Jojoba vs Cetyl Alcohol in a CP soap

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ngian

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Well my last experiment was about jojoba wax oil and cetyl alcohol, after watching the interesting video with Kevin Dunn

http://fyi101.com/superfatting-and-lye-discounting-part-2-presented-by-dr-kevin-dunn/

where after 34:00 he is talking about an ingredient that can replace jojoba in a CP soap. And that is cetyl alcohol as its molecule is very similar to the unsaponifible part of jojoba. Soaps with jojoba are said to give something special to the suds and that is suds that stay alive longer.

I have already used cetyl alcohol for my little daughter's hair conditioner (using only btms and cetyl alcohol) and when I use it on her hair I can also see the tiny suds of the conditioner that are still there until I wash them off.

I have also read >> an interesting article << where it says that glycerin helps the soapy water game have sustainable bubbles. And that is for the fact that water from the bubble's layer

http://www.webexhibits.org/causesofcolor/images/content/9z.jpg

is not evaporating so fast. Maybe something similar is happening with cetyl Alcohol.

At this point I'm also wondering if the longer hydrophobic tale of the palmitic/stearic fatty acids are the ones to blame for the stability of the soap's lather.

Anyway back to my experiment I have made three soaps with the recipes below:

Lye Concentration: 29,4% | 2,4:1
Lye Discount: -0,5% (NaOH 98% pure)

Two soaps "Control" and "Cetyl Alcohol"
Lard: (40%)
Coconut: (30%)
Olive Oil: (30%)
-Cetyl Alcohol as an additive at 3% only in the "Cetyl Alcohol" soap.


One soap with "Jojoba"
Lard: (40%)
Coconut: (30%)
Olive Oil: (25%)
Jojoba: (5%)

Cetyl-vs-Jojoba1.jpg


I took the 5% amount from Olive oil for jojoba as the part that saponifies in jojoba wax is similar (or the same) to oleic acid. I also used 3% Cetyl as almost half of the jojoba remains unsaponified.

I used too much water than I usually (33% lye Concentration) do because I was afraid that mixing lye and oils over 50°C in order for cetyl to remain liquid and that would reach trace a little faster than normal. But I think that this wasn't needed as all the soaps didn't reached trace easily. I had a feeling that with a 33% LC all would be under control and I think lard was helping a lot on that. I used the same amount of water for all soaps for the sake of evaluation of the experiment. As a note jojoba came to trace veeeeeryyy slowly that my SB raised its temperature and I thought it would stop working before trace...

Cetyl-vs-Jojoba2.jpg



So after the 8 weeks of curing I will come back with any feedback.

Until now I have only read this experiment for cetyl vs jojoba

http://masteringsoapmaking.blogspot.gr/2013/12/experiment-cetyl-alcohol-in-cp-soap.html

If anyone has another link I would be grateful if you share it.


and a couple of jojoba soaps for my kids:
Cetyl-vs-Jojoba3.jpg

 
Last edited:
Hello, after a long time I have tested all three bars and I have seen that the only difference I can feel is only the way the bars feel on my hands.

With the above recipes the jojoba soap bar itself has a very silky/waxy feeling while I wash my hands and it may slip away from my hands easily, the cetyl alcohol bar has a little less of this silky/waxy feeling, and the control soap bar has almost none of this feeling.

As it concerns their lather I can't find any real difference, and maybe I have to once again give these soaps to a woman to try them, as they are known for their much more complicated nervous system in their bodies :thumbup:
 
Very cool and insightful experiment! Thank you for sharing. By the way, which kind of lather/bubble do you prefer? ;)
 
I like fluffy lather as maybe most do.
I forgot to mention that I didn't test the duration that the lather had as I rinse it after a few seconds. I don't use the soaps as a shaving soap as I am not shaving at all, so I don't know if jojoba or cetyl alcohol can give any more duration at this kind of soap apart from the Stearic acid.
 
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