Make your own 'colloidal oatmeal' for a fraction of the cost

[janesathome]

You are very fortunate to have that as a source for your oats / oat flour. I buy my organic oats in 50 lb bags & go from there. Far cheaper per lb that way. Very much a multi-use product. Really great for poultices for irritated skin, as well as soap, masks etc. Oat flour also makes a great, gentle, healing, anti-inflammatory face wash just on its own for those dealing with acne, dry skin, facial eczema etc. Very gentle, cleansing due to the natural saponins, and they leave the skin incredibly soft.

Amazon is definitely not a source I use for soap making ingredients, for any reason. Some molds possibly, some packaging yes....but food & soap making ingredients, absolutely not. I do have some high quality dragon's blood resin I bought several years back, which I normally burn as incense. Had not considered using it in soap, but might.

One of my next soap tests is with banana skins, coconut milk & ground oats. The brown skins (the browner the better) apparently are very high in amino acids, similar to tussah silk, and make a very hard bar. That combined with very finely ground oats & coconut milk will make a spectacular soap, I'm guessing.

I see I gave the impression that I buy organic oats locally! I have to ship them from a mill about a 6 hour drive from me. I buy mostly whole grains and mill them myself as needed, for my sourdough bread and other baking. I can’t grind oats fine enough for my liking so buy the flour and sneak some for soap. I had not heard of using oats for a face wash - do you make a paste? I’d like to try it!
Good luck with the banana peel soap, I’m fascinated! Please let us know how you like it!

 

[Feelin' Soapy]

I buy Bob's Red Mill Oat Flour which is made from the whole grain (bran and all), which got me to wondering if it could be called colloidal oats. Doing some research on the internet, I ran across this website -- What Makes Colloidal Oatmeal Colloidal? -- comparing two methods of making colloidal oats (Dry Way and Wet Way).
Production Processes for Colloidal Oatmeal
The Dry Way: If you have the right equipment (and no, we're not talking about a pricey super duper kitchen machine), it is indeed possible to dry-produce colloidal oats. The main challenge is the natural fat content of oats (about 7%) which tends to gunk up the 75 micron sieve it has to pass through, but as long as at least 80% of the oats can pass through the sieve, it's OK to label the packet 'colloidal oatmeal'. Granted, this method takes some real advanced milling equipment that not many have, but it is indeed do-able.

So I wrote to Bob's Red Mill and asked if their milling equipment ground the oats fine enough to fit this definition. This is their response:
"I don’t have any information about whether our oat flour would meet the criteria but the oat flour is very finely ground and should pass through a sieve of the size mentioned."

So I'm thinking maybe yes, this particular oat flour may be called colloidal oats? What do y'all think?

 

[penelopejane]

I buy Bob's Red Mill Oat Flour
"I don’t have any information about whether our oat flour would meet the criteria but the oat flour is very finely ground and should pass through a sieve of the size mentioned."

So I'm thinking maybe yes, this particular oat flour may be called colloidal oats? What do y'all think?

Read AliOop’s post #4 which explains the difference between oat flour and colloidal oats.

 

[AliOop]

I buy Bob's Red Mill Oat Flour which is made from the whole grain (bran and all), which got me to wondering if it could be called colloidal oats. Doing some research on the internet, I ran across this website -- What Makes Colloidal Oatmeal Colloidal? -- comparing two methods of making colloidal oats (Dry Way and Wet Way).
Production Processes for Colloidal Oatmeal
The Dry Way: If you have the right equipment (and no, we're not talking about a pricey super duper kitchen machine), it is indeed possible to dry-produce colloidal oats. The main challenge is the natural fat content of oats (about 7%) which tends to gunk up the 75 micron sieve it has to pass through, but as long as at least 80% of the oats can pass through the sieve, it's OK to label the packet 'colloidal oatmeal'. Granted, this method takes some real advanced milling equipment that not many have, but it is indeed do-able.

So I wrote to Bob's Red Mill and asked if their milling equipment ground the oats fine enough to fit this definition. This is their response:
"I don’t have any information about whether our oat flour would meet the criteria but the oat flour is very finely ground and should pass through a sieve of the size mentioned."

So I'm thinking maybe yes, this particular oat flour may be called colloidal oats? What do y'all think?

That was a great article - thank you for sharing it. I was not aware of that any "dry method" existed for producing colloidal oats, and it's always a good day when I learn something new!

According to the linked article, none of us can achieve that small of a particle size with any home grinder, but apparently the BRM machines can and do, assuming their representative is correct. Perhaps you can sift the BRM oat flour through a 75 micron sieve, and only use what can pass through that sieve, which should then qualify as "colloidal" oats.

 

[Feelin' Soapy]

So it seems there's more than one way to colloid an oat

 

[Johnez]

Perhaps you can sift the BRM oat flour through a 75 micron sieve, and only use what can pass through that sieve, which should then qualify as "colloidal" oats.

Genius idea
Heck now I'm curious to try this.

 

[AliOop]

Genius idea
Heck now I'm curious to try this.

Let us know how it turns out.

 

[Savage Daughter]

I see I gave the impression that I buy organic oats locally! I have to ship them from a mill about a 6 hour drive from me. I buy mostly whole grains and mill them myself as needed, for my sourdough bread and other baking. I can’t grind oats fine enough for my liking so buy the flour and sneak some for soap. I had not heard of using oats for a face wash - do you make a paste? I’d like to try it!
Good luck with the banana peel soap, I’m fascinated! Please let us know how you like it!

Still, I wish I had a mill that dealt in organic oats that close to me. I'd be so excited to check it out I'd make the drive & ask to see their facilities

I wish I had the time for sourdough right now, of any type....or grain milling, for that matter! I'm running myself ragged pumping out soap, experimenting with new designs & additives, designing labels & brochures, dehydrating my natural colorants which I've been busy picking in the bush, gardening in my newly gifted garden space, *working* at my IT job, and slowly chopping through my cedar so I'm a little bit ahead come early fall, when yet another load of hardwood will be delivered LOL

You definitely can make a paste with the oat flour, or just soak them in lukewarm water - or even witch hazel - for 30 minutes or so, or even overnight, then just use them to 'scrub' your face, for lack of a better term. It's a very gentle scrubbing, but thoroughly cleanses the skin without stripping it. When I'm feeling a bit lazy to mix up a batch of mask, I will use just straight up oats & leave them on my face for an hour or so as I go about my day. I very often did the same as a teenager. Follow with some oat oil & your face will be feeling like a baby's backside!

That coconut banana peel soap is making me crazy at the moment. I ordered 'powdered coconut' from Baraka & discovered it's complete rubbish. Can't make coconut milk from it as Indonesian women in their villages taught me because a) it's not truly powdered coconut and b) it's nothing more than the dregs of coconut which has already had all of its fats stripped from it via processing for coconut milk; it's basically like sawdust with nothing left in it. Yet somehow it still gets 5 star reviews, go figger Nonethelss, I am feeling super-excited about it because I know it's going to be amazing!

 

[Savage Daughter]

Genius idea
Heck now I'm curious to try this.

There are some very good, very fine mesh strainers which people who process cannabis into different products use. My oldest son educated me on this topic LOL They work great for straining plant matter of all sorts as well, including from my oil infusions. They come in various mesh sizes & last many years as they are incredibly tough & well-made.

 

[Johnez]

There are some very good, very fine mesh strainers which people who process cannabis into different products use. My oldest son educated me on this topic LOL They work great for straining plant matter of all sorts as well, including from my oil infusions. They come in various mesh sizes & last many years as they are incredibly tough & well-made.

The vape crowd is where I got my accurate .01 g scale to make microbatches of shave soap, going outside the hobby sometimes yields the best solutions.

 

[Twig + Forest]

I'm quite surprised to hear of people buying expensive colloidal oatmeal for use in their soaps. There is a better, much cheaper way, which I wished to share. Hopefully it'll save somebody some money.

1) Throw some whole oats - not instant oatmeal or anything like that - into a coffee grinder or even a decent quality food processor, blender, vitamix, whatever you have. Grind until it seems like most is powder. You'll have some chunks, Don't worry about it.

2) Run this through a very fine-meshed sieve which you've set over a bowl. Fine, but not so fine that the powdered oats can't get through the mesh. Use a spoon to stir the ground oats around in the sieve, encouraging it to fall through.

3) Put whatever is caught in the sieve back into the coffee grinder & top up with more oats.

4) Repeat the process until you have as much oat powder as you need.

You will have some pieces of scratchy stuff left in the sieve at the end. Throw it in a sauce for thickening purposes (any kind of sauce), add it to something you're baking or into your smoothies (no you won't notice it and it's a nutritional boost), feed it to your pets / chickens etc, or throw it in your compost or dig it into your garden soil.

Don't make a massive batch as once they're ground, the oats won't stay fresh as long as in their whole form. Store in a very tightly sealed bag & put that bag into an airtight container in a cool place, or better yet, in your freezer. You can also throw some of those silica gel packs into the powder (the ones you find in vitamin bottles & other products) to keep it extra dry & fluffy. I save all of my silica gel packs for keeping my herbs good & dry.

This can be used in any cold process soap, or hot process or melt & pour for that matter. You can also add other nutrients / additives to this, like powdered sunflower lecithin, calamine powder, clays, milk powder of whatever type, finely ground herbs, you name it. Use your imagination

The same can be done with herbs that you find are making your soaps unpleasantly scratchy, rice (try cooking it first, dehydrating the cooked rice in a warm oven, then grinding). I lived in Indonesia for 10 years & the locals would often put their leftover rice out in the sun to dry it, which kinda turned it into a rice crispies type of texture. I'm thinking that if you ran this through a sieve after grinding, you'd get a decent rice powder for use in soap. It's worth a shot

Thank you so much for all this wealth of information

 

[MelissaG]

Thank you so much for all this wealth of information

Please read the rest of the thread as well to get the full information on the subject.

 

[Twig + Forest]

Please read the rest of the thread as well to get the full information on the subject.

I will, thank you

 

[janesathome]

Still, I wish I had a mill that dealt in organic oats that close to me. I'd be so excited to check it out I'd make the drive & ask to see their facilities

I wish I had the time for sourdough right now, of any type....or grain milling, for that matter! I'm running myself ragged pumping out soap, experimenting with new designs & additives, designing labels & brochures, dehydrating my natural colorants which I've been busy picking in the bush, gardening in my newly gifted garden space, *working* at my IT job, and slowly chopping through my cedar so I'm a little bit ahead come early fall, when yet another load of hardwood will be delivered LOL

You definitely can make a paste with the oat flour, or just soak them in lukewarm water - or even witch hazel - for 30 minutes or so, or even overnight, then just use them to 'scrub' your face, for lack of a better term. It's a very gentle scrubbing, but thoroughly cleanses the skin without stripping it. When I'm feeling a bit lazy to mix up a batch of mask, I will use just straight up oats & leave them on my face for an hour or so as I go about my day. I very often did the same as a teenager. Follow with some oat oil & your face will be feeling like a baby's backside!

That coconut banana peel soap is making me crazy at the moment. I ordered 'powdered coconut' from Baraka & discovered it's complete rubbish. Can't make coconut milk from it as Indonesian women in their villages taught me because a) it's not truly powdered coconut and b) it's nothing more than the dregs of coconut which has already had all of its fats stripped from it via processing for coconut milk; it's basically like sawdust with nothing left in it. Yet somehow it still gets 5 star reviews, go figger Nonethelss, I am feeling super-excited about it because I know it's going to be amazing!

Thank you,@QuasiQuadrant!

 

[Angm]

You are very fortunate to have that as a source for your oats / oat flour. I buy my organic oats in 50 lb bags & go from there. Far cheaper per lb that way. Very much a multi-use product. Really great for poultices for irritated skin, as well as soap, masks etc. Oat flour also makes a great, gentle, healing, anti-inflammatory face wash just on its own for those dealing with acne, dry skin, facial eczema etc. Very gentle, cleansing due to the natural saponins, and they leave the skin incredibly soft.

Amazon is definitely not a source I use for soap making ingredients, for any reason. Some molds possibly, some packaging yes....but food & soap making ingredients, absolutely not. I do have some high quality dragon's blood resin I bought several years back, which I normally burn as incense. Had not considered using it in soap, but might.

One of my next soap tests is with banana skins, coconut milk & ground oats. The brown skins (the browner the better) apparently are very high in amino acids, similar to tussah silk, and make a very hard bar. That combined with very finely ground oats & coconut milk will make a spectacular soap, I'm guessing.

I tried banana peels in my lye today, can't wait to unmold the soap it did darken up the batter a bit. I will be sure to share my results.

 

[Savage Daughter]

I tried banana peels in my lye today, can't wait to unmold the soap it did darken up the batter a bit. I will be sure to share my results.

That's awesome! I haven't had time yet to do that test batch, unfortunately, so would love to hear how yours turn out. I may have some time later in June to try the banana peels. Looking forward to it!

 

[Shelley D]

I actually use a fair amount of oat flour in cooking, so I just take my powdered organic oats out of my kitchen stash & use them in masks, soaps etc. It's a truly beautiful flour to cook with! It gives such a nice, moist crumb to everything & has more nutritional value than bleached or unbleached wheat flour. I don't have a lot of 'me time' as it is living where I do, so I like to do things in larger batches whenever possible, and all at once, rather than farting around on a per-batch basis for food or soap making purposes.

It's also possible to use a good blender to do this, especially something like a vitamix. I assume a grain mill - not many people have these anymore unfortunately - might also work to crank out larger amounts.

Yes, oat flour can also be bought, but be aware that anything which is purchased already powdered, including spices, milks & more, have a far higher likelihood of being loaded with cheap fillers & other garbage. That's where the true 'nasties' are & people unquestioningly put them in their body all the time.

I have experimented with the various clays and even rice milk and pulp ~ I guess it's time to try oat powder! I must confess I'm one that doesn't like a lot of exfoliating ingredients so I'm going to try grinding my organic whole oats and see how it compares to the clays Time for another experiment! WooHoo!

 

[Shelley D]

Still, I wish I had a mill that dealt in organic oats that close to me. I'd be so excited to check it out I'd make the drive & ask to see their facilities

I wish I had the time for sourdough right now, of any type....or grain milling, for that matter! I'm running myself ragged pumping out soap, experimenting with new designs & additives, designing labels & brochures, dehydrating my natural colorants which I've been busy picking in the bush, gardening in my newly gifted garden space, *working* at my IT job, and slowly chopping through my cedar so I'm a little bit ahead come early fall, when yet another load of hardwood will be delivered LOL

You definitely can make a paste with the oat flour, or just soak them in lukewarm water - or even witch hazel - for 30 minutes or so, or even overnight, then just use them to 'scrub' your face, for lack of a better term. It's a very gentle scrubbing, but thoroughly cleanses the skin without stripping it. When I'm feeling a bit lazy to mix up a batch of mask, I will use just straight up oats & leave them on my face for an hour or so as I go about my day. I very often did the same as a teenager. Follow with some oat oil & your face will be feeling like a baby's backside!

That coconut banana peel soap is making me crazy at the moment. I ordered 'powdered coconut' from Baraka & discovered it's complete rubbish. Can't make coconut milk from it as Indonesian women in their villages taught me because a) it's not truly powdered coconut and b) it's nothing more than the dregs of coconut which has already had all of its fats stripped from it via processing for coconut milk; it's basically like sawdust with nothing left in it. Yet somehow it still gets 5 star reviews, go figger Nonethelss, I am feeling super-excited about it because I know it's going to be amazing!

What is this banana peel soap you speak of?! I am so curious! What/where do I find some more info? Tyia!

 

[Shirley-D]

What is this banana peel soap you speak of?! I am so curious! What/where do I find some more info? Tyia!

Here it is @Shelley D


Great for vegan soapers. We might need to start a new thread if we discuss banana soap

 

[Savage Daughter]

I have experimented with the various clays and even rice milk and pulp ~ I guess it's time to try oat powder! I must confess I'm one that doesn't like a lot of exfoliating ingredients so I'm going to try grinding my organic whole oats and see how it compares to the clays Time for another experiment! WooHoo!

I don't find it terribly exfoliating. Oats are pretty soft to begin with. After grinding them & sifting out the small harder bits, which I assume is some of the remaining bran left after processing, powdered oats are even softer.

What I find nice about the powdered oats in soap is that the soap feels even gentler to me, even in a superfatted soap. It's awesome in gentle bars for kids & babies especially, or anyone with dry, irritated, cracked skin. A warm oat flour foot batch with some epsom salts & baking soda is also especially if a person has cracked heels & callouses. Just gently rub or file off the callouses after drying feet.

My favourite way to use oat flour is in pancakes, bread, biscuits, in cakes & muffins instead of remind white flour. Much more nutritious as well.