Using sweet almond and sesame oil in cp soap

[winusuren]

Hello everyone,
I'm a new soap maker. I've made few batches of soaps and got positive reviews from my friends and family members. I'm planning to start a business and would like to make all natural soaps using cold pressed oils(unrefined): olive, coconut, castor, sesame, sweet almond, palm(refined), unrefined Shea butter and cocoa butter. I'm planning to add sweet almond and sesame oils at 5% each. But the problem is they have a shorter shelf life and might develop DOS in soaps. Should I add ROE or any other preservatives to my oils?? I also think that using these oils at lower percentage without preservatives is a better idea. I'm I right?? Kindly share your suggestions. Then mostly I'll be replacing half of my water with milk or fruit juices. I'm also planning to superfat at 7% to make my bar less drying.

 

[Todd Ziegler]

Welcome to the forum.

First, if you are interested in selling your soap, you should really wait until you have at least a year of soap making under your belt. I don't know how long you have been doing it but there are a lot of things that you can learn but only with experience.

As far as the ingredients go that you listed, they can be used. However I have no experience with unrefined coconut oil so I can't speak to that except to say that I don't use it.

You can add ROE to the oils in storage and it will help extend their shelf life. However in my opinion ROE loses its effectiveness when it is heated through the gel phase. There are no other preservatives that you can use in CP soap.

I wouldn't recommend adding the fruit juices in place of water for many reasons but the 2 main reasons are that, they don't add anything to the soap and the sugar in them will cause your soap to over heat. Also milk, whatever kind you use will also cause over heating and can scorch and turn brown. I use powdered milks when I want to use milk in the recipe. By using the powder instead of the liquid milk, I don't have to worry about adjusting my water or worry about freezing the milk to keep it from over heating.

Depending on how much olive oil you use, it could take 6 - 12 months before it is cured fully. I don't use shea butter in soap, so I can't comment on it.

It took me 8 months before I settled on my main recipe. I use it for all my soaps now with slight adjustments for goat milk and other additives. However I know almost exactly how it's going to behave and if it doesn't follow that script, then I know that I have made a mistake. Good luck with everything but don't get in to a hurry to sell your soap because it could back fire on you.

 

[lsg]

If you are new to soap making, please take time to develop a firm understanding of the process before selling. IMO sesame seed oil has a smokey fragrance, not one I would choose to include in soap.

 

[winusuren]

Welcome to the forum.

First, if you are interested in selling your soap, you should really wait until you have at least a year of soap making under your belt. I don't know how long you have been doing it but there are a lot of things that you can learn but only with experience.

As far as the ingredients go that you listed, they can be used. However I have no experience with unrefined coconut oil so I can't speak to that except to say that I don't use it.

You can add ROE to the oils in storage and it will help extend their shelf life. However in my opinion ROE loses its effectiveness when it is heated through the gel phase. There are no other preservatives that you can use in CP soap.

I wouldn't recommend adding the fruit juices in place of water for many reasons but the 2 main reasons are that, they don't add anything to the soap and the sugar in them will cause your soap to over heat. Also milk, whatever kind you use will also cause over heating and can scorch and turn brown. I use powdered milks when I want to use milk in the recipe. By using the powder instead of the liquid milk, I don't have to worry about adjusting my water or worry about freezing the milk to keep it from over heating.

Depending on how much olive oil you use, it could take 6 - 12 months before it is cured fully. I don't use shea butter in soap, so I can't comment on it.

It took me 8 months before I settled on my main recipe. I use it for all my soaps now with slight adjustments for goat milk and other additives. However I know almost exactly how it's going to behave and if it doesn't follow that script, then I know that I have made a mistake. Good luck with everything but don't get in to a hurry to sell your soap because it could back fire on you.

Thank you so much for your reply. I have been soaping since August and theoretically I've become quite strong but made only a few batches till now. I'll surely take some more time to finalize a proper recipe.

 

[winusuren]

If you are new to soap making, please take time to develop a firm understanding of the process before selling. IMO sesame seed oil has a smokey fragrance, not one I would choose to include in soap.

Thank you for your reply. I know the smell of sesame oil is not good but would like to add it as it has a lot of skin benefits. Actually we use it for cooking regularly.

 

[Todd Ziegler]

Thank you for your reply. I know the smell of sesame oil is not good but would like to add it as it has a lot of skin benefits. Actually we use it for cooking regularly.

The skin properties of any oil will not survive the soap process. Soap has no medicinal properties and can not impart any benefits to the skin. The best that you can do with homemade soap is to make it less drying to the skin.

Please understand that we are not trying to bust your bubble or discourage you but some of the people who have responded to your post are very smart people, with years of experience, and we are just trying to prevent mistakes and to keep you from wasting your time and money on something that won't work. I am a perfect example of learning the hard way. Soap has 1 job and 1 job only and that is to remove dirt.

 

[senaraj]

Just curious to know, why then the essential oils are added to the soaps? If the properties of oils are not surviving the soap process, the good benefits of EO are also not going to survive?

 

[Todd Ziegler]

Just curious to know, why then the essential oils are added to the soaps? If the properties of oils are not surviving the soap process, the good benefits of EO are also not going to survive?

This is a very late reply and you may have already got an answer. The reason why most people use EO's in there soap is for a natural choice for fragrance.

 

[ResolvableOwl]

Essential oils are not fatty oils (esters) in the chemical/soapmaking sense, they aren't attacked by lye (at least the CP-safe ones).

 

[The_Phoenix]

Guess I never contributed this thread. I make soap using sesame seed oil. It makes an INCREDIBLE bar of soap. Creamy, dense, lather. Feels very luxurious in soap. I used Bay Rum fo, which compliments the slight sesame odor. Keep in mind that I sf @ 1% and use sesame at 15%. Not a single bar has gone rancid. The first mini batch I made is a little over six months old. Still smells fantastic and the sesame scent is barely noticeable. Absolutely no DOS. We shall see how it fares after a year, though.