Made a batch of 75%olive Oil..25% Coconut oil......when I cut it up this morning.I noticed some of the edges and thin parts that stuck up a bit were quite dry and flaky.....I also used 2 Oz ess oil and swirled in blue and green matte oxide for color.....ess oil was lavender.....normal? And would this soap be considered a Basile soap?......thanks
soap a little....flakey......
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Obsidian
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Sounds like you waited a bit too long to cut, OO and coconut both make really hard soap. Yes, I would call it a bastile.
MorpheusPA
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Zap test it to be sure there's no free lye. Sometimes dry or flaky soap can be an indication of lye excess. If there is, you can rebatch with extra oil, or let it sit and see if it settles down.
Yep, you can call this a Bastile, which is just an olive oil primary soap. Anything over 50% OO can be a Bastile if you like, it's not a formal term.
Yep, you can call this a Bastile, which is just an olive oil primary soap. Anything over 50% OO can be a Bastile if you like, it's not a formal term.
I poured it last night and cut it today.....bin
Bin? You don't mean throw it away, do you?
????????
Not sure either, but tis no matter. Maybe it's the soaping goddess' way of keeping the Gent and me entertained. If so, she didn't have to work too hard, hey?
its amazing how much dryer the soap is coming out of the mold with just 25% coconut oil , as opposed to 100% OO......Heres a question: does canola oil make good soap? it can be bought pretty cheap at Sams club. peanut oil as well...........
Short answer -- yes, you can use either or both in your soap, but don't overdo it. I wouldn't use over 10% total of these fats in a batch. I think some people go as high as 20%.
Long answer -- Canola and peanut are both polyunsaturated fats with high percentages of linoleic and linolenic acids. A recipe high in these fatty acids will make a softer soap that can be hard to unmold. The soap will also be prone to rancidity (aka DOS, dreaded orange spots). The rule of thumb I use is to keep the combined total % of these two fatty acids to under 15%.
Long answer -- Canola and peanut are both polyunsaturated fats with high percentages of linoleic and linolenic acids. A recipe high in these fatty acids will make a softer soap that can be hard to unmold. The soap will also be prone to rancidity (aka DOS, dreaded orange spots). The rule of thumb I use is to keep the combined total % of these two fatty acids to under 15%.
Thanks,Deanna, I will give this oil a try.About the rancidity, or spoilage........would curing this type of soap in a fridge help????
You'd have to also store it long term in the fridge for it to help in any way - DOS usually comes after some time of the soap sitting, especially if it's not given a chance to dry between uses.
I guess refrigeration would help with the rancidity issue, but that seems rather impractical to me. Like the Gent said, you'd need to store them there -- DOS isn't only about how or where you cure the soap, so you need to provide long-term protection. And refrigeration won't solve the problems that soaps high in polyunsaturated fats are pretty soft and they don't lather well (forgot this point when I wrote my earlier post).
With all due respect to DeeAnn's suggested limit of 15% polyunsaturated fatty acids to prevent DOS and soft soap, I would say to keep it as low as you can.
I don't use any linoleic oils, so for me 15% is quite a lot. The question is whether those polyunsaturated acids contribute anything good to soap. I lean towards no, but at best it's debatable.
Having said that, I wonder sometimes about the bad rap that Canola oil gets. I don't use it, so people may have other experiences, but its typical fatty acid profile doesn't seem so bad.
Look at the following example recipe with 25% canola oil. It actually comes out pretty well balanced, and the proportion of polyunsaturated fatty acids is acceptable (yellow chart).
You mentioned peanut oil. That would be on my "do not use" list. You see the polyunsaturates have increased to the better part of 10%. A step in the wrong direction.
I had to thrown in the following one, about which we can only say, "Another promising recipe destroyed by soybean oil."
I don't use any linoleic oils, so for me 15% is quite a lot. The question is whether those polyunsaturated acids contribute anything good to soap. I lean towards no, but at best it's debatable.
Having said that, I wonder sometimes about the bad rap that Canola oil gets. I don't use it, so people may have other experiences, but its typical fatty acid profile doesn't seem so bad.
Look at the following example recipe with 25% canola oil. It actually comes out pretty well balanced, and the proportion of polyunsaturated fatty acids is acceptable (yellow chart).
You mentioned peanut oil. That would be on my "do not use" list. You see the polyunsaturates have increased to the better part of 10%. A step in the wrong direction.
I had to thrown in the following one, about which we can only say, "Another promising recipe destroyed by soybean oil."
Where DID you get these charts?! Is it an online tool? GORGEOUS!!!
But when you say you don't use any linoleic oils, do you mean you don't use any oils that contain ANY linoleic fatty acids at all, or you don't use oils that are high in/mostly linoleic? Avocado butter? Olive oil? Does this apply to linolenic as well?
I created the charts in Excel. Makes recipe formulation easier.
In referring to "linoleic oils" I was using a convention by which oils are classified according to their signature fatty acid. Often there are other really big components in the composition of these oils, but it's still useful as a shorthand to describe a category of oils.
Coconut oil is a lauric oil, palm oil is a palmitic oil, shea butter is a stearic oil, olive oil is an oleic oil, soybean oil is a linoleic oil. Note that the traditional soaping oils do not include any linoleic oils, although they might still contain linoleic acid in amounts that don't cause much concern.
Brush some flax seed oil onto a surface and interaction with oxygen will cause it to polymerize into a hard plastic-like substance. Such a linolenic or "drying" oil is good for making varnish or oil paint. For soap, not so much.
This is terrific, thank you! I'll work on making a similar chart for myself in Excel! Although I wouldn't complain TOO bitterly if you felt inclined to share yours. . .
Can you recommend a good online resource that provides the kind of classification of oils that you mentioned? Although SoapCalc gives a breakdown of each oil's composition, it doesn't provide classification or the mono/poly breakdown. Just sat and unsat. Unless I'm missing something?
SoapCalc does have links to Wikipedia, and a quick glance suggests I might be able to find information there, but I don't fully trust Wikipedia. In my other hobby (fishkeeping) it often provides information that I know to be false.
Can you recommend a good online resource that provides the kind of classification of oils that you mentioned? Although SoapCalc gives a breakdown of each oil's composition, it doesn't provide classification or the mono/poly breakdown. Just sat and unsat. Unless I'm missing something?
SoapCalc does have links to Wikipedia, and a quick glance suggests I might be able to find information there, but I don't fully trust Wikipedia. In my other hobby (fishkeeping) it often provides information that I know to be false.
Obsidian
Well-Known Member
I quite like peanut oil in my facial bars, one recipe has 19% as of yet, no DOS.
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