What's the benefit of tea in your soap?

[btz]

Does anyone know what's the benefit for using tea as your liquid in CP soap? They changes the soap's color, but is it only for that? Is there an extra benefit like maybe extra cleanliness, moisturizing effect, etc?

I know that green tea contains a lot polyphenol, and all the good stuff in green tea are absorbed more effectively via skin (like soaking in them) then ingestion. Will all these still be available in soap form?

Tea also contain a lot of anti-oxidant, therefore, can it also extend the 'life' of the soap? Or on the contrary 'promote' DOS?

What about different type of black tea, or herbal tea like peppermint and camomile. They also have different benefits if use on skin.

Sorry for all the question, but I am curious about it. I want to use tea on soap, but because I drink variety of tea, I got confused on which one is the best to use.

 

[Silverwolf]

I would love to know the answer to this as well. If push came to shove I would use a different tea and make multiple batches and 1 control batch without tea that way you can see how it effects it yourself.

 

[btz]

LOL, I asked so that I don't have to do this :razz:. I wanted too, but I just don't have the patient to do it.

 

[Ruthie]

Of course, it all comes down to what survives saponification. Unless, of course, you rebatch....

 

[Susie]

I can only speak to my own experience with tea in soap. Hibiscus based teas do NOT retain that glorious color. I don't know about any other benefits.

 

[new12soap]

To be honest, in my opinion the biggest benefit is label appeal. I have no idea how much if any of the good stuff survives saponification, I have no science to back this up, but let's just take a look:

A 2lb recipe using full water calls for approximately 12 ounces of liquid, so let's say you used a tea concentrated to about 2 cups worth. So the benefits in that 2 cups of tea go into your soap, and then gets cut into 10 bars (my mold that holds exactly 2lbs of oils and full water makes ten 1 inch bars). So we have divided 2 cups of tea into 10 bars. Now let's say that bar of soap lasts for a month (again, mine usually last longer, some last less), so 30 uses. So 2 divided by 10 divided by 30 = 0.006 cups per wash. And the soap stays on your skin for what? maybe 2 minutes? before being rinsed off and going down the drain. That works out to about 1.5 grams of tea spread over you whole body.

I'm sorry, but even if something fabulous survived saponification and was somehow able to thrive in the alkaline environment that is soap, I just don't see how in those concentrations you would get much benefit at all. But as I said, that is purely opinion, and I could easily be wrong!

Now, having said all that, I have used tea in my soaps and I quite like it

 

[coffeetime]

Red rooibos makes a nice orange red colour that survives.

 

[ilovesoap2]

To be honest, in my opinion the biggest benefit is label appeal. I have no idea how much if any of the good stuff survives saponification, I have no science to back this up, but let's just take a look:

A 2lb recipe using full water calls for approximately 12 ounces of liquid, so let's say you used a tea concentrated to about 2 cups worth. So the benefits in that 2 cups of tea go into your soap, and then gets cut into 10 bars (my mold that holds exactly 2lbs of oils and full water makes ten 1 inch bars). So we have divided 2 cups of tea into 10 bars. Now let's say that bar of soap lasts for a month (again, mine usually last longer, some last less), so 30 uses. So 2 divided by 10 divided by 30 = 0.006 cups per wash. And the soap stays on your skin for what? maybe 2 minutes? before being rinsed off and going down the drain. That works out to about 1.5 grams of tea spread over you whole body.

I'm sorry, but even if something fabulous survived saponification and was somehow able to thrive in the alkaline environment that is soap, I just don't see how in those concentrations you would get much benefit at all. But as I said, that is purely opinion, and I could easily be wrong!

Now, having said all that, I have used tea in my soaps and I quite like it

I'm beginning to feel the same for ery single additive! wink wink

 

[btz]

To be honest, in my opinion the biggest benefit is label appeal. I have no idea how much if any of the good stuff survives saponification, I have no science to back this up, but let's just take a look:

A 2lb recipe using full water calls for approximately 12 ounces of liquid, so let's say you used a tea concentrated to about 2 cups worth. So the benefits in that 2 cups of tea go into your soap, and then gets cut into 10 bars (my mold that holds exactly 2lbs of oils and full water makes ten 1 inch bars). So we have divided 2 cups of tea into 10 bars. Now let's say that bar of soap lasts for a month (again, mine usually last longer, some last less), so 30 uses. So 2 divided by 10 divided by 30 = 0.006 cups per wash. And the soap stays on your skin for what? maybe 2 minutes? before being rinsed off and going down the drain. That works out to about 1.5 grams of tea spread over you whole body.

I'm sorry, but even if something fabulous survived saponification and was somehow able to thrive in the alkaline environment that is soap, I just don't see how in those concentrations you would get much benefit at all. But as I said, that is purely opinion, and I could easily be wrong!

Now, having said all that, I have used tea in my soaps and I quite like it

I love the math, seriously :razz:.

A little of the good stuff over a period of time actually appeals to me in some level. Slow 'infusion' all the way. Hopefully some of them survive in the soap.

Do you guys have any favorite tea to put into a soap?

I mix some peppermint leaves on a small batch of my soap 2 weeks ago, it's still curing at the moment, but I love how it still have the faint smell of peppermint now. Hopefully it will last another month of curing.

 

[Happysoap]

From what I can figure, the benefit is almost nothing. The tea is a weak infusion of the herb but about half of the infused matter ends up saponified. The same thing that happens to essential oils in cp happens with infused matter. That said, I use very strong tea in my unscented tea soaps. Very little survives but what does survive gives the unscented soap a slight hit of a scent and its great label appeal. I can not say that i have noticed any significant difference in how my skin reacts to tea soaps. My customers see the difference but I am not sure if it is really making a difference or if it is the placebo effect. In my opinion, the oils in the soap are what make the difference in the feel of the soap. Everything else is just for show. That is my two cents worth on this subject

 

[Happysoap]

Fav tea in soap-rosemary, chamomile and callendula

 

[Ruthie]

Red rooibos makes a nice orange red colour that survives.

So, I must ask, what is your secret? Mine turned a mundane brown.

 

[coffeetime]

So, I must ask, what is your secret? Mine turned a mundane brown.

I use it (very concentrated - 3 tea bags to 100ml water) as my lye water and add a little pink clay.

 

[seven]

i have no idea about the benefits. like previously said here, we dont know how much will survive saponification. for me, it's more label appeal.

 

[Silverwolf]

So I started to do a little research on polyphenols and I think that they could cause a effect since it seems to have a low therapeutic threshold in the mg level. The real question is can it survive saponification, sadly I'm not a chemist so I can't answer it. Tannins in tea seem to sometimes stand up to the saponification as is evident with tea colored soap so it's possible polyphenols may survive as well. We would need a good chemist in here to answer this question properly.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

We need something like the Bat Signal but with a D and an A on it...........................

 

[soapballs]

I thought green tea added into soap was to aid in a detox effect as it would as well if drank. Not sure but that is what I have read from soap listings that I have read from other soapers selling soaps with green tea in it. I have no clue if they are all mislead or if it really does somehow detox from the outside too somehow. Just adding to the post what I have read...who knows really. I would assume caffeinated teas would help to tighten the skin if used as a facial bar though. I likewise read claims coffee bar do this. I do not use them so I have no clue. Would be a fun experiment to see if the caffeine did help. I years ago bought some roll on brand name product that claimed it would instantly get rid of puffy under eye bags since it had caffeine in it...I did not see it do anything but waste a lot of my money lol...although I never got much slept then either working 3rds and two little ones on a normal sleep wake cycle lol. So I'll give it that much

 

[green soap]

Only triglycerides saponify, so the only things that will not survive saponification are ....triglyceride molecules! each one to be converted into three molecules of soap. Or so we hope.

Essential oils are oils, also called lipids, but not triglycerides. Hence, they will not become soap, or will not saponify. Notice that soapcalc or other soap calculators do not have you add the EO weight as a bulk oil weight.

Some things (molecules) that do not saponify can still be affected by the NaOH. Molecules that are fragile to a high pH environment can break down into smaller molecules, or be transformed to different molecules.

Likewise, the high temperatures that can result from either mixing lye and water, or from gelling soap, can affect other components in the soap. Notice that silk will only dissolve in hot lye/water, not in cooled lye/water.

Essential oils can have extremely low flash points (105F for rosemary!), so above the flash point temperature they can become volatile, this means they evaporate away from your soap. Low FP EOs are notorious for not 'sticking' in CP soap. Reduce the temperature and they 'stick' better.

While scent retention can be observed (still hard to quantify), telling if the desired components in tea are still present after the soap is made becomes difficult. This would require more advanced chemical analysis that can be done in a standard kitchen. We cannot just smell it and tell, ah all the caffeine is still there! and the polyphenols from my tea are also there! In a very non-scientific manner I 'feel' that the caffeine (or whatever it gets transformed to) helps with the deodorizing effect of my coffee kitchen soaps. I also had strong spearmint tea retain a bit of a scent in a soap...did something else from the spearmint tea stay unaffected?

Other than chemical analysis of our soaps, research is the way to go. Take the different (desired?) components of the teas we use (I consider coffee a 'tea' for the purpose of this discussion) the caffeine, the polyphenols, so on and so on, and search for any lab research exposing them to either high pH, high T or both.

 

[btz]

They should have sell self-test-kit for these kind of thing and have it available commercially. We would go crazy with it.

I forgot the name of the chemical, but they have one that can test anti-oxidant on tea, it turn dark blue, the darker the blue the more anti-oxidant it has. So theoretically, with this, I can melt a small amount of tea soap in water and have it tested for anti-oxidant too. Not sure about the price though.

 

[new12soap]

Flashpoint and volatility are two different things. Flashpoint is the temperature at which the vapors can ignite when exposed to open flame. Essential oils do not begin to evaporate away unless and until you reach their boiling point which is much higher.

http://roberttisserand.com/2011/06/essential-oils-in-soap-interview-with-kevin-dunn/

Some interesting comments about the benefits that may remain, too.