Hi! 
I guess this may only be relevant for europeans or non-americans, as I understand you only have Canola over there. And I'm not completely sure of what I have found out either. So correct me if I'm wrong.
The thing is that I can't find rapeseed oil in SoapCalc. All three entries;
* Rapeseed, unrefined canola
* Canola oil
* canola, high oleic
All those are the same specie, Brassica Campestris (it is shown when choosing INCI names in View or Print Recipe)
The problem is that the rapeseed oil we have in Europe, is made from Brassica Napus. We may have Brassica Campestris as well for all I know, but the most common rapeseed is Brassica Napus.
I have tried to find a calculator that can calculate sap value for Brassica Napus seed oil (you will never know unless they give you the INCI names, and just a few does that), and I found one in Germany - http://www.naturseife.com/seifenrechner/default.htm
Rapsöl (rapeseed oil, Brassica Napus) from the german calculator have a sap value of 0,1354
Rapeseed, unrefined canola (Brassica Campestris) from SoapCalc have a sap value of 0,125
That is quite some difference.
If what I have found is correct, it means that SoapCalc can't be used to correctly calculate lye when you have rapeseed oil in your recipe (unless you tweak it by choosing another oil with a sap value close to Brassica Napus, but then your numbers for hardness, bubbly etc will be misleading).
If you use SoapCalc and choose rapeseed, unrefined canola, your superfat will be higher.
After very quick researching some forums in Europe, I found that the recommended calculator is SoapCalc, and to calculate rapeseed oil, you just choose rapeseed from SoapCalc. And that will be very, very wrong.
I double checked rapeseed oil's sap value by using another german calculator, and I found the same numer as in the calculator from Naturseife.com. I used this one (which seems to be very good, it can handle some acids as well): http://www.handmade-by-kathrin.de/soap/calc/
And now for the difference in fatty acids between rapeseed oil (Brassica Campestris) from SoapCalc's and the rapeseed (Brassica Napus) from Handmade by Katrin:
SoapCalc:
Lauric: 0%
Myristic: 0%
Palmitic: 0%
Stearic: 0%
Ricinoleic: 0%
Oleic: 17%
Linoleic: 13%
Linolenic: 9%
Handmade by Katrin:
Oleic acid: 60%
Linoleic acid: 22%
Linolenic acid: 8%
Palmitic acid: 5%
Gadoleic acid: 2%
Stearic acid: 2%
Unsaponifiables 1%
So, the rapeseed, unrefined canola from SoapCalc is a completely different oil that will give a completely different soap than the european rapeseed.
(The rapeseed oil from Handmade by Katrin is maybe the high-oleic variety, but the calculator doesn't say anything about it, so I don't know.)
Please feel very, very free to correct me if I'm wrong
European rapeseed oil is very close to canola oil, actually. Not a full match, but very close, both in fatty acid profile and sap value. I discovered that now. So to choose canola and not rapeseed in SoapCalc should work just fine. I also discovered that the calculator from Handmade by Katrin lists rapeseed as canola oil as INCI name, which really is not correct.
I wonder what's wrong with lye calculators? Doesn't they understand that when you make soap, the INCI names should be sodium something, for example Sodium Olivate and not Olea Europaea (Olive) Fruit Oil? I guess it is quite obvious that when you use a lye calculator you are actually going to make soap and not a body butter. So the least they could do is to give us the INCI names for saponified oils instead of just the oils themselves, which isn't what a soap actually contains (apart from the superfat).
I guess this may only be relevant for europeans or non-americans, as I understand you only have Canola over there. And I'm not completely sure of what I have found out either. So correct me if I'm wrong.
The thing is that I can't find rapeseed oil in SoapCalc. All three entries;
* Rapeseed, unrefined canola
* Canola oil
* canola, high oleic
All those are the same specie, Brassica Campestris (it is shown when choosing INCI names in View or Print Recipe)
The problem is that the rapeseed oil we have in Europe, is made from Brassica Napus. We may have Brassica Campestris as well for all I know, but the most common rapeseed is Brassica Napus.
I have tried to find a calculator that can calculate sap value for Brassica Napus seed oil (you will never know unless they give you the INCI names, and just a few does that), and I found one in Germany - http://www.naturseife.com/seifenrechner/default.htm
Rapsöl (rapeseed oil, Brassica Napus) from the german calculator have a sap value of 0,1354
Rapeseed, unrefined canola (Brassica Campestris) from SoapCalc have a sap value of 0,125
That is quite some difference.
If what I have found is correct, it means that SoapCalc can't be used to correctly calculate lye when you have rapeseed oil in your recipe (unless you tweak it by choosing another oil with a sap value close to Brassica Napus, but then your numbers for hardness, bubbly etc will be misleading).
If you use SoapCalc and choose rapeseed, unrefined canola, your superfat will be higher.
After very quick researching some forums in Europe, I found that the recommended calculator is SoapCalc, and to calculate rapeseed oil, you just choose rapeseed from SoapCalc. And that will be very, very wrong.
I double checked rapeseed oil's sap value by using another german calculator, and I found the same numer as in the calculator from Naturseife.com. I used this one (which seems to be very good, it can handle some acids as well): http://www.handmade-by-kathrin.de/soap/calc/
And now for the difference in fatty acids between rapeseed oil (Brassica Campestris) from SoapCalc's and the rapeseed (Brassica Napus) from Handmade by Katrin:
SoapCalc:
Lauric: 0%
Myristic: 0%
Palmitic: 0%
Stearic: 0%
Ricinoleic: 0%
Oleic: 17%
Linoleic: 13%
Linolenic: 9%
Handmade by Katrin:
Oleic acid: 60%
Linoleic acid: 22%
Linolenic acid: 8%
Palmitic acid: 5%
Gadoleic acid: 2%
Stearic acid: 2%
Unsaponifiables 1%
So, the rapeseed, unrefined canola from SoapCalc is a completely different oil that will give a completely different soap than the european rapeseed.
(The rapeseed oil from Handmade by Katrin is maybe the high-oleic variety, but the calculator doesn't say anything about it, so I don't know.)
Please feel very, very free to correct me if I'm wrong
European rapeseed oil is very close to canola oil, actually. Not a full match, but very close, both in fatty acid profile and sap value. I discovered that now. So to choose canola and not rapeseed in SoapCalc should work just fine. I also discovered that the calculator from Handmade by Katrin lists rapeseed as canola oil as INCI name, which really is not correct.
I wonder what's wrong with lye calculators? Doesn't they understand that when you make soap, the INCI names should be sodium something, for example Sodium Olivate and not Olea Europaea (Olive) Fruit Oil? I guess it is quite obvious that when you use a lye calculator you are actually going to make soap and not a body butter. So the least they could do is to give us the INCI names for saponified oils instead of just the oils themselves, which isn't what a soap actually contains (apart from the superfat).
Last edited by a moderator:
