Fish oil soap?

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Has anyone used or heard of fish oil being used in soap? My mom has a few pounds of sturgeon fat and was wondering about using it in soap. I have no idea how to determine sap value
 
No ideas here. Just wanted to say, that was the one fish I never caught and always wanted to. I really wanted sturgeon roe, but also just to be able to catch such a prehistoric looking fish was something I really wanted to do back when I was a fisherwoman and lived near the SF Bay Area.

Kevin Dunn's book, Scientific Soapmaking has some info about how to determine sap value for an unknown fat. Also see this Power Point presentation from a lecture of his from 2006 about the process.
 
Oh! I've been wondering about that too...and where to get some fish fat:think:
My one pound koi fish single cavity mould arrived today and I would really want to make a fish fat soap with it. Imagine the cut soaps, fish head, tail, slice of the body with fins and scales and everything!
 
In my notes, I have salmon oil at 185 for KOH and 132 for NaOH. Close enough to KC's numbers as to make never no mind.

Divide the KOH sap value by 1.403 to get the NaOH sap value.

Never tried fish oil in soap (and probably won't, but never say never!). The old books about soap making talk about using fish oil and "train" oil (whale oil) to make soft (KOH) soap. Again from the old books, these fats can have a distinct odor, so just be aware of that. I think it was more often made in the Scandanavian countries where fishing and whaling were common.
 
Thanks for the help folks. I'll render the fat out this fall once its cooler as I want to do it in a low temp oven. Sturgeon are really interesting fish, they are extremely mild tasting and smelling. The fat has virtually no odor or flavor and is butter yellow.

If I get enough oil, I'd like to try a 100% fish bar just so I can check shelf life. Otherwise, I'll probably only use 10% in a regular bath soap. You never know, it could be the next hot ingredient:shark:
 
As we all know, lard is fabulous, and Carolyn made some really nice chicken fat soap. There's insanity over Emu oil - so I would imagine it could make a really gentle facial soap.
 
It's going to be a soap high in linoleic and linolenic acids, so it's probably not going to be the longest lived soap. You could tout it as a high-end facial soap due to the high Omega 3 content. ;)
 
Anyone know about a good recipe for using cod liver oil? I've tried out using 100% cod oil, but it didn't smell too good (shocker..) Since then I've testet out everything between 10% and 100%. Down on 10% I tried using cod oil+olive oil, but the fish smell was still there. I'm interested in making both hard and liquid soap. Can't figure out which ethereal oil that's needed for getting rid of the odd smell.
 
The odd smell is due to the nature of the fat, so I don't think you're going to ever get away from it entirely. We see the same thing with neem oil and pine tar -- the odors of these ingredients are distinctive and persist even when one uses small amounts.

What superfat have you used in your cod oil soaps? At the very least, I would try a very low superfat to minimize the amount of free fat in the soap. Not saying that will eliminate the odor, but it might minimize it.
 
Hello again.
I've tried myself down to 10% fish oil.
I would have liked 20%
What I wonder about are other oils that are good to have with fish oil?
And what essential oil? If there is someone who can help me with a recipe?
 
I hope someone can help you with your questions. Due to the cost and the smell, I have never used fish oil in soap, so I have no suggestions to offer. Sorry!
 
I made a "Kitchen Smells" soap that was based on a "Fisherman's Bar"...apparently lemongrass and anise are both good at countering fishy smells, and coffee was used as an exolfiant. I can't really report how it did on the fishy smells as I never smell THAT FISHY, but they are strong scents and might work well to hide your CLO.
 
B0074C6D-E0F8-4572-893D-3D71CD19901C.jpeg 90981168-0224-4731-97F6-ACD6CEAD12C3.jpeg I just tried this actually! The one on the right is 100% fish oil soap with a 50% water discount. (Made using capsuled fish oil from the vitamin bottles) The trace took a long time and was barely noticable it took about 3 days to be solid enough to cut and i can tell you it smells just as strongly fishy as the raw oil did, I do like the smooth creamish texture it has though (im not sure if it will harden considerably more or not) The lather is surprisingly good and doesnt leave hands overly dry, theres a slight fishy scent left behind but its not terrible, more oceany. I can only assume using a hand rendered fish oil would he even better.
 
Just wondering if adding a FO like a sea breeze type of something would make it any better? I’m not really so excited to try it though!
 
Just wondering if adding a FO like a sea breeze type of something would make it any better? I’m not really so excited to try it though!
At 100% fishoil the smell it leaves on your hands isnt too bad! Buuuuut the soap itself smells reaaaaalllllly strong- and I am concerned about shelf life, i think maybe a 75/25 coconut oil and fish oil sea breeze scented salt bar would be nice! Maybe even with kelp powder, hmm...
 

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