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.

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.

100_perc_soaps_II_after2weeks_1

 

100_perc_soaps_II_after2weeks_2

 

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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!