Need opinions of this oil.

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I wouldn't use it. I don't use soy and I've not even thought about cottonseed. Where in Michigan are you located?
I'm near Monroe Michigan and usually just buy the palm oil from Soapers Choice or if I am up near American Specialty Oils Co., I buy votated Palm there.

The oil above is mainly palm and I assume hydrogenated soy and cottonseed are used to make it stable and not separate?
 
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I'm near Monroe Michigan and usually just buy the palm oil from Soapers Choice or if I am up near American Specialty Oils Co., I buy votated Pallm there.

The oil above is mainly palm and I assume hydrogenated soy and cottonseed is used to make it stable and not separate?

I was going to recommend checking with American Specialty (I live 15 minutes from them). I get my palm from Soapers Choice as well. I get my CO and Castor from American Specialty and sometimes my lye. If you know what the exact percentages were you could try it I suppose. But, as I said I don't use soy. I don't know that I would buy 50lbs not knowing how it will be in soap long term.
 
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Shunt: Can you empty their lye into a 5 gallon container with a lid and it keeps ok over time?
 
I'd be more inclined to pay more for palm oil I know to have been harvested sustainably than from a somewhat more commercialized source. This is a great deal, price wise but how is the palm oil harvested?
 
Yes, but I filled a bunch of my 2 lb containers so I didn't have to open the container as often to keep moisture out of it. They are the flakes not the beads.
Thanks for the info.

ETA: Oh, are there dessicant(sp?) packages I can use?
 
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I'd be more inclined to pay more for palm oil I know to have been harvested sustainably than from a somewhat more commercialized source. This is a great deal, price wise but how is the palm oil harvested?
I don't know.

I'm leaning towards just staying with Soapers Choice, the savings aren't that dramatic. (Maybe around 20 percent after shipping.)

Plus when I am up near where shunt lives I can always go to American Specialty Oils. But I don't know about harvesting with those sources either.
 
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I have not had luck with soy. My soaps with it seem to develop DOS, every time within 6 months, usually sooner if I use a higher percentage.
 
My husband soaped before I did, and one day he asked me to pick up some shortening at the store. I picked up the cheapest stuff I could find, and the ingredient list looked just like that. I had no idea at the time about different shortenings or different oils as they pertained to soap. He used it for several batches. It was okay. Just okay. It soaped well, but he wasn't trying swirls or anything like that. I have a few bars downstairs that are over a year old, and they have held up well. There are no DOS on any of them (we have at least one bar from each batch, and probably 4 batches with this shortening.) It felt okay, and the bars got nice and hard.

Would I buy it again? No. It's too much of a gamble not knowing the percentages of each oil. I now much prefer to use the Great Value shortening from Walmart when I'm not using lard.
 
Thanks for the info.

ETA: Oh, are there dessicant(sp?) packages I can use?

I read someplace that lye is more desiccating than the desiccant packages, so it will pull moisture out of THEM. I pour my lye into 1-gallon jars and seal the jars I'm not using with duct tape. The lye has survived for years this way in my basement.
 
I read someplace that lye is more desiccating than the desiccant packages, so it will pull moisture out of THEM. I pour my lye into 1-gallon jars and seal the jars I'm not using with duct tape. The lye has survived for years this way in my basement.
Thanks for the info.

You also traderbren.
 
Don't ever put desiccant directly with lye. You're defeating the purpose, since Dixie is right -- lye itself is a powerful desiccant. But you can use a separate desiccant material. Just do it this way --

Put tightly sealed packages or jars of lye in a larger container that can also be tightly sealed. KCHaystack uses a 5 gallon bucket with a "gamma" lid and I've followed his advice. I have yet to get a gamma lid, however, so I just use the original lid that came with the bucket. Leave enough room in the larger container for your desiccant to go in there too. Put the lid on securely.

I only store my main stash of lye in this bucket -- I keep one 2 lb container of lye in my soaping cabinet to soap with. I know I'm going to use that lye in a reasonably short time, so it's not that big of a deal to me to leave the one container out for easy use.

This may seem to be overkill, but I think it's worthwhile for long-term storage of lye. I notice the smaller containers of lye increase in weight over months of storage if I leave them in the open air. That's telling me there is some infiltration through the lid or container walls. The additional over-container with desiccant is a second layer of defense.
 
Dee Anna: You kinda confused me a bit............you said dessicant material is probably bad but said "leave enough room to use the dessicant I use"?

ETA: Nevermind...........you said put the smaller containers in a larger container.

Sounds good.
 
Dee Anna: You kinda confused me a bit............you said dessicant material is probably bad but said "leave enough room to use the dessicant I use"?

ETA: Nevermind...........you said put the smaller containers in a larger container.

Sounds good.

I will try and remember to get some pics of my lye storage up tonight.
 
I *love* cottonseed oil. Good ol' Crisco used to be 100% cottonseed oil. The brand name Crisco comes from the phrase "crystallized cottonseed oil". It was created and introduced as a way to use up cottonseed cleaned from the ginning process. It's still widely used in animal feeds.

Cottonseed oil was originally marketed specifically for soapmakers due to the high costs of importing olive oil in the first half of the 20th Century. Of course, the decline in the use of cotton fibers, and the widespread growth of Industrial Ag and GMO Soy has changed it all.

I buy cottonseed oil from Texas Natural Supply. I love the silky feel it adds to a bar. It takes a bit longer to cure, like a Castile bar does, but I like it a LOT better than a Castile bar. I make a special bar that includes CS and other classically TX products, like Pecan oil, Peach Kernel Oil, etc. that is a big seller for me.

It's kind of an item you have to go looking for these days, but don't turn it down just because you aren't familiar with it.

As for soy. . . :silent: As a beekeeper, I have deeply-held, strong, loud opinions about GMO, Round-Up Ready soybeans and its' oils. I don't / won't / don't want YOU to use it. It comes from one of the lowest Circles of Dante's Hell. :evil:

{deep breath. deep breath. stepping away from the soap box}

I actually *have* tried soy oil, and it makes a very hard bar. And it is very cheap and easy to find. And makes a very pretty, white soap. It also has terrible DOS, which I could not vanquish, even with 2% vitamin E oil in the recipe. YMMV.

I like the cottonseed oil, but it's cheap and easy for me to find. It's also a " " Suthin' " thang, like Sweet tea, Black-eyed Peas, Dr. Pepper, and boiled peanuts.

Dixiedragon, have you tried it?

~HoneyLady~
 
I *love* cottonseed oil. Good ol' Crisco used to be 100% cottonseed oil. The brand name Crisco comes from the phrase "crystallized cottonseed oil". It was created and introduced as a way to use up cottonseed cleaned from the ginning process. It's still widely used in animal feeds.

Cottonseed oil was originally marketed specifically for soapmakers due to the high costs of importing olive oil in the first half of the 20th Century. Of course, the decline in the use of cotton fibers, and the widespread growth of Industrial Ag and GMO Soy has changed it all.

I buy cottonseed oil from Texas Natural Supply. I love the silky feel it adds to a bar. It takes a bit longer to cure, like a Castile bar does, but I like it a LOT better than a Castile bar. I make a special bar that includes CS and other classically TX products, like Pecan oil, Peach Kernel Oil, etc. that is a big seller for me.

It's kind of an item you have to go looking for these days, but don't turn it down just because you aren't familiar with it.

As for soy. . . :silent: As a beekeeper, I have deeply-held, strong, loud opinions about GMO, Round-Up Ready soybeans and its' oils. I don't / won't / don't want YOU to use it. It comes from one of the lowest Circles of Dante's Hell. :evil:

{deep breath. deep breath. stepping away from the soap box}

I actually *have* tried soy oil, and it makes a very hard bar. And it is very cheap and easy to find. And makes a very pretty, white soap. It also has terrible DOS, which I could not vanquish, even with 2% vitamin E oil in the recipe. YMMV.

I like the cottonseed oil, but it's cheap and easy for me to find. It's also a " " Suthin' " thang, like Sweet tea, Black-eyed Peas, Dr. Pepper, and boiled peanuts.

Dixiedragon, have you tried it?

~HoneyLady~

That sweet tea is no joke. Half my family have the sugar and they still drink that sweet tea. I have to cut it with at least 50% unsweetened tea to drink it once I cross the Mason-Dixon Line but on the plus side, Bojangles, Cheerwine, BISCUITS & GRAVY are some of my favorite things besides the Thunderbird in FL.
 
I buy cottonseed oil from Texas Natural Supply. I love the silky feel it adds to a bar. It takes a bit longer to cure, like a Castile bar does, but I like it a LOT better than a Castile bar. I make a special bar that includes CS and other classically TX products, like Pecan oil, Peach Kernel Oil, etc. that is a big seller for me.



As for soy. . . :silent:



{deep breath. deep breath. stepping away from the soap box}





I like the cottonseed oil, but it's cheap and easy for me to find.



Dixiedragon, have you tried it?



~HoneyLady~


Cotton seed oil is mid priced here. More expensive than OO but less than shea butter or avocado oil. It sounds nice and I like the sound of it so I'll make some soap with it.

Does it make a hard bar of soap?

Thank you for sharing.

I don't like soy either and won't use or eat it for a number of reasons.
 
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I think you got it, but just to be clear --

You have a glass you want to fill with ice and pop (Iowa lingo for "soda"). You don't fill the glass to the brim with ice cubes because you also want to leave room for a big slice of orange.

The ice cubes are the lye containers. The fruit is the desiccant. :mrgreen:

Dee Anna: You kinda confused me a bit............you said dessicant material is probably bad but said "leave enough room to use the dessicant I use"?
 
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