What are your top 3 favorite soft oils and why?

[Soaplizard]

So far I’ve been experimenting with Olive Oil, Safflower Oil, Rice Bran O., Castor as my go to oils.

I’ve used Hemp O, Avocado O & Grapeseed O., for my first Couple batches of soap, but lost the recipe unfortunately…But I DO know what the soaps look like and may even have some sitting around.

I also used KuKui Nut Oil and Macademia Nut oil in soap. I don’t think it’s necessary to use Kukui Nut oil in soap, I just wanted to try it. It’s high in Linoleic?? I get confused with the words but im sure you know what I mean. Before I knew the SCIENCE of these fatty acids and soap language I was just doing whatever, trial and error type of experimenting. I just knew that higher than appropriate amount of kukui nut oil isn’t good for soap making and just enough won’t matter if the lye is gonna saponify it all up. Fortunately I still have a lot of kukui nut oil left so I’ll just leave that for the body butter….(honestly kukui nut oil is great by itself)

I have NOT experiment with sweet almond oil Or Sunflower oil YET. But I have heard great things about these soft oils. So I am curious to know what your favorite soft oils are and why.

 

[kagey]

I'm more of a "chemistry" kind of soap maker -- so the oils I use are there to serve a purpose.
I'm a big fan of Sunflower -- both HO and regular.
I try to avoid soft oils high in Linoleic because I'm told it can lead to DOS. In my formular - I try to keep the linoleic number under 15.
I've been playing a lot with Neem Oil because it supposedly has other qualities than just conditioning. I think this is the oil that's been turning my soaps a darker shade of beige.
Babassu oil is another oil I've been using a lot. Don't know if it qualifies as a "soft oil" -- but as a man on a cleaning mission - I really appreciate its cleansing score.
I also have had good results with grapeseed -- and of course, who doesn't use olive oil?

 

[AliOop]

My primary recipe is mostly lard with about 20% CO; the soft oils include castor and either RBO or avocado. So I'd have to say those are my three favorite soft oils. I rarely use OO in my soaps because it tends to dry out my skin, but I do make some ZNSC for friends who love it.

 

[Nona'sFarm]

Primarily olive oil, some sweet almond oil (5%), some castor oil (5%). I don't use animal fats at this time. For hard oils, I use coconut oil, palm oil, shea butter, and am currently experimenting with soy wax. I only use neem oil (15%) in one soap.
Primarily, I go with the lesser expensive oils to try to make a pleasing feeling bar of soap. I follow the thought that the properties of the more expensive specialty oils are more effective in leave-on products like balms and lotions.
Originally I started with coconut, palm, and olive. From there I started varying things. Found I like the feel of a little almond oil and like the lather from a little bit of castor. Lately I've been trying to reduce the amount of palm. Though I only buy from suppliers that claim sustainable palm oil harvesting methods, I've never seen their operations, so who knows (sometimes people lie ).
I do put neem in one specialty soap and am very pleased in the way it feels on my skin. Neem does have a distinct scent that is displeasing to some people; but with a long cure time, it fades.
But in general, it is the combination of the different oils, fats, lye, etc. that makes a good bar of soap. Also, people's skin is different , so it is difficult to say you will have the exact same experience. I do rely heavily on the Soap Calc numbers to give me the properties I like. And in general I have found that if I stay within the recommended ranges I get a pleasing bar of soap.

 

[Zing]

My soft oils are RBO, avocado, and castor (at 4-6%).

Just last night I referenced kukui oil in another thread. By itself it's fantastic on sunburns. I love kukui oil but given the price, I save it for lotion bars -- instead of making a wash-off product. Also meadowfoam seed oil is beyond imagination just by itself or in a lotion bar.

I'm an evangelist for lotion bars -- no cure, immediate gratification, minutes to make, and you can easily re-melt and tweak the recipe. My recipe is variations of 1/3 beeswax, 1/3 shea, 1/3 soft oil or butter.

 

[amd]

My soft oils are RBO and Castor. If you count CO as a soft oil, I use that one too. I won't use sunflower (even HO) in soap as I've had it develop DOS regardless of the amount used. I use sweet almond or grapeseed or even soybean instead without any DOS issues.

 

[ResolvableOwl]

and of course, who doesn't use olive oil?

Me. My go-to oleic oil is HO sunflower; I save the olive oil for the kitchen, and I prefer sunflower for its more neutral colour, quicker cure, better hardness, and local sourcing.
RBO, sesame, cottonseed and canola oil are great at intermediate dosage. And well, I have a weakness for some dangerous specialty oils like pumpkin, camelina, poppy and flaxseed oil.
The one time I worked with macadamia oil, it had quite some “one oil for the rest of your life” appeal. @Soaplizard : Good that you asked for three – in this case I'd decide for HO sunflower, RBO and poppy seed oil.

I'd love to give palmolein a try, since it is a “soft” oil in the sense that it is liquid and clear at room temperature (zero danger of false trace/stearic spots), but also a “hard” oil, with the heaps of saturated FAs that it brings. Too bad that you can't seem to buy palmolein in “civilised” countries in smaller-than-tank-truck quantities.

And lol, castor, I don't even think of it, since I add it every time anyway.

 

[SoapSisters]

Me. My go-to oleic oil is HO sunflower; I save the olive oil for the kitchen, and I prefer sunflower for its more neutral colour, quicker cure, better hardness, and local sourcing.

@ResolvableOwl : These few lines of yours have completely shaken my confidence (baby . . . Simon & Garfunkel playing in my head) in my powers of observation. I've pretty much concluded that if a soap of mine is not hard enough, it's because there's too much HO sunflower in it. But I'm also ecstatic to hear you say this because it's the cheapest oil I can buy where I live and it does make such a beautiful, light colored soap. I'd love to hear more!

 

[ResolvableOwl]

Here is what I can offer as “more to hear”: HO sunflower CP castile, testing the next natural green dye, and new mould!
Of course the “quicker cure” and “better hardness” is relative to olive oil (EVOO to be more precise, since I don't even know where to buy refined/pomace around here). It's not a lot of a difference, don't expect wonders from sunflower. It's still awfully difficult to convince into emulsion/trace, a pain to unmould, and will hugely benefit from any addition of hard oils (butters, soy wax, etc.), CO/laurics (for better lather) and (naturally) castor oil. From the one batch for which I have a comparison, it also has no advantage in terms of the chalky haptics from a generous sodium lactate addition.

If we exclude castile-esque recipes, a soap that is “too soft” usually isn't too soft because it has too much soft oils in it, but because too little hard oils. If a soap has, say, 80% HO and 20% shea butter, and appears too soft, shoving 10% from the sunflower into shea will increase the hardness considerably, but lower the sunflower portion only by a mere 1/8.

My usual procedure is to first lay out the FA profile with specialty oils (hard fats, linoleic, lauric, castor), and then fill up the recipe to 100% with HO sunflower. Since it's the purest form of the “won't hurt FA” (oleic acid), I then don't need to worry about anything.

 

[SoapSisters]

Here is what I can offer as “more to hear”: HO sunflower CP castile, testing the next natural green dye, and new mould!
Of course the “quicker cure” and “better hardness” is relative to olive oil (EVOO to be more precise, since I don't even know where to buy refined/pomace around here). It's not a lot of a difference, don't expect wonders from sunflower.

Thank you for this!! I also think of HO sunflower relative to olive oil. I use and love soy wax, but I'm also intrigued by soft oil soaps. I recently made a soap that was:
75% Sunflower HO
10% Coconut
10% almond oil
5% Castor oil
and it was quite lovely. I added rice puree for hardness and a little bit a silkiness and replaced the water with white vinegar (I find it eliminates the sliminess).

 

[Zany_in_CO]

My faves are
Olive Oil - has the unique ability to bring other oils into saponification.
Almond Oil - can be subbed for olive oil to make a castile type soap, hard bars or liquid.
Avocado Oil - combined with the other two above produces a soap that is good for skin and hair.

All 3 do double duty in lotions, creams, balms.

 

[Arimara]

My faves are
Olive Oil - has the unique ability to bring other oils into saponification.
Almond Oil - can be subbed for olive oil to make a castile type soap, hard bars or liquid.
Avocado Oil - combined with the other two above produces a soap that is good for skin and hair.

All 3 do double duty in lotions, creams, balms.

Olive oil is so greasy feeling and it doesn't absorb as fast as the avocado would. That doesn't bother you?

 

[Soaplizard]

Thank you all for your response! I began to use one of my experimental soaps, nothing fancy just a plain bar with cucumber melon fragrance added to it. This recipe had RBO, Olive Pomace, Palm O, Coconut O and Cocoa butter. I actually love the feel and look of this bar.

I will definitely try Avocado again, and almond oil next.

 

[kagey]

Olive oil is so greasy feeling and it doesn't absorb as fast as the avocado would. That doesn't bother you?

I grabbed this off some soaping website.
I assumed it's saying that some oils absorb in the skin faster than others....

 

[LynetteO]

I grabbed this off some soaping website.
I assumed it's saying that some oils absorb in the skin faster than others....

Would this information still apply once the oil has gone through the soap science of saponification? For lotions & creams for sure, but soap? Not sure

 

[kagey]

Would this information still apply once the oil has gone through the soap science of saponification? For lotions & creams for sure, but soap? Not sure

I honestly dunno.
but when we're superfatting... aren't we left with a soap that has extra oils?
I've heard Kevin Dunn say that some oils saponify faster than others... so I guess that would matter too.

 

[AliOop]

Would this information still apply once the oil has gone through the soap science of saponification? For lotions & creams for sure, but soap? Not sure

You are correct - the information about absorption relates to lotions and creams, not soaps. Even though our soaps have some superfat oils, those oils don't really absorb into the skin (or if they do, it is a minor amount) because the soap washes them away.

 

[Zany_in_CO]

Olive oil is so greasy feeling and it doesn't absorb as fast as the avocado would. That doesn't bother you?

Gosh, @Arimara, I have a looooomg history with olive oil. I don't find it greasy at all. Not in hard bars, liquid soap, lotion or lip balms. So I'm wondering if you are referring to the "slime" that is typical of olive oil castile/bastiles? If that is so, you may want to try making ZNSC.

I make the 10% coconut, 5% castor variation. I wash my face with it AM & PM -- dense, creamy lather like washing my face with cold cream. Rinses off cleanly. leaving my face feeling moisturized and not "tight" at all.

 

[Arimara]

Gosh, @Arimara, I have a looooomg history with olive oil. I don't find it greasy at all. Not in hard bars, liquid soap, lotion or lip balms. So I'm wondering if you are referring to the "slime" that is typical of olive oil castile/bastiles? If that is so, you may want to try making ZNSC.

I make the 10% coconut, 5% castor variation. I wash my face with it AM & PM -- dense, creamy lather like washing my face with cold cream. Rinses off cleanly. leaving my face feeling moisturized and not "tight" at all.

I was referring to lotions and whips or even using the oil straight.

 

[Arimara]

I grabbed this off some soaping website.
I assumed it's saying that some oils absorb in the skin faster than others....

Yep, that's pretty much what it's saying. In truth, should you make a lotion at the least, you want to use oils that have a good shelf life that you like on your skin.