who uses fresh aloe?

[Obsidian]

I have a giant aloe plant that needs cutting back and I'd like to juice the leaves for soap. Only problem is the gel has a weird orange-y color and a super strong bitter smell. Anyone else use fresh aloe with a odd color? Will it discolor my soap? What about the nasty smell? Knowing my luck it would survive.

Also, what is the best way to prepare it? I'll probably run it through my juicer so there won't be any chunks.

 

[blissfullather]

I've used fresh aloe. I fillet it, and blend it to a liquid consistency. I also do a water/milk discount, and I add the aloe AFTER trace. I haven't had any problems using it. My essential oils and/or fragrance oils always come through. Good Luck, and let us know how it all turns out.

 

[cmzaha]

You want to cut the leaves and leave them standing upright, cut end down for all the yellow and brown to run down to the end then cut off that end. Offhand I do not remember what it is called but it will run down to the bottom of the leaf. I just put mine in a blender and blend it up well. I leave very fine aloe in the juice so it can be seen throughout the soap. That is up to you. I add in some citric acid or fruit fresh so the aloe will not turn pink, depending what strain of aloe you have. Hopefully yours in the one they use for medicinal and not the watery one. Both will work. I add it into my oils before the lye as a water replacement. If you add it in your lye mix it will turn bright yellow.

 

[Obsidian]

Thank you carolyn! That helps a lot. I do have the medicinal strain, it has great thick gel. I don't want any pulp so I will try the juicer. Roughly how much citric acid do you use? Enough that you have to adjust the lye?

 

[not_ally]

Let me add here, I just got some of Carolyn's soap and it is gorgeous, smells fantastic, feels good, and is in fantastic, chunky (but still) hand-sized portions. She is a good person to take advice from.

 

[cmzaha]

Thank you carolyn! That helps a lot. I do have the medicinal strain, it has great thick gel. I don't want any pulp so I will try the juicer. Roughly how much citric acid do you use? Enough that you have to adjust the lye?

I just add in a little, if I am going to keep it for any length of time I add in some preservative. I have had it go moldy. Forgot to mention Aloe and Avocado make fantastic soap used together

Let me add here, I just got some of Carolyn's soap and it is gorgeous, smells fantastic, feels good, and is in fantastic, chunky (but still) hand-sized portions. She is a good person to take advice from.

Thankyou for the complement

 

[Obsidian]

I've cut my leaves and have them in a jar, the yellow juice smells horrible. I really hope once its done dripping, the leaves will be useable. If I do use them, I'll probably freeze the juice as I don't actually have any soapy plans for it at the moment.

If I decide to go with store bough, do I want the juice thats made for drinking? I was looking at it today at wally world and its 99.8% pure aloe with a little citric acid and a preservative.

I tried to juice my leaves, it didn't work very well. There was only a few drops of juice, the rest ended up in the pulp bin but it was super smooth and a beautiful bright green. I would have saved the goo but I had juiced other stuff before the aloe. Will try again with a clean juicer.

 

[cmzaha]

Cut your aloe leaves, stand them up in a bucket for a few hrs to let yellow, brown run down. If these are large leaves I split them down the center (length) of the leaf and filet off one side of the outer leaf as close to the leaf as possible, then filet off the thick gel. Kinda like filleting a fish. If you put it in a blender it will froth up a lot but will blend up. The aloe I have has a very thick layer of gel. The store bought aloe juice is more like using just water to me. There really is not juice, it is slippery snotty gel, and a juicer will not get it. A blender or processor is best. I clean up to a gallon of aloe at a time.

 

[doriettefarm]

Not sure if I have the regular or medicinal aloe plant but I have used it in soap before. I cut the pieces off at the base and used a kitchen knife to fillet them down the center. Then I opened the pieces as wide as I could and scraped the length with a knife. After scraping out all the gel, I stick blended until smooth. Pretty sure I added it to the cooled lye water because I remember that yellow color Carolyn mentioned. I've also used the aloe vera juice with citric acid from CVS and it soaps fine too.