A big test of 100% one oil soaps – part II – foaming test after 2 weeks
My experiment with 100% one oil soaps continued. After 2 weeks I examined the hardness of soaps and how do they foam. I also tested for Ph.
I tried my one oil soaps also after 4 weeks and the results were the same.
Concerning the fragrance, all soaps have lost their odor of the oil, except cocoa butter soap and shea butter soap.
I had some surprises with soaps from corn, peanut and castor oil.
Contents
Summary table
One oil soap type | Color | Odor of oil | Foam and bubbles | Hardness | Phenophtalein and tongue test | Comment |
Coconut oil soap | The whitest | No odor | Big bubbles, as expected | Hard | OK | I did not remark it to be drying to my skin, contrary to what is believed, but I think this is individual… |
Palm oil soap | Cream color | No odor | Small bubbles, creamy and abundant lather | Hard | OK | |
Olive oil soap | It lost the greenish-yellowish color and turned white | Almost no original odor | No bubbles or foam, slimy | Hard | OK | |
Corn oil soap | Cream white – similar to shea butter soap | No odor | A bit slimy, but better foaming than olive oil soap | Softer | OK | I was expecting similar soap as that of olive oil. However, I was positively surprised by its foaming ability |
Peanut oil soap | Cream white, similar to corn oil soap | Smells of rancidity | Very good bubbles | Softer | OK | The most positive surprise in terms of foaming – foamed better than that of the corn oil soap, I didn’t have to make much effort. However, peanut oil is know to go rancid quickly, so its concentration is not recommended to be higher than 20% in a recipe. I confirm – the soap started to smell of rancid oils already after 2 weeks, after 4 weeks it started to get orange. |
Cocoa butter soap | Dark yellow | Smells of cocoa butter | A bit slimy, much like olive oil soap, almost no foam | Hard | OK | |
Castor oil soap | Translucent white | No odor | No foam at all! | A bit gummy | OK | This soap was another surprise. While the soap was, as expected, translucent, I did not get it to foam… I have no explanation, why, as adding 10% to the olive oil recipe makes the olive oil soap foam very nicely. |
Shea butter soap | Cream white | Smells of Shea butter | Creamy lather, took a bit longer to make it | Hard | OK | |
Beeswax soap | Yellow inside, upon oxidation dark orange | Smells of nothing | No foam or bubbles, as expected | Hard, breaking easily | Alkaline, zaps! | Interestingly, my soap was alkaline. This might explain why it broke easily. My theory – my beeswax was raw, not cleaned, therefore contained some impurities and relatively less of saponifiables than the value estimated by SoapCalc. |
Jojoba oil soap | Two phases – the bottom, saponified was white-bright yellowish, top floating was yellow like jojoba oil | No odor | The bottom part made no foam, left a waxy feeling, as expected – jojoba oil is a wax. | The bottom part very soft. | The bottom part is alkaline, zaps!The top liquid part is OK. | I do not know why this separation took place, however, it might be a reason why the soap was alkaline – the lye could not react with all the saponifiables . I might want to use less water in the future for this soap. |
Color differences
The first difference is that some of the soaps changed their color – e.g. the olive oil soap started to loose its color in white spots until it lost color totally. The cocoa butter soap darkened into almost orange color.
Videos – one oil soap foaming test after 2 weeks
Coconut oil soap
Palm oil soap
Olive oil soap
Corn oil soap
Peanut oil soap
Cocoa butter soap
Castor oil soap
Shea butter soap
Jojoba oil soap
Beeswax soap
Conclusion
- Peanut oil became my favorite because of very nice lather and conditioning. The only problem is it goes rancid pretty fast. Not sure if adding vitamine E or rosemary extract would help. On the other hand, since this experiment, I have used peanut oil up to 20% in my recipes and did not observe fast rancidity!
- Corn oil to my surprise also foamed better than olive oil soap, although was still slimy. I think it is a good and cheaper olive oil substitution
- I was very surprised by castor oil soap, as it did not foam at all, which is in contrary to my experience with this oil in multiple oil recipes… if you have an idea why is this, i would be glad to hear it!
- Jojoba oil seems a very good superfatting oil, because of high percentage of unsaponifiables
- Beeswax soap – well, I did not expect it to foam as I know that already 5% in your recipe can make a hard bar that has problems to foam. Do not use more than 3%…
- Shea butter soap was very hard and its conditioning effect was difficult to estimate. I think it is a good oil to make your soap hard and conditioning at the same time and not much is needed.
- Palm and coconut soaps seem – as already known – to be two of the most important oils in soapmaking when it comes to making bubbles and foam. I confirm that palm soap gives rich foam and coconut soap gives nice and big, easy forming bubbles. I did not remark coconut soap to be drying for my skin, contrary to what is believed, but I guess this is individual…
Join me soon for the very last part of the test – after 1 year! (yes, I kept all the soaps that long… :))
I hope that you like my test and will be happy if you leave me a comment with your suggestions on which oils or oil combinations I should try next.
Soap well!
This entry was posted by evik on January 16, 2013 at 11:23, and is filed under My soap experiments, soapmaking. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0.You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.
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#4 written by Charlie 7 years ago
Have you tried ghee ( clarified butter ) ? I have used it in many of my soap recipes and I love the properties it adds to my soap. By the way I love the fact that you have tried making one oil soaps to see what their properties are like. I have made coconut oil soap and crisco soap. The crisco soap is interesting.
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#6 written by Mary Walton 7 years ago
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#9 written by Tina 7 years ago
I love your experiments, thank you for sharing this useful information. Sounds like you had fun.
However, I would never use corn oil as a substitute for olive oil! The chances of getting GM corn are really high and I don’t put anything on my skin that I wouldn’t eat. Same with canola, count me out. Besides, pure olive oil soap has sorted out my dry, sensitive skin problem that I’ve had for 40 years – even on my face.
I would be interested to know if there is a difference between the different types of olive oil.
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#10 written by evik 7 years ago
Hi Tina, just answered your question on olive oils in your previous comment. I never thought about the GM in corn or canola oil. Here in Europe, corn oil is rather rare, although we use canola. It depends on the quality, but I do agree olive oil is in general better. However, if you have other precious oils in your soap, you might want to use something cheaper than olive oil as filling.
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#14 written by Ed 6 years ago
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#17 written by Nicole 5 years ago
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#18 written by evik 5 years ago
Hi Nicole,
all soaps were 5% superfatted (if not otherwise stated). See the table here: http://curious-soapmaker.com/big-test-100-one-oil-soaps-part-i.html
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#22 written by Susanne 4 years ago
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#24 written by hany 3 years ago
When I make 100% coconut oil soap at the beginning it is odder less however, it has after finish smell that is not acceptable and stays on hand for a while. I use RBD coconut oil from two different sources. Even if I put fragrance it gives the bar very nice smell before and during use however, it never removes the after use smell.
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#25 written by Emma 3 years ago
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Wow! Can you be any more thorough? Fascinating reading!