Single oil soap experiment

[green soap]

Five oils were too soft still to unmold after 24 hours...can you guess which ones?

Canola, castor, safflower, sunflower and grape-seed?

 

[AlchemyandAshes]

And the Top 5 Oils Too Soft To Unmold In 24 Hours Goes To:
Corn
Grapeseed
Rice Bran
Soybean
Sunflower

 

[melstan775]

And the Top 5 Oils Too Soft To Unmold In 24 Hours Goes To:
Corn
Grapeseed
Rice Bran
Soybean
Sunflower

Only sunflower and soybean were guessed, and grapeseed. I would have thought since rice bran is used for drying purposes in dry oils, it would dry up fast enough, oh well.

 

[AlchemyandAshes]

I would have thought since rice bran is used for drying purposes in dry oils, it would dry up fast enough, oh well.

Actually Rice Bran is quite moisturizing and very similar in make up to Olive Oil. It's great for dry or sensitive skin
I figured Sunflower, Grapeseed, Safflower, Olive, Corn, Soybean and Canola would be too soft. Oddly enough, Olive was hard as a rock in about 18 hours! Castor was also surprising with hardness and how fast it traced...faster than Tallow!
My lye solution was a 41% concentration, btw.

 

[AlchemyandAshes]

Just unmolded Rice Bran after 38 hours...still soft, but I was able to get it out without damage. Grapeseed is still like cream cheese. Soybean, Sunflower, and Corn are firmer, but not ready to unmold. Will check again tonight!

 

[lizflowers42]

How exciting!

 

[AlchemyandAshes]

Okay, here we are 4 days later...and I was finally able to unmold Corn and Soybean...Sunflower and Grapeseed are still too soft to unmold without squishing them too much. I will do more testing on them once I can remove the last two from the mold. I don't want to do the freezer trick because I'm trying to test how they act on their own. I will give full report after the last 2 unmold, but for now, preliminary results are:

Hardest: 1. Tallow 2. Palm 3. Coconut (in that order) (I could have unmolded these in 6 hours they were so hard)
Softest: 1. Grapeseed 2. Sunflower 3. Soybean
Quickest to trace: 1. Castor 2. Tallow 3. Palm
Slowest to trace: 1. Grapeseed 2. Safflower 3. Sunflower

Lard has a distinct (and strong) smell even after unmolding. Tallow had a strong scent in the mold, but not after unmolding.
Safflower, Soybean, Avocado, Grapeseed, and Canola all began separating in the mold, but I was able to hand stir them in the mold back to emulsion before insulating.
Tallow is whitest, Rice Bran is the most yellow.

 

[hoegarden]

That is a very comprehensive testing..

 

[cliff]

Interesting. I would be curious to see the results. Good luck!

 

[hoegarden]

So after a few more days, are the soaps still intact?

 

[2lilboots]

Glad to know I wasn't the only one who noticed the strong smell of lard in a soap. The bars I made with lard do not have that smell anymore, but they sure did the first month and a half.

 

[thefarmerdaughter]

I'm curious about the odor from the lard soap. Although I have read about other soaper's incountering it, I have never experienced it myself. (I've never made a loaf that didn't have lard in it) How would you describe it? Is it the odor of the lard itself?

 

[sabon]

Actually Rice Bran is quite moisturizing and very similar in make up to Olive Oil. It's great for dry or sensitive skin
I figured Sunflower, Grapeseed, Safflower, Olive, Corn, Soybean and Canola would be too soft. Oddly enough, Olive was hard as a rock in about 18 hours! Castor was also surprising with hardness and how fast it traced...faster than Tallow!
My lye solution was a 41% concentration, btw.

Did you use refined castor oil? I am asking because I once tried making soap using castor oil 45 percent and the rest coconut, waited 3 days but didn't harden, well, actually looked hard from outside, but was soft and creamy inside.Finally, I rebatched with salt and got a hard bar of soap. I used cold pressed unrefined castor oil and coconut oils. wonder if that was what made the difference.

 

[AlchemyandAshes]

I'm curious about the odor from the lard soap. Although I have read about other soaper's incountering it, I have never experienced it myself. (I've never made a loaf that didn't have lard in it) How would you describe it? Is it the odor of the lard itself?

Yeah, it reminds me of taking salt pork out of the package to make collard greens...I don't know how else to describe it

I had my husband and 12 year old "blind smell test" them, and they both noticed a smell to the lard soap. My 12 year old also noticed a smell to Palm, Peanut, and Castor, oddly enough. My husband only thought Lard had a slight smell. I think the Rice Bran smells a little like Oatmeal, and the Grapeseed almost smells a little "off", like not rancid but maybe heading that way. Weird.

I finally removed Grapeseed and Sunflower after 5 days...Grapeseed was so squishy still that its a mangled looking square, but this isn't about looks

I'm doing lather & pH tests today!

 

[AlchemyandAshes]

Did you use refined castor oil? I am asking because I once tried making soap using castor oil 45 percent and the rest coconut, waited 3 days but didn't harden, well, actually looked hard from outside, but was soft and creamy inside.Finally, I rebatched with salt and got a hard bar of soap. I used cold pressed unrefined castor oil and coconut oils. wonder if that was what made the difference.

I used cold pressed Castor Oil from WSP. I was actually surprised how quickly it traced. I use it in all my formulas, and get quick trace usually, but I also soap warmer with a liquid discount and 30% Coconut...so I wouldn't have necessarily attributed much of my quick trace to Castor. Ya learn something new everyday, right?!

 

[DWinMadison]

Shawnee, I've finally had a chance to check in on your experiment. Wow...you are a juggernuat! I'm a) too cheap to buy the oils and lye for this experiment b) too lazy to carry it out and 3) too disorganized to keep it all organized. Kudos to you! I know you really won't have definitive results until to see how they preform long-term, but what are your take-aways thus far? Anything that would change your basic soap formulations?

 

[nebetmiw]

Great work. I would do another test on safflower and sunflower but using the HO versions of both. See is there is a differance in how they set up.

I know when I made a high lard amount soap I had a slight bacon smell in the bathroom. Not unpleasent, unless you consider it making you want to eat bacon. That was a 50% lard soap unscented. I think once we get use to a smell we do not smell it anymore. At that point it takes others not use to it to see if it is there. It was only the first bar I smelled it with and not rest of loaf. I have smell problems with my cats too can't smell there box at all. I always ask someone new to the house if they can smell it. So far so good guess pine pellet litter works real well there.

 

[thefarmerdaughter]

Yeah, it reminds me of taking salt pork out of the package to make collard greens...I don't know how else to describe it

good reference

Someone brought up sunflower oil. Every time I soap with it, even though I only use it at 10-15%. It makes my whole batch smell like roasted sunflower seeds.

 

[AlchemyandAshes]

Shawnee, I've finally had a chance to check in on your experiment. Wow...you are a juggernuat! I'm a) too cheap to buy the oils and lye for this experiment b) too lazy to carry it out and 3) too disorganized to keep it all organized. Kudos to you! I know you really won't have definitive results until to see how they preform long-term, but what are your take-aways thus far? Anything that would change your basic soap formulations?

As for the oils I currently use, I think Castor oil has surprised me as far as how fast it traced, how hard it was after 24 hours...but also with the lather test (not a lot), the lowest pH, and dissolved the quickest. Not what I expected at all! Also, Palm was disappointing as a stand alone oil, and is making me rethink its use. It's a good cost effective filler as far as hardness goes...but that may be it. I currently use it at about 20% of my recipe.
One thing that hasn't changed my opinion is the animal oils - Lard and Tallow. Once again, they may be cost effective fillers, but I'm not impressed with lather or how they made my skin feel. Lard has a distinct odor, and Tallow was just hard. They both made beautiful creamy looking soaps, but lather? Not so much. Tallow had the highest pH, and Lard was right in the middle at 10 (most oils were).
The oil that surprised me with lather is Peanut! I did not have high hopes for it. Corn and Grapeseed oil have a strong odor, and Rice Bran smells a bit like oatmeal. Tallow had an odor at first but it dissipated after unmolding, as did Lard, but not as much. Coconut, Palm, and Tallow took the longest to dissolve.
I'm trying to finish up all the preliminary tests so I can post them at once. I'll have to redirect to my blog for most of the pictures, unless someone can tell me a super easy way of uploading about 40 pictures at a time to the forum

 

[Badger]

Thank you for doing this, it has been fascinating to hear the results that you have been having with this experiment. I am a bit surprised about the peanut oil also, that is interesting to notice. I would love to try it and see how it works, but I have a friend that is deathly allergic to them and I would hate for her to have an allergic reaction.