Sunflower soap

[Njones]

I make all my soaps from 100% organic ingredients,.. which is a very expensive way to do it!
I can get organic sunflower oil very cheap however, and I was considering trying out a budget range of soaps that are still 100% organic & natural, but made mostly from sunflower oil.

Can it be done? I've heard sunflower oil isn't the most stable & the shelf life of these soaps may be shorter?

 

[busymakinsoap!]

I used high percentage sunflower oil once in a batch. It was a cheaper brand. It was a fresh lot of oil and into the third week of curing my soap it went yellow and rancid. I havent used it since.

 

[Njones]

Pity! Organic Sunflower oil is €3.29 per litre,.. the closest after that is organic Olive oil which is €9.98 per litre here!!
I am determined to stay 100% organic,.. but the cost is driving me crazy at the moment!

 

[mandolyn]

Sunflower oil has a notoriously short shelf-life. That said, there is a high oleic sunflower oil specifically engineered for a long shelf-life. I don't know of an organic high oleic sunflower oil, though.

I experimented with using the HO sunflower oil to replace some of my expensive olive oil. It made a decent soap, but nothing can really replace olive oil in my opinion.

 

[busymakinsoap!]

Yeah Olive oil is quite pricy. I substitute some of mine with Rice Bran oil, for that reason, with good results and its much cheaper.

Not sure if you can get organic ricebran?

 

[dagmar88]

http://www.zensoaps.com/singleoil.htm

Noticably rancid and disgusting:
Sunflower - orange rancid, soft, not real greasy

 

[xyxoxy]

I've used sunflower but not above 10%... more like 5%.

 

[Elly]

I started using sunflower oil as a cheaper alternative to OO but after a few weeks I started experiencing DOS in my soaps, have not used again. Is rice bran oil any better I am afraid to try it for fear of DOS

 

[busymakinsoap!]

Is rice bran oil any better I am afraid to try it for fear of DOS

I started using it after reading the zen swap (as posted by dagmar) re qualities. I had also noticed that a lot of new zealand soapers use it instead of olive oil. Ive had no dos yet, its ment to be fairly stable.

I have noticed that it does seem to speed things up a bit more than olive oil, but not enough to not want to use it

 

[Elly]

Thanks Busy for your reply, I've been wanting to try rice bran oil for sometime now, I will give a go :wink:

 

[judymoody]

My favorite recipe has about 12% sunflower (or safflower; I use them interchangeably). But I use the high oleic kind. No DOS issues.

 

[carebear]

Pity! Organic Sunflower oil is €3.29 per litre,.. the closest after that is organic Olive oil which is €9.98 per litre here!!
I am determined to stay 100% organic,.. but the cost is driving me crazy at the moment!

Where are you getting your organic lye?

 

[Njones]

Pity! Organic Sunflower oil is €3.29 per litre,.. the closest after that is organic Olive oil which is €9.98 per litre here!!
I am determined to stay 100% organic,.. but the cost is driving me crazy at the moment!

Where are you getting your organic lye?

Lye is the only thing I can't get organic,.. but since its consumed in the process I don't feel too bad about using it.

 

[Elly]

How can one tell if it is the high oleic sunflower type? I thought all sunflower oils were the same :?

 

[Woodi]

I love rice bran oil, esp for lather. The main diffference I find between it and my fav olive oil recipe (50% olive) is that the rice bran doesn't get as hard.

 

[MeadowHillFarmCT]

It is pretty pricey.... From Columbus

45007SC Sunflower, High Oleic, ORGANIC, (2.20 Per Pound) .191---.136 7 Pound Bottle $15.40
45036SC Sunflower, High Oleic, ORGANIC (1.95 Per Pound) .191---.136 35 Pound Cubitainer $68.25

 

[Elly]

MeadowHill thanks for the info :wink: