Deionised or Distilled? Ordering my supplies for my 1st attempt

[New to Soap Making]

Hey All

Was hoping somebody will give me some good news

I have ordered some molds ( Ali Express is great ) and I am just about to place my order for my Butters/oils/lye and water.

In Ireland, the price for Distilled water seems a tad expensive and there are only a few placed in the country that sell it, Delivery not included.......

the cheapest i can find is 5L ( 1.3 gallons ) for €9.23 and then the delivery is €8.00

I am however able to get a 25L drum of Deionised/Demineralised water for €24.00

Can you please advise if there would be a big difference with the end result if i was to use Deionised/Demineralised water?


any advice is greatly appreciated!!!

Rogue

 

[DeeAnna]

If deionized is easier to get and cheaper for you, use deionized.

Distilled is the "gold standard" method for water purification because it is a simple, reliable, and effective method that doesn't require testing to ensure purity, but it is energy intensive and can be slow.

Deionized can be as good as distilled if the equipment is properly maintained and the water is tested to ensure the deionizing process is working correctly. Home systems are not always maintained and tested as well as they should be, so I am skeptical about them. If you use a reputable source, however, deionized would be fine.

The main reason for using distilled/demineralized/deionized/reverse osmosis water for soap is to eliminate metallic contamination. This includes the minerals that react with water to cause soap scum (calcium and magnesium in particular) in the soap as well as trace metals that can trigger rancidity in soap and fat (copper being at the top of the list, but there are others).

Some people use tap water or rain water and say they've never had problems, so to each their own. I will say if you plan to make liquid soap, it really, really does need purified water for best results. I use purified water for everything I make.

 

[New to Soap Making]

Thanks Deeanna!!!

The Deionised water will be purchased from a local water treatment company so it is the best quality i can get.

So far today I have ordered....

2 Molds ( Long wooden + Silicon molds )
Lye
Jojoba Oil
Olive Oil Pomace
Vitamin E Oil
Neem Oil
Argan Oil
Cocoa Butter - Organic Raw Unrefined
Shea Butter - Organic Raw Unrefined Grade A
Coconut Oil - Organic Refined
Mango Butter - Organic Refined

I will get to pick up the water during the week when i get some time ( I have a 10 week old baby girl so the soap making will be a while before i get to try it )

I tried using the lye calculator on 2 different sites earlier and it completely boggled my brain so will need to go back through the video's and things i have noted before i start but I am beyond excited to get started.!!!

Rogue

 

[shunt2011]

You may want to re-think using Argan or Jojoba in soap. They are luxury oils better suited for leave on products. Expensive here.

 

[Dawni]

I'll add vitamin E oil to the above list unless it's really cheap there. I don't think you need it in soap unless of course, you're planning other things with it hehe..

I also consider mango butter a "luxury fat" for me coz I get it at more than double the price of cocoa butter, so I mostly use it for lotion bars and balms, and in one single soap recipe lol but I do use cocoa and shea regularly, to increase longevity.

A lot of people use high oleic sunflower or safflower oil with good results. Some, like me, use canola coz it's affordable and I like the lather with it. Lard has become a staple for me, and rice bran oil, and I like sweet almond n avocado oil too. Of course that's relative to where you are. Any of these not too expensive in Ireland?

Speaking of longevity.. I use this calc coz I think it's very user friendly and it has longevity aside from hardness in the results unlike most others. I also wrote a quick n step by step here in case you need it. It's for a simple recipe but the basics are the same..

*hugs for the wee one!*

 

[DeeAnna]

Agree with jojoba and argan being better used in leave-on products. Also vitamin E isn't of much use in soap either.

A suggestion -- Don't over-complicate your soap making. Keep your recipes and your ingredients simple. Focus on the basics of how to make soap well.

Many newcomers to soaping start out wanting to put every luxury fat in their soap that they can find. When I see 6-8 (or even more) fats in a recipe and a bunch of them are exotics, I wonder if the soap maker is a beginner.

There are few -- if any -- health benefits to using exotic ingredients in soap, if for no other reason than those exotic fats aren't fats anymore; they're soap. But also because soap is washed off the skin shortly after it's applied, so there's little time for the soap to provide those benefits to the skin.

I understand the compulsion about using exotic fats and creating complicated soap recipes -- I fell down this rabbit hole too for a few batches. But eventually many of us come back to the basics. We finally understand soap does not have to be made of expensive ingredients to be really lovely.

 

[TheGecko]

Thanks Deeanna!!!

So far today I have ordered....

2 Molds ( Long wooden + Silicon molds )
Lye
Jojoba Oil
Olive Oil Pomace
Vitamin E Oil
Neem Oil
Argan Oil
Cocoa Butter - Organic Raw Unrefined
Shea Butter - Organic Raw Unrefined Grade A
Coconut Oil - Organic Refined
Mango Butter - Organic Refined

Even as we might shake our heads over your order, we are all probably guilty of the same thing.

Jojoba Oil isn't an "oil", it's a wax and IMHO, a waste for a product that is rinsed off. Same with the Vitamin E and Argan Oils and Mango Butter. I don't know anything about Neem Oil, so I don't know if it brings anything to the party.

Noticed you don't have Caster Oil...gotta have Castor Oil; even at a general usage of 5%, it packs a nice one-two punch with moisturizing and oodles of lather.

I've been making soap for over six months now and my largest mold is 2lbs; I also have a couple of 1lb molds as well as a couple of smaller cavity molds (salt/exfoliating soaps and kid-size soap). I bought the 1lb molds after having to toss several 2lb batches...a total waste of ingredients and money. Except for trying a new technique that required my 2lb mold, the first time I try something new...whether it's a color or scent or ingredient, I always use my 1lb mold. Yes, on one hand it's depressing when things go absolutely right and you only have four bars of soap, but on the other hand, when things go terribly one, you only have four bars of soap to hide in your bathroom or toss.

It's best when first starting out to use a basic recipe. I started with the Beginner's Cold Process Soap Kit from Brambleberry as I wasn't sure if soap making was something I would really like and thus didn't want to get stuck with a bunch of ingredients that I would have to try to get rid of or toss. Their recipe is made from Olive Oil, Coconut Oil, Palm Oil and Castor Oil and makes a really good bar of soap. From there, I experimented with small quantities of other oils and butters. A little more expensive to buy in small quantities, but less expensive in the long run if you don't like the results.

Today, I have two basic recipes: Regular Soap is Olive, Coconut, Palm and Castor Oils and Cocoa and Shea Butters. GMS is Olive, Coconut, Palm and Castor Oils and Shea Butter and everyone who had tried them, really like them. I still experiment...recently I tried a new recipe with Avocado Oil and it will be available to send out for testing in another week.

 

[New to Soap Making]

Thank you to all for the replies and the advice,
I will admit I am probably tumbling down the rabbit hole of thinking I’m going to be a soap maker genius but I plan on making whipped body butter also as it is a simple process as far as I can see

the jojoba and vitamin E oil are present is a few recipes I have seen online but I really only bought them cause they were on offer on the site I bought my products from “based in the UK so needed to order a certain amount to get delivery to Ireland and make it worth it” I plan on using the basic of basic recipes to just make a soap loaf, olive/shea/coconut oils, lye and an EO for smell just to test if I can pull it off

When you mention castor oil, is this readily available in Ireland as I have not found it

 

[Dawni]

Whipped body butter with jojoba sounds yummy....

My first recipes actually didn't have castor oil.. I was cost cutting then lol. Some I make now still don't. I use it mostly when I have stuff that might cut lather like a lot of butters and/or lots of salt but otherwise with a long enough cure, almost all balanced recipes will lather nice. Yes, castor adds a bit of oomph but personally, it's not one of those must haves.

And oh, neem oil stinks lol but it ups your longevity a bit (palmitic + stearic) and also conditioning. It takes a while for the smell to go away and not all EOs will cover it up. I have a recipe for my teenager that uses it at 10% (said to be good for acne but not scientifically proven in soap) and it's noticeable a couple months after. One batch that's about 10mos has absolutely none of the smell left. Another that's about 5mos has almost none. My son and my sis love that soap..

 

[LilyJo]

Castor is a tricky one as its pretty much only available online in the uk (there are some retailers of it but I couldn't find any near me). Not sure where you are buying from but most of the usual soap suppliers sell castor Soap Kitchen, Naissance or even Ebay or Amazon.