White soap?

I made my first CP soap today with oil oil, canola oil and coconut oil. I knew it would take on the colors of the oil and it did. What oils can be used to make more of a nice white color.

Dump the canola.

Lard and tallow both make very nice white soaps if you aren't opposed to animal fats. Regular olive oil (grade A, not pomace or extra virgin) is a little yellowish in the beginning but lightens up over time.

You may want to try adding a little bit of titanium dioxide, that is a powerful whitener.

You can replace half of your water with coconut milk. My CM soaps are super white...and really nice on the skin

Here's a pic of mine...
https://www.flickr.com/photos/128314025@N03/15234676129/

Soleseife aka Brine soap.

Sunflower oil makes a white bar. Also, if you use apple cider vinegar as your liquid, you will have a nice white soap. See the picture below. I used 50% apple cider vinegar and 50% water for this recipe.

Ellacho said:

Sunflower oil makes a white bar. Also, if you use apple cider vinegar as your liquid, you will have a nice white soap. See the picture below. I used 50% apple cider vinegar and 50% water for this recipe.

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What does apple cider vinegar add to the party?

snappyllama said:

What does apple cider vinegar add to the party?

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And how do you calculate the amount of lye it neutralizes?

snappyllama said:

What does apple cider vinegar add to the party?

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I am sorry to reply so late but I did not see your message until now.

Not only does the apple cider vinegar's acidity make a good conditioner, it also balances the natural pH of hair and removes build ups. And I really like my apple cider vinegar shampoo bar! It makes it a little easier to comb and manage my hair after a wash.

Ellacho said:

I am sorry to reply so late but I did not see your message until now.

Not only does the apple cider vinegar's acidity make a good conditioner, it also balances the natural pH of hair and removes build ups. And I really like my apple cider vinegar shampoo bar! It makes it a little easier to comb and manage my hair after a wash.

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Aha - that makes sense! I used to do an apple cider rinse occasionally when it seemed my hair had too much buildup. I would love to make a shampoo bar, but alas - I dye my hair and have read that shampoo bars aren't recommended.

Ellacho said:

Sunflower oil makes a white bar. Also, if you use apple cider vinegar as your liquid, you will have a nice white soap. See the picture below. I used 50% apple cider vinegar and 50% water for this recipe.

Click to expand...

Cider vinegar? Not white vinegar? What does the vinegar do to trace? Seems like it would neutralize the lye too soon.

KatieShephard said:

You can replace half of your water with coconut milk. My CM soaps are super white...and really nice on the skin

Here's a pic of mine...
https://www.flickr.com/photos/128314025@N03/15234676129/

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Would you mind sharing your recipe or one like it to make soap like this?

Luckyone80 said:

Would you mind sharing your recipe or one like it to make soap like this?

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I don't know it off the top of my head, but it was 25% CO, and the other oils I used were...avocado, sweet almond, Palm, sunflower, and 8% castor. Half of my water was replaced with coconut milk and added at light trace. Some people don't like that much CO, but I didn't seem to have a problem with it, probably because of the CM. I would suggest you put all the oils in soapcalc and play with them until you get something you like. Oh, and I superfatted at 5% and soaped pretty cool.

snappyllama said:

Aha - that makes sense! I used to do an apple cider rinse occasionally when it seemed my hair had too much buildup. I would love to make a shampoo bar, but alas - I dye my hair and have read that shampoo bars aren't recommended.

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Altho I don't have a 'shampoo' bar specifically, I wash my hair with my own soaps, and I also dye my hair....and oddly I have noticed that my color lasts longer than it ever did using commercial shampoo's

ETA: Also, I usually do a spritz with pure Argan oil on my freshly washed hair, to replace the commercial conditioner..and that def helps with no tangles..but I have recently ran out of my oil, and refuse to use commercial conditioner..but strangely I dont have the gnarley tangles etc I use to have either...

If there's one clay I buy in large quantities - it's White Kaolin.

I find that it makes my bars pretty white. And Kaolin is a universal clay for me, because I use it for masks too, and in a cleanser that I make for myself. (Hubby won't admit it, but he loves our at-home-spa days).

I pour a portion of the soap into a separate bowl, and using a stick blender, I blend 2-3 TBS of Kaolin into the soap. Then I pour that back into the main pot and stir it until it's combined. If I want it whiter, I add more. But generally around 1TBS per pound of oils works well for me.

Edit: I made some soaps for my girlfriends wedding - and she wanted a cinnamon swirly soap. WELL - my cinnamon oil turned my swirls YELLOW in the test batch. In the subsequent batches for her, I added the Kaolin and that helped to whiten them up too.

Jstar said:

Altho I don't have a 'shampoo' bar specifically, I wash my hair with my own soaps, and I also dye my hair....and oddly I have noticed that my color lasts longer than it ever did using commercial shampoo's

ETA: Also, I usually do a spritz with pure Argan oil on my freshly washed hair, to replace the commercial conditioner..and that def helps with no tangles..but I have recently ran out of my oil, and refuse to use commercial conditioner..but strangely I dont have the gnarley tangles etc I use to have either...

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I believe the detergents in commercial shampoos to be the culprit there!

I make a shampoo bar - and my girlfriend who dyes her hair red LOVES it, because she finds that the colour lasts longer, she loses less hair, and it keeps her red vibrant longer. (A Beer shampoo bar WILL strip colour though - as she so keenly let me know when I experimented with that).

I have never had good luck with a vinegar rinse. Ever. I was doing it wrong though I think.... 1:1 ration with water. I bet that's wrong. I'll bet the farm, that that is wrong beacause it felt like my hair was greasier. Every. Single. Time. I tried ACV and plain white vinegar. Yuckys.

So I gave up.

I haven't used a conditioner in 2 years now. People don't believe me when I tell them, and I do get asked a lot about what I use on my hair - because I usually have it quite long.

OR... I DID until we moved to the city with funky water. And until I hit my 3rd trimester - because now my hair is doing whacky things and I find myself doing a lot more hair-mask-spa-days then usual to try and make it not-so-grease-ball-that-I-don't-want-to-go-out-in-public.

I'm quick to blame the water. Hubby blames the monkey-baby-parasite.

But what I was really wanting to comment and say JStar, is that I think I'm going to try your Argan spritz. Just a teeny bit.

Do you put it in a spritzy bottle straight up and a spray or two after a shower?

DWinMadison said:

Cider vinegar? Not white vinegar? What does the vinegar do to trace? Seems like it would neutralize the lye too soon.

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I think you can also use the white vinegar but I can't say much because I have not used it. I have been using Bragg's apple cider as my hair rinse for a long time. One day as I was rinsing it, a light bulb just came to my head, wondering what if I used it as my liquid in soap. So I did. I was a bit nervous but I had no problem of getting a trace! It really surprised me! It did not neutralize the lye too soon and it behaved just fine.

I do the straight out of the bottle spritz..I dont know if you have a Sally's Beauty supply near you or not, but if you do they sell a smallish bottle with a spray head on it already..but you can put it in your own spritz bottle. They carry the 'One n Only' brand Argan oil.

I just lightly {2-4 spritzes in fact} around on my damp towel dried hair..then a brush thru...I might get 2 spritzes on each side, and a couple spritzes on the back of my hair, then just let it dry..it doesn't take much at all..and it doesn't leave your hair greasy.

It's pretty pricey..I think I paid like $8.00 usd for 6 oz, but a little goes a long way, and it t\ook me a year to use that much..I loves that stuff

snappyllama said:

Aha - that makes sense! I used to do an apple cider rinse occasionally when it seemed my hair had too much buildup. I would love to make a shampoo bar, but alas - I dye my hair and have read that shampoo bars aren't recommended.

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I dye my hair too, now every three weeks! But I use my shampoo bar and I love it .

snappyllama said:

Aha - that makes sense! I used to do an apple cider rinse occasionally when it seemed my hair had too much buildup. I would love to make a shampoo bar, but alas - I dye my hair and have read that shampoo bars aren't recommended.

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Lye soap will fade your hair color badly. Your beautician will love you if you have it done in a shop A vinegar rinse even after using a surfactant based shampoo will cut the soap and rinse cleaner. Your hair will like you better if you do not use soap for your hair

That confirms what I've read. I spend waaay too much money at the salon to risk undoing my hair stylist's good work. I actually only use Aveda products on my mop. They are pricey but last a long time, and my color doesn't fade. Now I just have to keep up with my roots instead of having to repeat double process coloring on my fairly long hair. When I was trying out less expensive shampoos, I was constantly needing to recolor/rehighlight the whole mess.