Castor wax in cold process soap?

[Savage Daughter]

I have searched the forum & see absolutely no mention of people using this raw material at all. It's quite hard, kinda like candelilla wax, but comes in flakes & is snow white. One of the nice things about it is there are supposedly no potential health risks as with PEG castor oil (hydrogenated castor oil), unless (possibly) you have a serious reaction to nickel as this metal is used in the hydrogenation process. Dunno, have never heard of a reaction to castor wax, though.

Has anyone used this wax in cold process soap? If so, what did you like / not like about it? I'm thinking it may be quite nice as castor OIL is one of my favourites in soap.

I can't even find it in the many oils, waxes & butters listed on soap calc.

I have seen mention elsewhere of people using it as a kinda 'emulsifier', as a thickener in creams & heavier lotions, as a bar hardener for soaps ??, in solid perfumes, lip balms (which I am testing myself at the moment), deodorant sticks & more. I am actually wondering if it might be a scent fixative as well, but haven't been able to find any info regarding this in all my searches online, only info regarding beaver 'castor' - which comes out of a beaver's arse and which apparently IS used as a fixative, and even in some of our foods YUM! Gotta love what our governments designate as 'safe' LOL But hey...save the whales & baby seals & all that.......just not the beavers....or us, for that matter....beaver bums for the peasants!....I digress

Anyways, yeah....castor wax....anyone been playing around with this substance?

 

[DeeAnna]

Castor "wax" is hydrogenated castor oil. Just as soy "wax" is hydrogenated soybean oil.

Neither are actually waxes like beeswax or paraffin wax. They are still triglyceride fats -- just solid versions of normally liquid fats.

The saponification value of a hydrogenated oil is the same as for the liquid oil.

Hydrogenation changes the unsaturated bonds to saturated ones. The manufacturer controls the degree of hydrogenation, so some oils can be lightly hydrogenated and others more completely hydrogenated -- you'd have to contact the supplier or maker to know what you've got. The more hydrogenation, the more wax-like the product. But again you'd have to contact the supplier/maker to know for sure.

***

And then there are various flavors of PEG hydrogenated castor oil and PEG castor oil. In either case, the oil -- whether hydrogenated or plain -- has been converted into a fatty alcohol and then that alcohol has been transformed by the process of ethoxylation. The product that comes out of the ethoxylation process is entirely different than the base oil.

A PEG oil is not at all like the base oil from which it came -- that's the equivalent of thinking coconut oil soap is the same thing as coconut oil.

 

[Savage Daughter]

Very much appreciated, thank you so much!