Properties of Oils in Soapmaking
Posted by Rob on Jul 14th 2016
We soapmakers are kind of like alchemists. We combine base oils and react them to form something more valuable. It’s not quite gold from lead, but it’s similar.
We use a wide variety of oils, depending on the qualities we want in our finished product. Here’s a list of some of our common oils with the properties they give to soaps.
| Avocado Oil | Contains vitamins E, D, and A, making the soap healing and moisturizing. |
| Canola Oil | Makes a stable lathering soap, conditioning, but it makes the soap soft. Canola oil is often used to partially replace better, more expensive oils (like olive oil) to save costs. (C&L will never use canola oil.) |
| Castor Oil | Amazing stuff. Expensive stuff! Makes a soap with a fluffy and stable lather, highly moisturizing, holding moisture to the skin. (C&L uses castor oil in most of our soaps.) |
| Coconut Oil | Makes a very good soap – a hard bar with fluffy lather that is moisturizing, conditioning and protecting. (Most C&L soaps contain at least 40% coconut oil.) |
| Cocoa Butter | Yep, the same that’s used to make chocolates (although we use the unscented kind.) It makes a hard soap with a stable lather that is conditioning and moisturizing. C&L uses it as a superfat in our process so it protects and moisturizes your skin. |
| Corn Oil | This is an inexpensive oil that makes a conditioning, but soft soap. Some soapmakers use it to partially replace more expensive oils. |
| Cottonseed Oil | This is also inexpensive, but it makes a pretty good soap – stable lather, conditioning, with a silky feel. It also adds an emollient. |
| Crisco | Yep, Crisco. I don’t know anyone who uses this to make soap except weekend experimenters. |
| Emu Oil | Rob can’t eat beef or pork, so he substitutes emu. So, he has emu oil around. We don’t use it in soap because it’s WAY too expensive, but it is FANTASTIC for your skin. |
| Evening Primrose Oil | GREAT stuff. It is sometimes uses as a superfat so most of the oil stays in the soap as raw oil. It’s great for dry skin, eczema and psoriasis. |
| Grapeseed Oil | Used as a superfat, it absorbs into the skin quickly without being greasy. |
| Hazelnut Oil | Makes a real stable lather and a conditioning, moisturizing bar of soap, although a bit soft. It has a fragrance that’s hard to overcome with essential oils. |
| Hemp Seed Oil | Makes a medium-soft bar that has stable lather, conditioning, and a silky feel. Hemp soaps can spoil quickly, though, so keep them refrigerated. The hemp seed oil we use in soapmaking has no THC. It comes from a different strain. |
| Jojoba | We love jojoba oil (ho-ho-ba). It’s very expensive, but worth it. We use it in most of our lotions, and only one of our soaps. It’s a great emollient, and because it’s the only oil that has a chemical composition so similar to human skin’s sebum, it is easily absorbed, promoting silky soft skin without any fear of damaging your skin’s natural pH or surface chemistry. |
| Lard | Yep, lard. Pig fat. You can buy it at the supermarket. It is VERY cheap, and many weekend soapers use it. It makes a reasonably good bar of soap, too! (C&L never uses animal products in our soaps, so lard is OUT!) |
| Macadamia Nut Oil | Who can afford it? We use it as a superfat in some of our soaps because it’s a great emollient and is said to protect skin cells from deterioration. |
| Mango Butter | GREAT stuff! Used as a superfat only, it’s a great moisturizer. |
| Neem Oil | Poor little neems. We would never use neem oil. JUST KIDDING! It comes from a tropical evergreen tree. |
| Olive Oil | We are fortunate that nature gave us such a perfect oil for making soap, and in such good quantities. Everything about this oil is great. It’s not too expensive to use, it makes a superb bar of soap, and it’s fantastic for skin. C&L uses a lot of olive oil in all of our soaps. |
| Palm Oil | Makes a hard, stable, conditioning, silky bar of soap, and C&L uses it in most of our soaps. However, there’s a controversy about it. Some say palm oil farming contributes to deforestation in developing countries. As a result, we’re trying to reduce the amount we use, and we’re spending more that we should to buy palm oil from certified green suppliers. |
| Peanut Oil | Here’s another inexpensive oil sometimes used to replace more expensive oils (but not by C&L). It makes a soap with a long lasting, stable lather that is conditioning. Since it has a short shelf life, the soap might tend to mold. |
| Rice Bran Oil | This is an inexpensive oil that is great for moisturizing delicate, sensitive, or mature skin. |
| Safflower Oil | This oil makes a silky, stable, conditioning, moisturizing bar, but a little soft. It has a limited shelf life. |
| Sesame Seed Oil | This oil makes a pretty good bar of soap, but it has a strong scent that’s hard to cover up. We once bought a pallet of olive oil, and when it was delivered we discovered about 200 pounds of sesame seed oil hidden in the middle, by accident, I guess. We tried it in soap, but we weren’t happy with it. We cook with it instead. |
| Shea Butter | WOW we love this stuff. Our African Black soap is 45% shea butter. It makes a hard bar with a stable lather, conditioning, and very silky. Treats dry skin, blemishes, discoloration, scars, and wrinkles. |
| Soybean Oil | OK yuck. It’s a really cheap oil that you can get at Costco, and it will make soap. Some soapmakers trying to cut costs will use it to partially replace more expensive oils like olive oil. We tried to use it but the soap smelled like it had been made with lard, and it was soft. No. Never again. |
| Sunflower Oil | This contains a lot of vitamin E, so it’s great for your skin and it also acts as a natural preservative for soaps. It makes a stable, silky, soft soap. |
| Sweet Almond Oil | Yep, we love this one. It’s a great emollient when superfatted or used in creams and lotions as we do. |
| Tallow | Beef fat. Gross, dudes. Makes a hard soap with a stable lather, and it’s really cheap. But, the soap smells bad, and anyway, gross dude. Seriously. |
| Walnut Oil | This is a great oil to use in soap. It’s an emollient that is said to help regenerate skin while toning and moisturizing, preventing wrinkles, dandruff, and rough skin. |
| Wheat Germ Oil | C&L uses wheat germ oil in some of our products. It produces a stable lather and is conditioning. It’s rich in vitamin E and anti-oxidants and is great for soothing skin problems like eczema and psoriasis. |