Canola Oil...

Soapmaking Forum

Help Support Soapmaking Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

CraftyRedhead

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 19, 2013
Messages
225
Reaction score
82
Location
Bonham, Texas
Sorry if this has been asked.. I can't seem to find it in the previous posts..
I made a few completely different recipes a while back and gave out samples of each. The favorite (by a landslide) was my cheapest recipe with a whopping 30% canola oil! So I went with it.. but the more I read about canola, the more I want to stop using it. GMOs and such, plus I'm worried I may one day experience these DOS I hear so much about.
I don't use palm or lard (vegans.. ugh..) so what should I try to improvise with? I'm looking for something that might *feel* more like canola without being too terribly expensive, but I can't seem to find any alternatives other than soybean, which is just as GMO as canola.
If the testers had picked any other recipe I wouldn't have this problem, but I agree it makes a great bar of soap.
Please help! :)
 
I REALLY like Corn Oil. Im not sure about the GMO issue. I use a ton of Olive oil and sometimes I will do half the percentage in Corn oil and its my favorite! I soaped this because one of my favorite bars by a well known and local soaper uses this in her recipes. I tried it and I love it.

I thought about it... Corn oil is probably full of GMOs, sorry not a lot of help.
 
Last edited:
What do you like about soap made with ho sunflower? What do you think it adds?

HO Sunflower oil is a good alternative for olive oil in soap. It's more affordable and it has great conditioning properties & high amounts of vitamin E. I buy the organic HO sunflower oil from Soaper's Choice and I like it for its light color, lack of odor(no strong nutty smell), and lightweight feeling on the skin. It also give my soap a stable and conditioning lather.

I use it in my acne/oily skin & shampoo bar recipes in conjunction with other oils/butters. I even use it as an eye make up remover at night time:).
 
I like 10% regular Sunflower, the Linoleic adds incredible conditioning.
Add .8% ROE to the Sunflower bottle to preserve and make it easy to ration the ROE into the batch
 
I like using sunflower oil too and add ROE as others have said. I like to use it in my pine tar soap because it's also non-comedogenic (it doesn't clog pores). :razz:
 
Any reason to not use ho safflower? That's what I've been experimenting with lately, and the bars are barely off the curing rack. (No sunflower to be found locally) The two are very similar, with safflower being higher in linoleic. I've noticed some difference in soap, but can't put words to it yet.
 
My best seller (with all the canola) has 10% safflower! Lol
I'll look around for some sunflower oil though.. maybe that'll work
 
Any reason to not use ho safflower? That's what I've been experimenting with lately, and the bars are barely off the curing rack. (No sunflower to be found locally) The two are very similar, with safflower being higher in linoleic. I've noticed some difference in soap, but can't put words to it yet.

I prefer the HO sunflower, it is more stable and less prone to rancidity and DOS. Also makes lovely soap.
 
Any blend of soaping fats that is high in linoleic or linolenic acid will be more prone to rancidity and thus more prone to DOS. Some soapers use a rule of thumb that a recipe should have under 15% combined linoleic + linolenic to minimize this concern. I shoot for under 10% generally. Using ROE in the oils is also helpful. The high oleic (HO) version of an oil is good, again because the linoleic and linolenic is lower in the HO oils. And keeping one's superfat reasonably low is a good idea with soaps that have a high % of linoleic + linolenic.
 
What is ROE? Am fairly new to soap-making and even newer to this forum and don't know all the abbreviations yet. Thanks.
 
What is ROE? Am fairly new to soap-making and even newer to this forum and don't know all the abbreviations yet. Thanks.

http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showpost.php?p=440377&postcount=5

ROE (rosemary oleoresin extract link)
is an Antioxidant that slow down the oxidation of the oils. It’s the oxidation of the oils that causes rancidity.

Recommended dosage varies by Manufacturer. Let's use .08% ROE to total oils. So if you use 5% Caster in every batch then spiking Castor with ROE makes sense. Saves time and ensures uniformity. Also spiking a Hi-Lino oil like Hemp or Sunflower with ROE the oil will keep better and longer.

Let's do the Math!
50% Olive Oil
25% Lard/ Palm
20% Coconut
5% Castor/ROE Blend
3000 g oils

3000 x .0008 (.08%) = 2.4 grams ROE needed
The Castor oil addition is 5% or 1/20th the batch.
Multiply .0008 x 20 = .016

Test
3000 g batch. 5% castor = 150 g Castor needed
3000 g oils x .0008 = 2.4 g ROE addition needed
150 g Castor/ROE Blend = 150 x .016 ROE = 2.4 g ROE

Make the Castor / ROE Blend
Add 16 g ROE (1000 g x .016) to 1000 g of Castor. Use this Castor/ROE solution each time you want 5% Castor / .08% ROE in your soap!
Roy
 
"...What is ROE?..."

I try to spell it all out rather than use abbreviations, but I missed on this one. My apologies. ^^^What Nevada said.

I use ROE differently, however. Roy is suggesting adding ROE to just one oil (castor in the example), but I add it to all my oils up front, so the ROE protects the oil as well as the finished soap. Perhaps he uses his oils faster than I do -- each method makes sense under different circumstances.
 
Rosemary Oleoresin Extract. I make a soap recipe from Miller Soap that I happen to love although I do a little tweaking. It is the Canolive recipes, I do always add roe to the soap bucket in percentage to cover all oils. I actually received a soap made from the Canolive II recipe in a swap that I kept over a year using it off and on to see if it acquired dos. It did not and she followed the recipe exactly and did not add in roe. Makes a great slow moving veggie soap.
 
Back
Top