Palmitic & oleic acid

[Todd Ziegler]

Does anyone use palmitic or oleic acid as an ingredient by themselves, apart from them within the oils themselves?

I have noticed them as separate ingredients listed in soap calculators and wondered if they are useful as an ingredient by themselves?

 

[Bladesmith]

I use stearic in my soaps. Though almost all stearic acid I’ve found is actually 50/50 stearic and palmitic once you dig deep enough into the documentation. I add it to mine to speed things up (I do HTHP) and to add a little extra hardness.

You can certainly use them to add specific qualities to your soap that it may be lacking without adding other acids from an oil. That said, because the glycerol bond is already broken, the pure fatty acids tend to nearly instantly saponify. So I’d be willing to bet basically no one does that for CP soap because it would immediately thicken.

 

[Todd Ziegler]

I use stearic in my soaps. Though almost all stearic acid I’ve found is actually 50/50 stearic and palmitic once you dig deep enough into the documentation. I add it to mine to speed things up (I do HTHP) and to add a little extra hardness.

You can certainly use them to add specific qualities to your soap that it may be lacking without adding other acids from an oil. That said, because the glycerol bond is already broken, the pure fatty acids tend to nearly instantly saponify. So I’d be willing to bet basically no one does that for CP soap because it would immediately thicken.

I did read about the acceleration they cause but I didn't know if a small amount would add any benefit. I was wondering if adding 1-2% oleic would be of any help or would even that small amount cause a quick acceleration.