Underrated and Overrated Soaping Ingredients

[Kaybrantley]

What a great thread!

I'm only in my second year of soap making so take everything with a grain of salt, but I have an opinion that not any of you seem to share. That is that I do not like olive oil in my soap. Any soap that I have OO in gets super mushy since my bars experience high traffic and my climate is super humid. Even bars that I buy from professional soapmakers that have OO in them, go mushy on me, no matter how well I treat them. From hearing everyone rave about it in soap, I figured I'd love it, but nope. It's just not for me. Just goes to show you that for certain ingredients, people can have wildly different results based on conditions and personal preference.

What do you use in place of olive oil?

 

[Shelley D]

What do you use in place of olive oil?

Ironically, I was doing some searching for something else and came across a thread about substituting almond oil for olive oil in Zany's No Slime Castile recipe ~ I'll try to find the link and insert it but you can find it by searching for "Zany's No Slime Castile" in the search feature

ETA: I think this is the link
Post in thread 'What soapy thing have you done today?' https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/what-soapy-thing-have-you-done-today.42556/post-989626

 

[MellonFriend]

What do you use in place of olive oil?

In the first place I try to reduce my liquid oils as best can (not including castor). I like to keep them at about 15-20% and I prefer Sweet Almond oil over olive. I enjoy the results of even less than 15% liquid oils, but lower than that and the batch becomes hard to make intricate designs with.

 

[imp]

Hi there!
I'm having big problems with cold process soap when I choose to use aloe vera gel instead of the final water.
I use pre-mixed 50% lye concetration (1:1 ratio) and from that lye (which I keep stored in a container) I take the amount I need for my formula.
I use 30% coconut, 10% castor, 34% olive and 26% sunflower. My superfat ia 6% and 0% water discount.
But when it comes to mixing the lye/water to the oils I get a disaster. It reaches immediately to high trace and it sticks in the bucket.
Any idea what goes wrong?
The above mentioned oils and lye percentages work very well with all my other soaps.

 

[KiwiMoose]

Are you using gel? Prebottled? That will be the problem because there a lot of other ingredients besides aloe in pre-bottled gel. You need to use juice (with no additives), or make your own by blending the 'gel' insides of the aloe leaf.

 

[imp]

Hi KiwiMoose!
Thank you veru much for your quick reply. Yes it is prebottled and it is preserved with potassium sorbate and sodium benzoate. So you think that these additives could cause the problem?
So either find fresh aloe juice or aloe vera leaves?

 

[KiwiMoose]

Hi KiwiMoose!
Thank you veru much for your quick reply. Yes it is prebottled and it is preserved with potassium sorbate and sodium benzoate. So you think that these additives could cause the problem?
So either find fresh aloe juice or aloe vera leaves?

I'm not sure. But I know that aloe is not naturally a gel. So what ever makes it into a gel, could indeed be causing the problem. You might be better to start a new thread with this conversation so more people will see it.

 

[imp]

How do we start a new thread?? I am new here.

 

[KiwiMoose]

Go to the beginners soap making forum by clicking 'forums' in the top left corner of this page. At the top you will see you profile pic and it was say 'Thread Title' next to it. Write Aloe Vera Gel in there, and then fill in your question or problem underneath. Then click 'post'

 

[Saponif]

I actually really like beer in soap. It gives it a pleasant bakery-type smell which is loved by my friends and family who can't tolerate FO or EO in soap. Oatmeal milk and honey unscented soap also has a similar pleasant smell.

 

[Shelley D]

I actually really like beer in soap. It gives it a pleasant bakery-type smell which is loved by my friends and family who can't tolerate FO or EO in soap. Oatmeal milk and honey unscented soap also has a similar pleasant smell.

Interesting about the beer ~ so that yeasty scent carries through ~ I was wondering how the heat from lye would affect the beer

 

[Katsbe]

What do you use instead of olive oil if you don’t mind sharing?

 

[Kaybrantley]

What do you use instead of olive oil if you don’t mind sharing?

I’ve been using rice bran oil

 

[Ekuzo]

High oleic sunflower oils is a great substitute as well