vitamin e oil by itself

[golden_vibesss]

good afternoon everyone! i have never made soap before and i am interested in making some cold processed goat milk soap. i have been researching recipes and i have came across a lot that call for lard, olive oil, or coconut oil. however, the only oil/fat i am interested in using for my soap making is vitamin e oil. i would like to keep the ingredients at a minimum. i wanted to try to put together a recipe for this, but first i would like to know if it would even work with only vitamin e oil.

 

[Zing]

Welcome to the forum and to the hobby! I am going to suggest you do some more research. I've been soaping for several years and am constantly looking at recipes and resources. I have never heard of a soap made only from vitamin E oil. Each type of oil contributes certain qualities to the soap, like hardness, lather, creaminess, etc. The most famous (and probably the oldest) single oil soap is made from 100% olive oil (called "castille"). Here's a good article on various oils, their qualities, and recommended amounts to use. Free Beginner's Guide to Soapmaking: Common Soapmaking Oils - Soap Queen

It is important that you personally run every recipe through a lye calculator.

I'm all for simplicity and keeping to a minimum of oils. Keep us posted on what you come up with.

 

[golden_vibesss]

thank you for the advice! i have read that certain oils contribute to different qualities of the soap and that's exactly why i wasn't sure if vitamin e oil would work by itself. i will definitely check out the article!

 

[AliOop]

I agree with @Zing that researching before using oils is a the best thing to do. But I will give you a spoiler alert: vitamin E oil is not a good oil for soaping.

One thing to remember is that the qualities that you love in an oil, such as vitamin E, will be radically changed when that oil comes in contact with lye. For instance, raw coconut oil is usually moisturizing for skin and hair. But coconut oil that has been saponified, that is, made into soap, is very drying for skin and hair. Other oils are comedogenic in their raw form, but not after saponification.

I hope that little teaser of information will spark your interest in further research. Good luck with making your first soap!

 

[DeeAnna]

Pure, unblended tocopherols will react with concentrated alkali (NaOH) but that doesn't mean they are converted into actual soap.

The "vitamin e" preparations sold as food supplements are blended with vegetable oils (soy, wheat germ, etc.) to dilute the concentration to safe levels for skin and internal use. If this is the vitamin e oil you're thinking about using, the product will probably make soap, but the soap will be from the veg oils, not from the vitamin e.

I'm not sure what your goal is for using vitamin e oil to make soap. Most people wanting to do things along this line are hoping the unique properties of the special ingredient will survive saponification. IMO, that's unlikely.

This study might get you started on learning more about what happens to tocopherols in an alkaline environment -- Alkaline saponification results in decomposition of tocopherols in milk and ovine blood plasma - PubMed

 

[golden_vibesss]

this information was very helpful, thank you! i was completely unaware that the qualities of the oils will be changed due to coming in contact with the lye. i suppose i have a lot of researching to do

I agree with @Zing that researching before using oils is a the best thing to do. But I will give you a spoiler alert: vitamin E oil is not a good oil for soaping.

One thing to remember is that the qualities that you love in an oil, such as vitamin E, will be radically changed when that oil comes in contact with lye. For instance, raw coconut oil is usually moisturizing for skin and hair. But coconut oil that has been saponified, that is, made into soap, is very drying for skin and hair. Other oils are comedogenic in their raw form, but not after saponification.

I hope that little teaser of information will spark your interest in further research. Good luck with making your first soap!

this information was very helpful, thank you! i was completely unaware that the qualities of the oils will be changed due to coming in contact with the lye. i suppose i have a lot of researching to do

Pure, unblended tocopherols will react with concentrated alkali (NaOH) but that doesn't mean they are converted into actual soap.

The "vitamin e" preparations sold as food supplements are blended with vegetable oils (soy, wheat germ, etc.) to dilute the concentration to safe levels for skin and internal use. If this is the vitamin e oil you're thinking about using, the product will probably make soap, but the soap will be from the veg oils, not from the vitamin e.

I'm not sure what your goal is for using vitamin e oil to make soap. Most people wanting to do things along this line are hoping the unique properties of the special ingredient will survive saponification. IMO, that's unlikely.

This study might get you started on learning more about what happens to tocopherols in an alkaline environment -- Alkaline saponification results in decomposition of tocopherols in milk and ovine blood plasma - PubMed

you

Pure, unblended tocopherols will react with concentrated alkali (NaOH) but that doesn't mean they are converted into actual soap.

The "vitamin e" preparations sold as food supplements are blended with vegetable oils (soy, wheat germ, etc.) to dilute the concentration to safe levels for skin and internal use. If this is the vitamin e oil you're thinking about using, the product will probably make soap, but the soap will be from the veg oils, not from the vitamin e.

I'm not sure what your goal is for using vitamin e oil to make soap. Most people wanting to do things along this line are hoping the unique properties of the special ingredient will survive saponification. IMO, that's unlikely.

This study might get you started on learning more about what happens to tocopherols in an alkaline environment -- Alkaline saponification results in decomposition of tocopherols in milk and ovine blood plasma - PubMed

thanks for the helpful information! yes, you are correct. i wanted to use the vitamin e oil in the soap hoping that it would be just as beneficial for the skin as it is in other products. but after learning it can't be saponified i now know that won't be possible. someone had also mentioned to me on another forum that even if it could be saponified it wouldn't be very beneficial to use it in soap since it's not a leave on product

 

[DeeAnna]

"...i wanted to use the vitamin e oil in the soap ... but after learning it can't be saponified i now know that won't be possible..."

When fat is saponified, it's basically destroyed. The NaOH breaks each fat molecule apart into 3 fatty acid molecules and 1 glycerine molecule. Then the alkali reacts with the fatty acids to form soap molecules. After saponification, the fat is no longer intact, and all the properties of that fat are largely gone.

Some people point out that some of the exotic fat might survive as part of the superfat, but (a) you can't know how much of each fat actually survives saponification without chemical testing, but (b) it's certain that the superfat in soap is a blend of all the fats used, not just the exotic fat. (c) And very little of the superfat in soap actually sticks to the skin. Most of it is emulsified by the soap and washes down the drain.

This is a long-winded way of saying if vitamin e could be saponified and turned into soap, it wouldn't be vitamin e anymore. If you want it to function as vitamin e, you have to leave it as vitamin e.

"...it wouldn't be very beneficial to use it in soap since it's not a leave on product ..."

That's my opinion too for the reasons I gave just above. In addition, a leave-on product puts a lot more of the fat directly on the skin and that fat stays on the skin for a time. In soap, that's simply not true.

 

[Zany_in_CO]

You might think about soaping a cooking oil that's high in vitamin E. The ones highlighted in blue are commonly used in soap making. Wheat Germ would be a nice addition to a Basic Trinity of Oils batch.

10 Cooking Oils High in Vitamin E

• Wheat Germ Oil — 135% DV per serving. ...
• Hazelnut Oil — 43% DV per serving. ...
• Sunflower Oil — 37% DV per serving. ...
• Almond Oil — 36% DV per serving. ...
• Cottonseed Oil — 32% DV per serving. ...
• Safflower Oil — 31% DV per serving. ...
• Rice Bran Oil — 29% DV per serving. ...
• Grapeseed Oil — 26% DV per serving

 

[golden_vibesss]

You might think about soaping a cooking oil that's high in vitamin E. The ones highlighted in blue are commonly used in soap making. Wheat Germ would be a nice addition to a Basic Trinity of Oils batch.

10 Cooking Oils High in Vitamin E

• Wheat Germ Oil — 135% DV per serving. ...
• Hazelnut Oil — 43% DV per serving. ...
• Sunflower Oil — 37% DV per serving. ...
• Almond Oil — 36% DV per serving. ...
• Cottonseed Oil — 32% DV per serving. ...
• Safflower Oil — 31% DV per serving. ...
• Rice Bran Oil — 29% DV per serving. ...
• Grapeseed Oil — 26% DV per serving

thank you so much for this recommendation!