Base oil properties/characteristics/behaviour after saponification

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CreativeWeirdo

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How do you know how an oil will behave after saponification? I'm a big fan of a 50/50 mix of jojoba and argan oil for my skin. My mom is a big fan too. I'm thinking of adding each to CP soap recipe (5% by weight each). I know many oils (like Olive, castor, and Coconut) completely change after the triglycerides have broken down. In my Googling, I haven't been able to find a general list of oils and how they change in soap. I've found partial lists of some of the more common oils, including only 1 article that had one sentence about jojoba liquid wax being a luxury oil; the meaning of which I'm not completely sure of when it comes to soap. Any advice is greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!
 
I'm not sure exactly what you're asking. Are you hoping that by adding 5% of the oil and wax you currently like, will have the same affect on your skin?
They won't; they'll cease to be oils and become salts of fatty acids. Now, I know a lot of people are dedicated to the idea that oils contain vitamins and other "skin loving" nutrients, but even so - how much of that is actually absorbed into the skin, and how much of that absorption is utilized by the skin cells? Not very much. It's truly better to eat your vitamins. If you read about how the integumentary system works, you'll see how skin is designed to work outward - the inner most layers are designed with cell death and exfoliation in mind, so "nourishing" from the outside does very little. (according to a recent college physiology class I took)

Why does your skin like jojoba and argan oil so much? It would be easy to think it's because of the vitamins, but sometimes it's just a matter of how finding the right level of occlusion and barrier function....locking in moisture. For me, olive oil applied to the skin locks in moisture all right - but boy does it leave a greasy mess, as does coconut. But other people find their skin loves it.

Soap doesn't moisturize. It cleans. It can be formulated to protect as much of your natural skin oils as possible and protect the mantle.
However, there are things like jojoba (which doesn't saponify) and unsaponifiables (found in many fats and oils, in varying amounts) that can seem to contribute to the mildness of soap, but as for whether it actually moisturizes - I can't answer factually. It certainly hasn't made a noticeable difference in my soap. Others may have more info than I.

Most people on this forum like to leave the expensive "luxury" oils for non-soap items like lotion bars and skin cream.

Hope that was helpful.
 
Only a few “oils” (or rather, some minor constituents of them) are not attacked by lye during saponification – the unsaponifiables (highest amounts are in avocado oil, shea butter, olive oil and RBO). Argan oil will make “ordinary” soap, not bad but nothing too exciting that you couldn't as well achieve with cheaper oils. Wrt jojoba, the last word isn't spoken yet, but general consensus is that it is not the ultra super secret trick ingredient for soap that it is in its unaltered form for so many uses.
You can work with a lye discount (“superfat”), but in CP you cannot influence which oils will end up there. A remedy for this is HP, which allows you to choose which unsaponified additives should be present in the final soap, but it comes with other caveats.

But, more generally, be aware that soap is meant to get rid of oils, not to bring them onto the skin. Soap is rinse-off, not leave-on. A soap that leaves behind a greasy film of argan and jojoba, as luxurious as it might sound, has obviously failed its main objective: washing and cleaning.

tl;dr: save comfort oils like argan and jojoba for leave-on products like lotions (liquid/cream or lotion bars), and apply them after soap has done its magic.
 
jojoba (which doesn't saponify)

Well colour me surprised! See this is exactly what I mean! Google disappointed me!

Yeah, is there some sort of database to find that sort of information? I don't really have the budget to buy a whole bunch of books right now. And I was trying to figure out how to level-up the basic Olive Oil: Coconut Oil: Castor Oil recipe while using things I already have/own.

Only a few “oils” (or rather, some minor constituents of them) are not attacked by lye during saponification – the unsaponifiables (highest amounts are in avocado oil, shea butter, olive oil and RBO). Argan oil will make “ordinary” soap, not bad but nothing too exciting that you couldn't as well achieve with cheaper oils. Wrt jojoba, the last word isn't spoken yet, but general consensus is that it is not the ultra super secret trick ingredient for soap that it is in its unaltered form for so many uses.

tl;dr: save comfort oils like argan and jojoba for leave-on products like lotions (liquid/cream or lotion bars), and apply them after soap has done its magic.

You're totally right! I'm sure I'm just overthinking things... as usual!
 
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