100% safflower oil soap a year later

[Arthur Dent]

Back in 2015 there were some discussions about substituting safflower oil for olive oil in soaps, and a few mentions of 100% safflower oil soap. I decided to give it a whirl, so according to my notes made a 2lb test batch on 10-24-15 with no additives, no colors, no scent. After a few unremarkable shower tests, I put the batch in a box and forgot about it until it surfaced recently in a search for something else. There are no signs of DOS on any of the rounds, and no smell of any kind. This is a very white soap, and very hard. I have been using it in the shower for the last week, and while it is of course not a bubbler, it does lather ok if you work it up a bit with a pouf. I thought it might be a little slimey, but it isn't objectionably so. My skin seems to like it. While I don't feel the need to make another 100% batch, I will probably try subbing it for olive oil in some of my other recipes, see how I like that.

 

[CaraBou]

Good to know. Was it high oleic?

 

[Arthur Dent]

Yes it was HO.
Sorry, I intended to say so but got distracted.

 

[DeeAnna]

HO or not is a kind of important fact to know -- high oleic safflower is going to perform quite differently than high linoleic (aka regular) safflower.

 

[Arthur Dent]

Agreed, my bad.
This was the LouAna safflower oil from Walmart. I don't remember the numbers off the top of my head, but the monounsaturated fats are a high percentage of the total fats. I just bought a new bottle over the weekend, I'll look it up when I get home tonight and will add them here.

 

[redhead1226]

DeeAnna - I have a quick question for you. And BTW thankyou so much for all of your posts - I am very much into the science behind the soap and have learned so much from you. Im new to the forum over the last few months but certainly not new to soap making and have very much enjoyed you passing on your knowledge.

My question - How can I tell if safflower or Sunflower oils are Hi Oleic they are not marked on the ones I have and I remember you had explained sometime back but couldnt find it.

 

[earlene]

DeeAnna - I have a quick question for you. And BTW thankyou so much for all of your posts - I am very much into the science behind the soap and have learned so much from you. Im new to the forum over the last few months but certainly not new to soap making and have very much enjoyed you passing on your knowledge.

My question - How can I tell if safflower or Sunflower oils are Hi Oleic they are not marked on the ones I have and I remember you had explained sometime back but couldnt find it.

See this thread. I need the reference, but of course when shopping, don't really remember this. Maybe I should make a note of it and keep it in my smart phone. :think:

 

[DeeAnna]

Thanks, Redhead! Earlene gave the thread here on SMF. I summarized the info in an article on my website: http://classicbells.com/soap/highOleic.html

 

[redhead1226]

I checked the thread she gave me. My Safflower is HO but my sunflower isnt. I had never realized it but the profiles are very different. I want to remake 2 of my recipes and see how they are with this change. In soapcalc I always chose safflower not HO safflower.

Thanks again for teaching me something. The new info never ends in soap making and this is why this forum is so awesome!

DeeAnna - Im currently in a learning phase with Aloe Butter! Is it really a butter?? Im not so sure I would call it that yet. Aloe extract and Coconut oil - a man made butter? Maybe good in a body butter but I just made a soap with Aloe butter as one of the ingredients at about 17% so Im going to find out. I love to experiment and get quite excited as to the results. lol

 

[doriettefarm]

DeeAnna - Im currently in a learning phase with Aloe Butter! Is it really a butter?? Im not so sure I would call it that yet. Aloe extract and Coconut oil - a man made butter? Maybe good in a body butter but I just made a soap with Aloe butter as one of the ingredients at about 17% so Im going to find out. I love to experiment and get quite excited as to the results. lol

Not DeeAnna but I can answer this one. You are correct that aloe butter isn't what I'd call a true butter. It's really a hydrogenated vegetable oil base with aloe added . . . same deal with hemp & macadamia butters.

 

[TeresaT]

Not DeeAnna but I can answer this one. You are correct that aloe butter isn't what I'd call a true butter. It's really a hydrogenated vegetable oil base with aloe added . . . same deal with hemp & macadamia butters.

And coffee "butter" and a lot of the other butters out there. WSP has a lot of "butters" on their site, I was going to buy a small quantity of each of them to try out in soaps to decide if there was anything they brought to the party. However, after reading the ingredients, they were mostly hydrogenated vegetable oil and fruit or nut oil. Most of the hydrogenated vegetable oils used are palm or "proprietary" and they won't give the ingredients; I'm not experimenting with the "exotic" butters after all. Which is really a bummer, because the acai and cranberry butters sound so much fun!! I ended up getting the ones that said they were from the nut of a tree or something like that: kokum, cocoa, mango (although, I'm not impressed with mango butter's smell).

 

[Arthur Dent]

And... the LouAna safflower oil is

Total fat 14g
Saturated fat 1g
Trans fat 0g
Polyunstaurated fat 2g
Monounsaturated fat 11g

I think that qualifies it as High Oleic

 

[DeeAnna]

I'm with the others about the artificially created "butters" -- they're basically veg shortening. I was intrigued for awhile until I figured out what they really were. :think:

 

[redhead1226]

Thank you doriette. I can see it being used in creams or body butters but what is the experience in soaping? Ill assume the same as it would be as separate ingredients (i.e. Oil and aloe? lol )

 

[doriettefarm]

Thank you doriette. I can see it being used in creams or body butters but what is the experience in soaping? Ill assume the same as it would be as separate ingredients (i.e. Oil and aloe? lol )

Out of all the not-quite-butters, I've only soaped with aloe butter and didn't feel like it brought anything extra to the party. So I mainly use it for lip balms, lotions, creams, etc. I recently purchased some macadamia butter . . . all I can say is it made some really scrumptious smelling lip scrub! I think you'd be better off just buying hemp or macadamia oils for soaping because the butter-version doesn't contain enough of the specialty oil to make a difference. Plus it can be difficult to determine SAP values for some of these 'butters' because you don't know what blend of hydrogenated oils make up the bulk of it.

 

[redhead1226]

I made a batch tonite with 17% aloe butter that I bought from New Directions. I should be able to tell if it has any good qualities in a few months. I try not to fool myself as to ingredients and what they bring to the table. I see lately on other groups where they add all kinds of ingredients that frankly make me crazy as I think to myself "Whats that going to do"? Not everything you think is good in a soap actually is as we know. Besides as a wash off product whatever its going to do it needs to do it fast! I guess just label appeal and thats it. To the general public it might sound like it can cure their ills but I dont think that for the most part and try to stick with pretty traditional ingredients.

 

[Arthur Dent]

<sigh>