What do you consider a "filler" oil and why?

[dixiedragon]

I tend to think of oils such as canola and soy as "filler" oils b/c they are cheap and don't really add much to the soap. As far as I can tell, soy and canola add conditioning and that's it. And almost all oils add that.

My base recipe is lard, olive oil, coconut oil, castor oil and 10% soy. I have found that that amount doesn't lower the quality of my soap and decreases the cost just a bit. I chose soy over canola b/c I made some soaps with identical recipes, except one used canola and one used soy, and the canola bar was soft and sticky and the soy bar was firmer, not sticky, and better bubbles. Of course, that was at a much larger percentage (I think 30 or 40%) so that may not be noticable at 10%.

And I'll admit - when I see people selling soap for $4 a bar and its' 100% soy, I judge. Just a little.

So, what are your thoughts on this? I don't use peanut oil b/c of allergies, but I wonder if using 10% of corn or safflower would be okay.

 

[Nevada]

Hi Dix, Lard & Olive Oil what I consider the "backbone" of a soap. Inexpensive and versatile, behaves well in the pot and makes a hard bar. You can use corn oil / safflower with ROE and /or keeping amount <10%
Roy

 

[cmzaha]

I simply do not consider anything a filler oil and I happen to love canola in soap. It also brings in one more fatty acid to the party. I do not use much soy since many are allergic to soy. Lard, 100% palm shortening, canola and sunflower are my favs. Lard being #1

 

[OliveOil2]

My favorite inexpensive oils are Palm Shortening, Beef Tallow, Rice Bran Oil, and Lard. I find all of these at a great price at a restaurant supply store.

 

[mel z]

Lard, lard, lard. Then Olive oil.

Cheapest available here is lard. It makes a great soap. I love beef tallow too, but not so cheap, guess I should ask at the grocery about selling me all the left over fat to cook down my own. No hunters here for the other tallows, very sadly, hometown had many but I did not make soap back then. If in a farming or hunting area, you can ask for the fat of the animals and cook down your own tallows, it is time consumptive, but well worth it.

Everything else is $$ where I live, sometimes $$$.

Soapers choice is good if selling, can buy in bulk. Can check the shipping chart according to the state you live in while filling cart.

I thought the restaurant supply stores needed a business card to purchase? I don't have a business.

$4 a bar is cheaper than some I have seen, but part of the reason I don't sell. No way anyone here will pay it for soap. It is worth it, but not happening in my city.

Allergies can be to corn and safflower too, btw. (Just talking with all posts here.) Allergies stem the entire plant, vegetable, mineral, chemical, you name it, arena. So, just do the best you can within your market if selling. Best to avoid tree nuts, or nuts, but all the other allergies exist, and most likely those will make their own soap, or special order.

ETA: Best tallow thread here ever!:

http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=33777

 

[new12soap]

I agree, Dixiedragon, I too tend to think of canola and soy as cheap filler oils that really don't bring much to the soap. Not sure that is entirely fair of me, but there it is. And unless you are dealing in tremendous volume, I honestly cannot imagine that the savings of a few pennies per batch would be worth the cost and storage of another oil. JMO.

By the way, a lot of people are very concerned about allergies and that's not a bad thing, but someone somewhere will be allergic to pretty much every single thing you could possibly put in soap. If you are using refined oils they have been stripped of the proteins that cause the allergic reaction, and at the end of the process it isn't even oil anyway, it's soap (yes, I know, "superfat"). A sensitivity to a particular soap or ingredient will happen now and then, a true allergic reaction would be more unusual. None of which is to say throw caution to the wind; people with severe allergies do have to be careful what they use and anyone selling a product needs to be cognizant of that.

 

[OliveOil2]

Mel Z I don't know if they have any of these in your area, they are open to the public; Cash & Carry, Smart & Final (both owned by the same company) and Restaurant Depot which is for business owners, but many other groups get in like non -profits. I actually have only shopped at the first two. I think they are mostly on the west coast. For California soapers I love Cibaria, great price on coconut oil, if the shipping doesn't kill you.

 

[dryalligator]

:neutral: Unless I've missed something when we superfat we don't exactly know what the lye left us with oil wise. I agree that some fats don't exactly add alot of nutrients to the bar. I see nothing wrong with using soy, canola or lard as long as the product is labled properly. All of the ingredients are going to be less drying than commercial soaps.:smile:

 

[Ruthie]

While lard is inexpensive, I would not consider it a filler. What it does for skin is amazing. I would use it at 3 times the cost. JMO.

 

[PinkCupcake]

I don't really use anything I consider a "filler." It doesn't seem worth the trouble of making a beautiful soap, and then having oils that don't contribute something to the soap.

 

[seven]

i used to use soybean coz it was cheap. but it gave me dos on a couple of batches, so these days i lower the quantity (10% max, and ROE is a must). olive is very expensive here and i have to combine with canola to make it work. there is also corn which is cheap, but i never try it. these days, i just go with the 4: palm, coco, olive, canola... and soybean if i run out of canola and i'm too lazy to go to the supermarket.

 

[judymoody]

If you want low-cost oils that bring something nice to the soaping table, I'd recommend high oleic safflower or sunflower. Or rice bran oil (as sub for OO). Canola (high oleic is preferable and CF carries it) is a nice conditioning oil but I'd keep it at less than 10%

 

[Ellacho]

I am with Pinkcupcake. Perhaps I am not selling my soaps yet, but I don't want to use anything as a "filler." I would rather use the best quality of oils, if all possible. If anything, I would use olive & high oleic safflower/canola/sunflower oils as a filler. They have a very good moisturizing property.

 

[cmzaha]

If you want low-cost oils that bring something nice to the soaping table, I'd recommend high oleic safflower or sunflower. Or rice bran oil (as sub for OO). Canola (high oleic is preferable and CF carries it) is a nice conditioning oil but I'd keep it at less than 10%

The Millers Soap site has a recipe for Canolive that uses a high percentage of canola. I was always leary of the recipe until I recieved a bar in a swap. I kept the bar using it off and on for a year. It never developed dos and was fantastic to the last. I still make a similiar recipe. I simply love sunflower and canola in soap and do not consider either filler oils

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

I am with Pinkcupcake. Perhaps I am not selling my soaps yet, but I don't want to use anything as a "filler." I would rather use the best quality of oils, if all possible. If anything, I would use olive & high oleic safflower/canola/sunflower oils as a filler. They have a very good moisturizing property.

I'm just quoting this one as it was on the last page when I posted, but this is also in answer to Cupcake (pink coloured) -

When you put together a recipe and you have a great proportion worked out for a lot of the oils, but you're still short and adding more of any oil already in there will take the soap in a direction that you don't want it to go (more OO might increase your cure time or make it too hard, more CO might make it too harsh and so on) then an oil that basically doesn't alter anything but can make up the spare 10% to complete a batch could be a wonder.

I'm not at that stage in my product development, though, so I've not had to cross this bridge at all.

 

[SoapMakingTommy]

Soap is Soap, When you saponify you are saponifying the triglycerides in effect making soap. anything else in the oils you are using are a extra benefit part of the oils that they are extracted from. So if you have a oil with high amounts of vitamins then thats what you have. Most oil are basically the same, Some have more or less of certain fats.

When im considering the types of oils to buy i look at the types of fats that are present, what vitamins and minerals are in them and i work from there, I wouldnt really consider the cheaper oils cheap. unless there benefit was a lot less, witch i wouldnt say is true.

The expense of oil is demand and yield, if you have low yield price will cost more and if demand is high then it will be even higher.

The fun part and expense i see is the extra stuff added to the soaps like the essential oils and clays and fruit powders and stuff like that that enhance the soap and give it more properties for the skin.