so I could definitely try that. I have found that I seem to be okay with both shea butter and kokum butter (but not mango butter). If this seems viable, I plan to try some others to test this theory.

I react to every single liquid-at-room-temperature oil I have tried. I react to Mango butter but not shea butter or kokum butter, so I'm thinking I may be able to find a number of these "butter" ingredients I can tolerate. I've also been vegan for the past 10 years so I am really hoping to avoid animal ingredients.

In case anyone is curious, I have been using French green clay to "wash" my hair and it is weirdly effective. So I could make green soap!

I made soap using 100% butter. Cow’s butter. The stuff you spread on toast.

It made nice soap — well — except for the natural fragrance. To say that it stinks is to make it sound as if it has a pleasant aroma.

 

[J-Soaper]

I made soap using 100% butter. Cow’s butter. The stuff you spread on toast.

It made nice soap — well — except for the natural fragrance. To say that it stinks is to make it sound as if it has a pleasant aroma.

I still have some of it and just washed my hands with it -- to see how it performs. Very reluctant to produce any lather at all -- and it has a 100% Aloe Vera gel substitution for water. The lather it produced was very much like cream. Left my hands feeling very nice, but not smelling so pleasant.

 

[ResolvableOwl]

My dairy butter LS lathers nicely and doesn't smell bad. It seems it's not a natural law that dairy butter soap is terrible, but it depends on raw materials and processing steps if one can live with it or not.

 

[szaza]

@AttackedByCoconutOil did you eventually make an all butter soap?

I'm sorry I didn't see this thread in February, I've made soap with almost 80% shea butter (the rest being coconut) and it was quite nice soap! I think you can go all the way up to 100% shea butter if you're willing to accept that it won't really have any lather. The split lye method will definitely help improve lather (I've made another soap with 0% coconut oil and a mix of butters and soft oils with split lye, the lather was small, but definitely there).

Cocoa butter is quite nice in soap, but it's a lot harder/more brittle than shea butter, so if you can't add any soft oils, I'd opt for shea butter.
A small tip I would give you is make sure you bevel your soaps, because the edges of high butter soaps can get pretty sharp!

Since you react to so many different things, I'd start out with a very simple (and small!) recipe and slowly add more ingredients so you can monitor how you react to them. If you do want more lather, you could try out babassu oil or palm kernel oil as they're supposed to behave quite similar to coconut oil in soap.

Also, in regards to washing your hair with clay, have you tried rhassoul clay? I find it a bit milder than green clay ;-)

 

[earlene]

I have made 100% Cocoa Butter soap. I loved the odor it gave off. It didn't bubble or lather much on it's own, but it felt nice on my skin. So yes, you can make soap with only butters.

To create a soap that bubbles and lathers, sugars can be added instead of CO or Babassu or PKO, if those are also undesirable.

Egg can be added to soap to help with lather as well, and that might be another option to consider if one chooses to make an all butters soap.

Instead of using water for the lye solution, liquids that contain sugars can be substituted and will also contribute to bubbles, but one must take care to prevent the lye solution from bubbling up during mixing and spilling over the container. So if any of these are chosen additives to enhance bubbles and lather, be sure to research how to safely add them to the lye solution.

 

[J-Soaper]

I have made 100% Cocoa Butter soap. I loved the odor it gave off. It didn't bubble or lather much on it's own, but it felt nice on my skin. So yes, you can make soap with only butters.

To create a soap that bubbles and lathers, sugars can be added instead of CO or Babassu or PKO, if those are also undesirable.

Egg can be added to soap to help with lather as well, and that might be another option to consider if one chooses to make an all butters soap.

Instead of using water for the lye solution, liquids that contain sugars can be substituted and will also contribute to bubbles, but one must take care to prevent the lye solution from bubbling up during mixing and spilling over the container. So if any of these are chosen additives to enhance bubbles and lather, be sure to research how to safely add them to the lye solution.

My 100% coconut oil soap lathers like there's no tomorrow. Then, I started using Aloe Vera Gel instead of water and it REALLY lathers.

 

[earlene]

My 100% coconut oil soap lathers like there's no tomorrow. Then, I started using Aloe Vera Gel instead of water and it REALLY lathers.

I'm sure that is true, but the OP was asking about making soap with ONLY butters like Cocoa Butter, etc.