Recreating aleppo soap

Hii!
When ordering a bunch of herbs a few days I noticed that that supplier sells laurel oil! And not even at those insane prices I've heard before.
So, looking at wikipedia, the "recipe" was like 2-30% laurel oil + olive oil. It also said that they use seawater. That's where I hit a wall...
I was thinking about using 20% laurel oil and 80% olive. The mediterranean sea contains 38% of seasalt in the water near syria. I don't want to add salt to my soap batter but I'd like to have it dissolved in my lye water. However, it's gonna be a big challenge to dissolve 38% in water (24% was already difficult when I was making brine for my cheese). Is it safe to add lye to salt water?
To those that made aleppo soap, what did you do with the salt?

Which supplier is this?

I've never made the soap, but this is just a thought - can you heat up the water to dissolve the salt. when salt is fully dissolved then leave the mixture overnight to cool or in the fridge? I've read people using sea water as the lye solution, so I would think just to add the lye in the mixture?

I hope someone with more experience can pipe up for you.... i'm very interested in your results!

Ok, not meaning to sound like a smart alec, but when they say salt water is used, could they be referring to the lye water? I mean it is water that has SODIUM hydroxide. Sodium meaning salt. Just a thought.

Also, I'm curious where you found the oil. I have found plenty of EO, but I have had a devil of a time finding the actual oil from the plant. I have heard horror stories of people ordering cheaper Laurel oil, only to find it has been adulterated. I would love to try my hand at an Aleppo-type soap. Not sure if I would have the patience to wait a year to cure though. ;-)

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I would also love to know where you found bay laurel oil (not bay laurel essential oil).


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I've used sea water and there is no problem with the lye in it. It works a treat and I love having it in my soap since I live on the sea...

"...when they say salt water is used, could they be referring to the lye water? I mean it is water that has SODIUM hydroxide. Sodium meaning salt...."

No, they really do mean salt as in salt from the sea, aka table salt, aka sodium chloride, aka NaCl. Totally different from sodium hydroxide, NaOH. And pure sodium is a metal, not a salt in the chemistry sense.

I would be worried about organics in sea water. Do you filter it or something to "clean" the sea water?

It's funny,I got into soap making because of issues with dermatitis. Aleppo soap was one of my first researches. The REAL stuff is terribly expensive, and now threatened by the war in Syria. I have been searching for the oil to make my own, but no luck so far. I have read up on several processing methods, but the primary recipe is HP OO, with the bay laurel oil added after it has "cooked". No EO' s or other addatives. Then cured at least a year. Could not find on Wikipedia where they use seawater, but perhaps I missed it. Makes sense though, since Aleppo is near the coast.

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Yes where did you get the oil?!

Im going to do it in hot process Friday. I have some from a friend in Turkey. I test the bay laurel at 100% for a 4oz bar. I learned alot. Pricy experiment. But i learned an awful lot. The oil has an incredible smell as well as cleansing properties. I am super interested in learning more. Here is one of the videos I made to test [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rWVq3agO8g&feature=c4-overview&list=UU5h8BTrio-tZOLu9Rr8epJAs[/ame]

Wish I had a friend in Turkey!

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I'd love to know who the supplier is as well.

Hii!
I don't know how to quote multiple people so I'm gonna try it like this

About cleaning the oil:
if you'd actually use sea water I think that when you boil it the bad things will float on top and you can scoop it of. But that's just my idea, don't know if it actually works like this. I've also read about the method they use where they hp the olive oil and add the laurel oil after the cook, but this worries me. The laurel oil is used up to 30%. If nothing of that is actually saponified, won't the soap have DOS?

About adding the salt to boiling water:
The water needs to be atleast 80°c to absorb it's maximum capacity of salt. (Did this for making my brine for my cheeses) you can add your entire 38% to boiling water but the salt the water can't take up will just lie in the bottom of your container.

The oil the supplier sells is
INCI: Laurus nobilis oil so I think this is the real oil, not the e.o.
The supplier is www.kenkkruidenshop.nl the "nl" part is probably bad news for people in the US since it's a supplier from the netherlands...
http://www.kenkkruidenshop.nl/c-1596470/laurier-olie/
And for the non-dutch speaking people:
http://translate.google.be/translat...p.nl/c-1596470/laurier-olie/&biw=1024&bih=671
I'm not sure they send orders all over the world...

Wanna hear the stupid part? I already placed my order in the weekend which was send yesterday, and I forgot to order the bay laurel oil! roblem:

Looks like they do send orders all over the world but it's expensive! €24.30 for 0-2kg for the US.... Sending packages is pretty expensive here :sad:

Sanguine said:

Looks like they do send orders all over the world but it's expensive! €24.30 for 0-2kg for the US.... Sending packages is pretty expensive here :sad:

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Yes, I would have loved to do a coop, but shipping is outrageous.
It would be around €38 for one kilo of bay laurel and with 20 kg you'd pay about €10 per kilo for shipping it all to one US based person...

Belgium is even slightly more expensive. And then they are surprised no one uses the post anymore... What are they trying to reach with this?

Wish I had a friend in the Netherlands. ;-)

I have to point out that Seawater isn't 38% salt. (38/100). It is 38 ppt, 38/1000 or 38 grams per Kilo of water. Worldwide the average is closer to 35 ppt. Pretty easy to dissolve that actually. Has been for my Aleppo homage anyway.

Cheers,

Omg you're right! I didnt notice the extra ° on the right side of the %. Tnx!

CaraCara said:

I'd love to know who the supplier is as well.

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Hello,

I managed to find some Oleum Lauri Expressum (bay laurel oil, not bay laurel essential oil) a while ago from a chemist in Freiburg, Germany (http://internet-apotheke-freiburg.de/). I know they ship abroad since I live in the UK and they sent it to me. I can't remember what the postage was and I don't know whether they would post to the US/Canada. You can contact them, they speak some English.

I haven't made my Aleppo soap yet because I am not sure what recipe to use and I don't want to waste that oil as it was very expensive!

Good luck.