Want to try new soap recipes.

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

It was from a soap making book. It said that canola oil isn't good on its own.

Just had a look on the old Soapcalc and Canola is indeed mostly unsaturated fat, so it seems that is what they were driving out.

Interesting thought - I also look at lard and it is pretty much half and half, but makes a fairly decent 80% soap from what I have read recently.

 

[Dorymae]

One thing to understand is soap ingredients are very subjective. The "rules" are too. Take coconut oil, as a general rule under 25% some say under 20%, but you will find people on this forum who love and swear by recipes that have 30% coconut or more!

To start out follow the general rules, but as you go along don't be afraid to push the envelope and see what happens. It is sort of like baking a cake, some people substitute apple sauce for the oil, some say it makes a cake too soft, some like cake flour only, some use a mixture.

The whole idea is to find what you like, and that may be very different from what I like or others like. This is one reason soap making is such an awesome past-time, it is always changing, never the same. You can make soap for 10 years, then someone comes along with an experiment that changes the whole way you think of things.

Bottom line is this is not an exact science. It is more like a blend of art and science.

 

[shunt2011]

^^^
Exactly this. I certainly experimented a whole lot before finding what works for me. I've tried Canola, Sunflower, Grapeseed, high Castor etc. It's all part of the learning process. And fun too I must admit.

 

[Susie]

Soapmaking is science in that you need X amount of lye to saponify Y amount of this particular oil. There is no getting around this part of it.

Everything else is art. What I love, you may hate. Or vice versa.

 

[cmzaha]

Millersoap.com has lots of recipes with different ingredients.

Ah but the point here is that you use ROE to preserve it. There for you are less likely to get DOS or go rancid.

I did not clarify that the Canolive bar I had for a year and uses it off and on and it never got one spot of dos. I received it in swap and it was a Canolive recipe from Miller Soaps site.I add roe to most of my oilswhen I open the 5 gallon totes