Newbie oil question

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lorJRo

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My daughter in law called me and said she found some sunflower oil that was marked way down in price and did I want her to grab it. It’s not expired. Of course I said yes. But. After she brought it to me and I was going to use it for soaping I seen it’s a blend of oils 🤦🏻‍♀️. The label says plainly sunflower blend - non GMO blend of sunflower, safflower & olive oil. Is this usable for soap making? How would I enter it into soapcalc? Am I over thinking this??
Thank you for reading and for any info you offer
 
Sunflower, safflower and olive oil all have a similar SAP value. Sunflower oil has a SAP value of 0.136. Safflower oil has a SAP value of 0.137. Olive oil has a SAP value of 0.135. For the blended oil, I would choose the olive oil option in the lye calculator and use a low superfat. Try a small batch first to see how you like the results.
 
Thank you! Yes I was planning on a small batch for sure. This gives me a start 👍🏻 Thank you again
 
You may want to check the fatty acid composition on the label before you decide how much (%) of the oil to include in the recipe. If the oil blend is not "high oleic" you will want to be mindful of the potential for the highish content of polyunsaturated fats (mostly linoleic) to make the soap more susceptible to DOS. A rule of thumb is to keep linoleic at < 15%. This article explains further.
 
Ok. So label says
Total fat 11
Sat fat 1.5
Trans fat 0
Polyunsaturated fat 4
Monounsaturated fat 8.5

Reading the article would this mean it’s mid oleic correct? Or m I totally understand wrong
 
The total fat can’t be 11 g based on 1.5 g + 4 g + 8.5 g = 14 g which is pretty standard for a serving of oil.

8.5/14 = .607 and .607 x 100% = 60.7%, which means the oil is mid-oleic. You can use olive oil as a proxy for building the recipe but keep in mind that doing so will result in an underestimate of the amount of linoleic in the recipe. Off the top of my head, I can’t think of another oil to plug in for a better estimate of the fatty acid profile of the blend.
 
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