Natural melt and pour base?

[SaraaSoaps]

Hi everyone,


I wanted some advice on how to make a natural clear soap. I've been doing some research and seen propylene glycol consider as natural? I really want to make my own natural melt and pour base. Does anyone have any pointer or recipes ?

P.s I've seen that propanediol can be used as a substitute for PG.

 

[Zany_in_CO]

While awaiting @ResolvableOwl to show up, this subject has been discussed (at length) recently. You can use the Search feature in the upper right corner of this page to find threads related to the subject. Be sure to tick the "titles only" box before hitting the "search" button.

 

[ResolvableOwl]

I'm so predictable


There is an infinite number of discussions, which soap ingredients to call “natural” and which not. Have the fun and search SMF for threads. It always boils down to opinions rather than facts. You don't find out if an ingredient is natural, but you decide. Those who are selling, carry the extra burden that they have to anticipate the state of knowledge/cultural imprint of their potential customers.

The particular discussion, that I guess @Zany_in_CO is referring to, was a few weeks ago specifically about the “natural” label for propylene glycol (that is systematic named 1,2-propanediol, btw.!), and if 1,3-propanediol is a worthy substitution in M&P soap:

Propylene Glycol alternatives for made-from-scratch transparent soap

Both denatured alcohol and propylene glycol are in a class of chemicals called alcohols. As others have said, denatured alcohol is ethyl alcohol plus something that we can not drink (often acetone or methanol) This is so that it is not taxed as drinking alcohol. Clear soaps can be made with...

www.soapmakingforum.com

It seems that there is currently some semi-knowledge about M&P solvents circulating in the interwebz. It might well be that someone wants to sell 1,3-propanediol, and attempts to justify its price premium by spreading viral FUD marketing. Or just another short-lived alarmism hype from someone who wants to collect YouTube/Facebook clicks, without caring about the things themselves.

Decide yourself if you want to follow such flashs-in-the-pan, or rather gather a balanced perspective on this topic. 1,2-propanediol is being made from glycerol too, not only from natural gas, as do companies produce 1,3-propanediol from fossil sources. Replacing 1,2-propanediol by 1,3-propanediol for health reasons is premature at best, as long as the toxicology of 1,3-propanediol isn't proven to be superior to that of 1,2-propanediol.

For M&P, you could also just use glycerol itself, which makes an excellent M&P solvent, and you don't even need any chemical/enzymatic/fermentation modification at all.

natural clear soap

Do you want your soap to be clear, or clear and remeltable? There are several clear and non-remeltable recipes out there, that are on par with lye-soap M&P in terms of clarity, but need less solvents, or none at all.

 

[SaraaSoaps]

This was very informative thank you so much. I was looking for clear and re-meltable, but it would be fund to just make a clear soap as well. I've just experimenting for personal pleasure at this point.

 

[lsg]

I use propylene glycol in my clear M&P bases. The Good Earth Spa has a tutorial on YouTube.