Sunflower Oil Question

[Soapie78]

Howdy! I'm rather new to soap making. Today I bought sunflower oil in hopes of using in some future batches. I had the option of buying imported "pure" (aka refined) sunflower or imported "virgin" (unrefined) sunflower oil. I decided to go with the pure option. Can anyone tell me if I made the right choice or does it really matter? I plan on using it in cp and maybe some hp soap as well.

Thanks!

 

[debbism]

First and foremost....WELCOME to a new addiction! You'll find the peeps here to be so very knowledgable and freely share information.

Now about the sunflower oil.......The most important aspect for me with sunflower oil is that it is "High Oleic" sunflower. The high oleic sunflower has a longer shelf life and is not prone to rancidity which can cause DOS (orange spots) on your beautiful bars of soap.

Refined or unrefined should be OK.....I don't know if there will be any difference in the finished bar of soap - I would guess not.

The only time I noticed a difference between refined and unrefined oils in soap was when I used unrefined avocado oil which made my soap smell like ass - the smell of the oil carried through to the finished product. Needless to say, I do not use unrefined avo anymore!!!

 

[Soapie78]

Thanks for the welcome and thanks for the info! ICK on the unrefined avocado oil! I'll remember that one! lol I will do a little research on the one I have to see if it is "high oleic".

 

[Fragola]

made my soap smell like ass

Used unrefined SF once and same word seems to fit the description (but it was a pure sunflower soap, which may make the smell more intense).

 

[Hazel]

Welcome to the forum!

I've used both pure and the imported virgin and never noticed a difference in my finished batches. However, I want to second what debbism said about using high oleic sunflower oil. I've switched over to using it so now I don't have to worry so much about DOS. I buy it from soaperschoice.com.

I also wanted to mention that sunflower oil produces a softer bar so you don't want to use a high percentage in your batches. I generally use it at 10%-15%. I've also noticed it seems to take longer to reach trace as compared to when I'm using another oil (nice for swirling :wink: ).

 

[paillo]

ditto on using only the high-oleic!