Frozen Banana's in soap
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Tienne
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You sure can! I love banana soap! They feel so wonderfully creamy and conditioning. I'll freeze any overripe bananas I may have for later use and when I want to soap with them, I'll thaw them and mash them up really well and then press the mash through a strainer to make sure there are no lumps left in it. I add the mash to the batter after emulsification and I use about ½ small banana ppo. If you throw in some colloidal oats as well, you've got yourself a really lovely soap. Don't expect a pretty yellow soap though! Banana soaps end up a darkish tan colour.
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Derpina Bubbles
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Yet another soap I have to try. That sounds brilliant and like a good way to use old bananas (other than muffins and other calorie filled delicious goodies). Love it!
I tried that with a fresh banana a few months ago (we always have an abundance), and the soap is SOOO lovely! Tienne, have you noticed in your banana soaps the small little brown flecks in it, like flecks found in banana bread?
Tienne
Well-Known Member
Yup! They are like teeny weenie cute little black seeds. Along with the oats I always put in which are that whitish colour, it all comes together to give character and contrast to an otherwise ordinary looking tan soap. Banana soap is actually one of my favourite go to soaps. It feels so smooooooth and luscious. It's a wonder more people don't make it and it's such a fantastic way of using up bananas that have passed their "best before" date.
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Tienne
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It's gotta be all that sugar in the banana that gives it such a nice bubbly lather. Do you gel yours? I always gel mine. Or rather, it gels itself. I don't even have to CPOP or insulate. It goes all the way all on it own, like the good little soap that it is. LOL
NurseEmily
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this is intriguing. I have frozen bananas in my freezer right this minute. Does the lye/saponification eliminate the fear of it going bad, spoiling, attracting fruit flies or any of that?
Tienne
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I made a batch back in July and I have no problems with it whatsoever. I do though add ROE to most of my liquid oils and I use Vit E in all my recipes as a rule. (I'm just a home soaper, so my oils and soaps have a slower turnover rate than some others may have, so that's why I do that.) I have never had DOS on any of my soaps, nor ever had an oil go rancid (knock on wood) nor have I ever seen a fruit fly near any of my soaps. LOL I even go pretty heavy on the amount of banana I use in my banana soap, but that hasn't been detrimental in any way. They're still going strong. 
yes! my soaps (not just the banana one) seem to gel on its own...actually they overheat slightly all the time.... :thumbdown: but the banana one was great! too bad I scented it with citrus and I found out after using it for a week that I get photosensitivity, so I will have to either (a) not use this particular soap too often; or (b) make another batch of banana soap with a different scent; i'm leaning towards option b. hehehe
I love banana in soaps as much as my avocado. I was given a couple flats of persimmons at my farmers market and going to try them after the holidays.
Tienne
Well-Known Member
Do you guys have a list of soaps you absolutely have to make RIGHT NOW? And is that list soooo long, that it'll take you months and months to get them all done? Cmzaha, now you just made me add persimmon and avocado soaps to that impossibly long list, too. You enabler, you! 
I've never gotten around to making an avocado soap, but I can imagine it would be just as smooth as a banana soap. Ooooh, I gotta make it! Gotta make it now!
I don't see persimmons in our stores all that often, but I do know that they'll keep really well in the freezer too, so if you have oodles of them, then chuck some of those in the freezer too and you'll have them on hand for soaping forever! Well, for a long time, anyway.
I've never gotten around to making an avocado soap, but I can imagine it would be just as smooth as a banana soap. Ooooh, I gotta make it! Gotta make it now!
I don't see persimmons in our stores all that often, but I do know that they'll keep really well in the freezer too, so if you have oodles of them, then chuck some of those in the freezer too and you'll have them on hand for soaping forever! Well, for a long time, anyway.
Tienne
Well-Known Member
ROE is short for Rosemary Oleoresin, or Rosemary Oil Extract. It's a potent antioxidant that helps keep your oils from going rancid and therefore it helps keep DOS at bay. (DOS = Dreaded Orange Spots, that are caused by the unsaponified oils in your soap going bad.) It's all natural, too. You put it in your fresh oils at a very low concentrations (0.05 - 0.08%) and it really helps extend the shelf life of your oils AND helps keep the free oils in your soaps from oxidizing. It's not particularly cheap, (but neither is having to throw rancid soaps away) and since you use such a tiny amount of it, a small bottle of it lasts a long, long, LONG time.
Tienne
Well-Known Member
It's very thick and brownish. It's best if you mix what you intend to add in with a little bit of the oil before you mix it in with the rest. It's so viscous, that it's hard to get it dispersed properly throughout the oil unless you do that. It has an odd smell too, but there's so little of it in the oil, that neither the colour nor the smell of it shows up in the finished soaps.
Derpina Bubbles
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Finally made my banana soap today! It's been on my must do list since I read this and I just never ended up with any spare nanas! I threw in some oats and honey so it's brekkie soap. Can't wait for tomorrow to cut it. My Hubby thinks this sounds too weird to be soap. " It's porridge, not a bath product". Fingers crossed I made it right and can prove him wrong.
