Pumpkin Seed Oil Recipe?

[aselland]

I'm trying to figure out a good recipe to use pumpkin seed oil in - trying to do a pumpkin soap with pumpkin puree, pumpkin spice FO, and pumpkin seed oil. I've never used it before. Is this going to be too soft of a soap? Can I change anything up so that I get good bubbles, but still get a fairly hard and conditioning bar? Change any of the percentages? Add sodium lactate and sugar? Help! TIA!

 

[snappyllama]

Are you adverse to using lard? i'd switch some of your oils to it...

This is just me... I like to keep my butters down to 10% max to prevent them from impacting my bubbles, and my CO to 20% max since I find it irritating. SL is always nice, but I'd avoid the sugar since pumpkin puree already has sugars. I might bump the PO to 15% and drop the OO altogether

 

[aselland]

I've never used lard and I don't really want to. I also have palm oil too.

 

[not_ally]

I agree with every that snappy said. The problem is that that will require your changing your recipe a lot, which I am not sure you want to do.

Ie; , like snappy , I would try pumpkin oil at 10-15%, coconut oil at no more than 20 % (for me less, but I am assuming you have normal skin ). Butters at no more than 10% (I would just choose one and maybe try the other the next time to see what the difference is). Your castor is good. I don't like large amounts of olive - but that is me - so keep it below 20%. If you are opposed to lard, I would use palm for the rest.

ETA: Also, I would add SL and sugar. I always add SL at about 2% ppo, it makes the soap harder/easier to unmold and I think it makes the lather better as well.

 

[DeeAnna]

A few folks are finding their soap with pumpkin seed oil is developing DOS (rancidity). Not saying everyone is seeing this ... but you might want to tread carefully when soaping with this particular oil.

 

[snappyllama]

Isn't the rule of thumb to have linoleic + linoenic <15 to avoid DOS? I've stuck below that and haven't had issues, but I live in a dry climate.

 

[aselland]

Thank you guys for the advice! I'm totally fine changing the recipe. I was just playing around with the calculator with the oils/butters that I have trying to get a good combo. I did read see the DOS with it so that's a little scary, but I'll see how it turns out. I almost want to test this batch and then do this recipe for next years gifts in case people don't use them. I had my FIL tell me the other day he just took out the soap I gave for Christmas to use. I don't know. I guess I'll see what I want to do. I'll try adding sugar and sodium lactate too. Thank you all for the help!

 

[DeeAnna]

Snappy ... that's a rule of thumb I use too. I'm not sure what percent of pumpkin oil was in these folks recipes or what the linoleic plus linolenic amounts were.

 

[Susie]

I would still up the palm oil and decrease the amount of liquid oils if it were me. How much pumpkin puree would you be using?

 

[dixiedragon]

I got some virgin pumpkin seed oil at TJ maxx for a pretty good price. Has a lovely nutty smell, but it is a dark green/black color. I used a teensy bit in lip balm and I like it there. What does it bring to the table, soap wise? I have never soaped with it, but if you want a pumpkin-colored soap, you may have to stick with 5% or less, I think. That green/black color will make getting a pumpkin orange color difficult.

 

[snappyllama]

I feel like it's comparable to Avocado Oil - high in vitamins/antioxidants that might be eaten by the lye monster. Mainly I've used it when making a theme soap like the OP here or when my B&B stash needs to be used up. It's profile is closest to OO in my regular recipe so that's what I sub out to make room for it. That nutty/sweet scent does come through a teeny bit in unscented soap... I made a variety of naked bars and thought the ones with pumpkin smelled the best.

BTW, a naked bar with PO and pumpkin puree produces a lovely light orange - almost peach.

 

[aselland]

I was planning to use 1 ounce PPO of pumpkin puree.

Thanks for the tips snappyllama. I think I'll try with pumpkin oil and without it, but including the puree and see what I like better.

And I did read one post on DOS and they used 17%. Not sure about the others though.