Does super fat real matter?

[lukelee]

Hi, How many of you add super fat? does that really make the soap different? What if I just add it in the front with the base oil? All oils will be saponified anyway, Am I right?

 

[songwind]

Superfatting means you put in more oil than is necessary to completely react with the lye, so there are oils left in the soap.

If you add your superfat by putting in extra oils, you have no control over what oils are left in the soap. If you put it in at trace (or after gel stage in hot process) then you get more say in which oils survive saponification. This seems like a good way to save on expensive oils whose primary purpose is for skin care.

 

[melstan775]

If you add your superfat by putting in extra oils, you have no control over what oils are left in the soap. If you put it in at trace (or after gel stage in hot process) then you get more say in which oils survive saponification. This seems like a good way to save on expensive oils whose primary purpose is for skin care.

This isn't true, Once the lye starts to work its way accross the soap, it will eat all saponifiables in its path.Trace lasts a few minutes, saponification takes a full day,and the lye is indiscriminate in what it eats.

The purpose of superfatting is to give yourself some leeway, so if you're slightly lye heavy, there is extra oil in the soap for the lye to eat, so you don't end up with soap that has too much lye for you to use it on the skin. Some people do shred their lye heavy soap for laundry soap however.

Another reason people like superfat is to add extra moisturizing properties to the soap - in other words, to have excess oil means your skin won't be stripped of its own oils when you use the soap, although I suppose a good soap formula won't strip you anyway.

 

[songwind]

Okay, then I guess my thought about controlling what oils are left in for conditioning would only be useful with hot process, since you cook it until the saponification is complete.

 

[lukelee]

This isn't true, Once the lye starts to work its way accross the soap, it will eat all saponifiables in its path.Trace lasts a few minutes, saponification takes a full day,and the lye is indiscriminate in what it eats.

The purpose of superfatting is to give yourself some leeway, so if you're slightly lye heavy, there is extra oil in the soap for the lye to eat, so you don't end up with soap that has too much lye for you to use it on the skin. Some people do shred their lye heavy soap for laundry soap however.

Another reason people like superfat is to add extra moisturizing properties to the soap - in other words, to have excess oil means your skin won't be stripped of its own oils when you use the soap, although I suppose a good soap formula won't strip you anyway.

Yes, this is also what I feel, but does this mean I can just add the super fat into the base oil?

 

[pamielynn]

"Superfat" and "Lye Discount" are the same thing. Add all the oils together before the lye solution or a small percentage after. Doesn't matter.

 

[lsg]

Some oils have more unsaponifiables than others. Olive pomace has a higher rate of unspaonifiables than extra virgin olive oil. So you can control to a certain amount how the lye will react to your oils by choosing certain oils and fats.

http://tinyurl.com/cvn7xeo

 

[hoegarden]

Yes, this is also what I feel, but does this mean I can just add the super fat into the base oil?

Yes you can. Its just a matter of personal preference.

Either u add in more oil to the oil based... or u use lesser lye in your mixture...

 

[VanessaP]

Yes, this is also what I feel, but does this mean I can just add the super fat into the base oil?

Yes. With CP you can just add it all up front since the lye will saponify whatever it wants, even with it added at trace. I usually make HP, and since I use a nice combination of oils most of the time, I just put all my oils in at once when I first mix it up. If you had a specialty oil you wanted to put in, then you could make a 0% or 1% superfat HP batch, then after the cook add in your specialty oil to get to your desired superfat level. Personally, if I had a specialty oil that I wanted to be SURE got used, I'd just make a body cream or body butter with it instead of putting it into a wash off product like soap

 

[judymoody]

To answer your question, yes you can include your SF oils to your base oils at the beginning. Another advantage is that you're less likely to forget to add it and end up with lye heavy soap.

I SF at 8-10% because I live in a dry climate and have dry skin. 5% is too stripping for me.

 

[melstan775]

Some oils have more unsaponifiables than others. Olive pomace has a higher rate of unspaonifiables than extra virgin olive oil. So you can control to a certain amount how the lye will react to your oils by choosing certain oils and fats.

http://tinyurl.com/cvn7xeo

Ha you just answered a question I had about superfatting as well. It was about which oils had high unsaponifiables.

 

[new12soap]

Another reason to superfat is that any oil will vary in it's SAP value. Lye calculators use averages only, last years olive oil from Spain will vary quite a bit from this year's oil from California. With any agricultural product there will be a variance. That is why one calculator will give you a slightly different answer than another calculator, there is no single hard and fast SAP value for anything. Using an average, PLUS building in superfat ranges, gives you added insurance against inadvertantly creating a lye-heavy soap.