Ghee Soap

JanaN · Jan 11, 2022

I've made 65% ghee soap (clarified cow's butter) just to test how it bubbles with those fatty acids soapcalcs don't account with. And to see if it is not drying. It doesn't smell. The thuth is I used EOs so I don't smell anything bad.
Yes, I had a dilemma, why would I put something so delicious and expensive into soap?
I has been curing for a few days and so far so good

I am pleasantly surprised how nice it bubbles.
It is a hard bar at 65% so maybe next time i will use less, even 20%.
Will see in couple of months if it will smell or develop DOS.
Soapmaking is olny my hobby. I don't sell it.

AliOop · Jan 11, 2022

Welcome to the forum, and thanks for sharing your experience. All of my soaps with any form of butter or ghee smelled ghastly to me, but everyone experiences smells differently. Glad yours worked out!

JanaN · Jan 12, 2022

Ok, I've done more thorough testing of this soap.
It does leave a faint unpleasant smell on my skin when in prolonged contact with it. It has a very short life (I've used half of it already) but that may be partially because it is not fully cured yet. It looks so smooth and feels so silky just like butter, lathers instantly and the bubbles are great.
But for the odor and the cost I will not use it anymore. Just like neem oil

. Btw, I've googled that all of those short fatty acid chains (shorter than lauric) are smelly. So probably not a good idea trying to put any of them into a soap. And butter (cow's) contains a lot of them.

Jasmin · Oct 6, 2022

I am making ghee for consumption right now and was curious if I could make soap from it. @JanaN, what are your conclusions after all those months?

cmzaha · Oct 6, 2022

Jasmin said:
I am making ghee for consumption right now and was curious if I could make soap from it. @JanaN, what are your conclusions after all those months?

You certainly can, but it will tend to leave a very unpleasant smell on your hands even if you do not initially smell it in the soap itself. Quite a few years in another forum a few of us tried making soaps with several different cow's milk butter including ghee. All left very unpleasant odors on our skin after using the soap. It is the butyric acid in butter that causes the odor.