Additive testing-interesting results

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxtRVOfkwXE[/ame]

Loved this. Blind tests are extremely interesting to do. Customers are often influenced by what they read, or see in ads and may believe that they like certain ingredients over others. And as soapmakers, we can be biased, because we know what qualities certain ingredients are supposed to add. But a blind test really levels the playing field.

I did a blind test when I was working on a face soap recipe, and I was very surprised at the results. I expected the castile, or maybe the bastile to be the favorites, but they were not. The preferred soap, by far, was the one containing avocado oil. If you've never done a blind test, you might want to think about doing one. You can learn a lot!

very interesting! thanks Susie for posting this.

Fantastic, thank you

Thx for posting this!

Funny: plain soap without gelling is in the top 3, where gelled soap is in the bottom 2.

Very interesting. From my reading to date, I thought gel vs. no gel had more to do with color in the finished soap, and did not involve more of the "satisfaction" properties. More research! Thanks for finding/posting this video

eucalypta said:

Thx for posting this!

Funny: plain soap without gelling is in the top 3, where gelled soap is in the bottom 2.

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That one really made me go hmmmmm! Who would ever think that users would perceive such a difference between the two?

Thanks for posting! I really enjoy watching his videos. He's so well spoken, and he has the heart of an experimenter, which I love.

This one strongly reinforces my belief in the YMMV principle.


IrishLass

Cindy2428 said:

Very interesting. From my reading to date, I thought gel vs. no gel had more to do with color in the finished soap, and did not involve more of the "satisfaction" properties. More research! Thanks for finding/posting this video

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Well I tried to pull some statistics ...

I think that Kevin forgot one (important) question: What was the opinion of the testers regarding the "looks" of the soap....

goatmilk -> somewhat darker bar
Oatmeal, silk and Clay > also change in appearance.

You know that they say: "The whole is greater than the sum of its parts"; that is true again in this case.

The "Overall" score of Oatmeal, goatmilk, Kaolin and Tussah silk, was higher than the sum of all other scores!

Additives

There is really very little difference at all between the additives - and it was a test using one recipe and one process. Hot process or CPOP could have made difference, especially if additives were added after the cook. Also, different fats combined with additives could make a difference. While the test was very interesting and Kevin's work is always appreciated, I don't think this was a big enough test to conclude that additives don't make more of a difference in the final product as this test indicated. JMHO.

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sadiesmissionsoaps.com

I posted this not to try to tell people that there is little difference between additives, but to encourage people to go blind test their favorite additives. To stop just assuming that this or that is the most preferred. It should help soapers to know whether it is label appeal or truly a difference in the soap that people like. I realize that it really does not matter a whole lot as long as it keeps selling, but just for soapmakers to know.

eucalypta said:

Well I tried to pull some statistics ...

I think that Kevin forgot one (important) question: What was the opinion of the testers regarding the "looks" of the soap....

goatmilk -> somewhat darker bar
Oatmeal, silk and Clay > also change in appearance.

You know that they say: "The whole is greater than the sum of its parts"; that is true again in this case.

The "Overall" score of Oatmeal, goatmilk, Kaolin and Tussah silk, was higher than the sum of all other scores!

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I participated in this test and can tell you they all pretty much looked the same, very slight variations of color were detected. It really was tough to see much difference. You could definitely 'feel' differences, but identifying what the additive was was pretty difficult. I wish I'd kept my sheet, I lost it somewhere - so I forget what I thought about each one.

I participated in this test and can tell you they all pretty much looked the same, very slight variations of color were detected...

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How cool!

I hear you; the soap bars were rather small and thin (I've got the same mould). Differences are harder to see.

Crombie said:

There is really very little difference at all between the additives - and it was a test using one recipe and one process. Hot process or CPOP could have made difference, especially if additives were added after the cook. Also, different fats combined with additives could make a difference. While the test was very interesting and Kevin's work is always appreciated, I don't think this was a big enough test to conclude that additives don't make more of a difference in the final product as this test indicated. JMHO.

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I'm sorry to disagree:
There is a huge difference between Aloe Vera or clay and goatmilk or silk or the other additives. (Besides that, Aloe is completely distroyed by the NaOH).

Typically a test is done using one recipe and one process, thus creating the same preconditions for every additive. Only then you're able to measure the effect of additives!

Another test could be using one additive using different processes, as to determine which process brings out the best of the additive.

Kevin clearly explains why he chose to use the more common carrier oils, and not add diferent fats.
But if had opted for a "richer" formula, it still would have had to be that same formula for all additives.

This may have been a "limited" test, swhere differences were minimal; IMHO it still says something when one soap (gelled control) never scored a 7, where another (goatsmilk) scored 6 x higer than 7.

Where gelled control scored bad on all fronts, Kaolin clay just scored very low (5.29) on amount and size of bubbles, which can be a good quality if you like creaminess.

I liked this test!

I would love to see an experiment of the same type but using a basic 90% recipe and having the last 10% being different oils. It might show a real difference between using things like avocado oil, shea butter, tallow, olive oil. etc.
We know the science behind the oils but what is the true perception to the customer?