wheat germ oil

[see]

does the nutty smell of wheat germ oil carry over to the soap? If so, will it do so at small percentages.. say 4% of oils?

 

[Soaplady22]

Hi!!
No, the smell will not last in soap. And at such a low addition rate you probably won't notice any difference in your soap at all. At addition rates like 10 and 20% you will notice the silkiness.
The same can be said about all specialty oils.

~hth

 

[soapbuddy]

It has too short of a shelf life to use it in soap. It oxidizes and goes rancid fairly quickly.

 

[Sunny]

I made a very teeny tiny batch of soap with 100% wheat germ oil last January (no other oils included). It was one of my first batches ever. It doesn't really smell like wheat germ oil, just smells like plain soap. It also has not gone rancid - at the time I didn't know about soaps getting DOS or anything like that. I'm sure it happens but did not happen with mine. I have never used the soap since there was such a small amount (I think it was an 8 ounce batch of soap, I know better now) and it was unscented.

 

[tespring]

I made a small batch of throw together oils which was a bunch of oils that I had on hand. That soap is the best soap I have made to date and I do believe it was because there were so many different oils/butters in it including wheat germ oil. It is a very smooth and creamy soap and very white even though I didn't put any titanium dioxide in it. It was one of my first soaps that I made and I had put it back to cure and forgot about it because I thought it was a failure at the time, I dug it out when I was sorting soaps and tired it and was surprised at the smoothness.

 

[see]

ok thanks for the info.

soaplady22 response; ive made several of my last batches w/ 4%castor oil. Will i not be able to tell a difference in those bars compared to just oo, co, po? i was hoping they would be less drying. ?? what about similar % of cocoa butter or shea butter?

thanks everybody

 

[honor435]

prob not, use 10% castor next time witht those oils, you'll love it.

 

[ministeph]

oh wow 10% castor oil? I love what castor oil does for soap.. but I was so afraid it would be too soft with that amount! I'm such a crazy-person with soap calc trying to make sure EVERY value (conditioning/cleansing/hardness etc.) is at an acceptable if not great level haha. I rarely ever go to any extremes.

I think I need to be a bit more adventurous! i just am afraid of soft soap/DOS!

 

[Soaplady22]

Castor oil in your soap will not in and of itself make it soft. Put in plenty of hard oils like coconut and palm kernel oil and cocoa butter (for example) and the soap will harden up just fine.

Good luck experimenting!!

 

[soapbuddy]

Castor oil in your soap will not in and of itself make it soft. Put in plenty of hard oils like coconut and palm kernel oil and cocoa butter (for example) and the soap will harden up just fine.

Good luck experimenting!!

I beg to differ. 15% castor oil will make your soap quite soft, even with the above hard oils. I have made it and couldn't get it out of the mold it was so soft.

 

[Soaplady22]

Hi Soapbuddy!
Really?? I've heard of that -- but not having made any with that high of castor I didn't really know. So what is it about castor that it's different from other oils?? I really thought that if you use hard oils, a balanced recipe, that it would turn out just fine.

 

[soapbuddy]

Hi Soapbuddy!
Really?? I've heard of that -- but not having made any with that high of castor I didn't really know. So what is it about castor that it's different from other oils?? I really thought that if you use hard oils, a balanced recipe, that it would turn out just fine.

Castor is considered a soft oil. The highest I use is 5% now.

 

[Soaplady22]

That's interesting -- I use 5% also!!

 

[see]

those who use 5%, you are mixing it w/ other specialty oils or butters? if so, how is the bar? i got a bunch w/ just 5%castor oil and trying to figure out if those are basically going to count as "test" bars.

 

[Soaplady22]

What did you have with the 5% castor??

I use a variety of oils - olive, sunflower, rice bran, the castor of corse!, then cocoa butter and coconut oil and palm kernel or palm. Etc.
I use it at roughly 5% of the total oils.

"specialty" oils might be wheatgerm, avocado, almond, babassu, shea -- Can't think of any more just now. Use a variety along with the olive. Or whichever oil you choose to work with.

Keeping good notes and testing your soaps is how you choose a good recipe to follow.

 

[see]

i have a basic oo, co, po in all the batches ive tried. oo around 41%, palm 27%, co 31%. In some of the batches i added castor as a superfat and other i mixed it in w/ the other oils. Always using around 2 oz which equals about 4% in the ones i mixed w/ the other oils.

are you saying you used 5% of specialty oils total, or 5% each.

 

[wholelifeorganic]

Hi Soapbuddy!
Really?? I've heard of that -- but not having made any with that high of castor I didn't really know. So what is it about castor that it's different from other oils?? I really thought that if you use hard oils, a balanced recipe, that it would turn out just fine.

I use castor oil up to 15%, along with Shea butter, olive oil, coconut oil, cocoa butter( my base recipe). My bars are very hard, bubbly and conditioning. And I add stearic acid, sugar, yogurt and such too.