i think i am starting to 'get' this sap chart stuff, maybe! ok, i make a simple bar with CO, lard, GM and OO. in my area, the oo is terribly expensive so i was thinking to sub with something else? sunflower is not possible here, but canola and safflower is easy to get and cheaper. i seen a chart saying that all are within the same range of 185-198, and a lye of .133 to .134. since these values are so very close, does this mean i can use one of the less expensive, easier to find oils in place of the oo? or is there some other reason (slimy bars? snotty soap?) not to use some of the sub. oils? also, i have only gotten FO from 2 places, one place had 1 oz jars, one had 2 oz jars.the soap made with the one with the 1 oz jars smells as strong as the other with 2 oz jars of FO. are some places selling less-strong FO? i am using a recipe that makes around a 4lb loaf of soaps. the 2 diff. 'brands' of FO seems the same strength even tho one used half as much as the other. how much is generally used per pound of soap? thanks for anything you can tell me!
Re: oils question I really love Safflower..I have also given up my OO for now until I can find it cheaper. If its not to much of a % you can also use soybean. Since my olive wasn't really a big part of my recipe and I already had Saff I use Soy now..nobody noticed and it is inexpensive and easy to find. I will go back to OO when I can tho.. Yes there are different stregths of FO. I start at 1oz per lb of oils used and adjust from there...Its what I stick with most of the time
oh, good to know! that was another oil that had the same values as those others, i jsut forgot to put in my post. thanks, i can do that too!
Chris you might just want to bite the bullet and order your FO's or EO's online. It is the single biggest savings over local, unless one of the major places is local to you. And yes there isn't a nickles worth of difference in your soap when you subout most butters for butters or most oils for other oils. Now soy can cause you some problems, giving you what looks like tiny bubbles or pitting in your soap, which is actually wax pastilles. Palm Kernal oil can do the same thing. Always run your recipe when you make changes back through the lye calculator thesage.com to double check if your lye amount changes at all, most of the time it doesn't, only when tweaking butters. Vicki
i have to order everything online, that's not an issue--i am on a very friendly basis with the UPS ppl!! i just wanted to know if one place is any better than another--thanks for the info on soy oil, maybe i will just use saff or canola then. thanks!
You will really like the safflower. I can only get it in small amounts local, like 24 ounces, just way to expensive. Remember that the cheap veggy oils are simply soybean oil, so don't go to all the trouble of melting crisco type products which are the same just hydrogenated. I have never used canala but don't see why it would be a problem. My favs are lard and tallow. Vicki
today i used my reg. recipe but sub'd half the olive for canola. so, in a few weeks i'll find out how it works! it seemed thinner, but otherwise the soap making went as usual. so can soybean oil be used with lard or not? is this when it leave the pits or something?
I used a little bit of Canola once in a batch of soap when I didn't quite have enough Safflower oil and I just didn't like it at all, the bar was really soft and seemed kinda slimey to me. sheryl
I have cut way back on my use of olive and rice bran oils. Just too pricey. The little I use now is strictly label appeal. I switched to HO sunflower. I have not tried safflower but will get some next time I order oils. Hmmm, I do have a small bottle of it sitting around. Should go ahead and give it a try.
:yeahthat I also dislike vegetable (soybean) oil in soap. However, I do love Sunflower and Safflower. Sara
another :yeahthat I'm a sunflower gal, but have used canola in a pinch and when I was first starting out. Best places for FO's and Eo's for me www.brambleberry.com www.aromahaven.com (I have some best sellers from here, but have bought others that didn't work out so well so check the fragrance review board) www.thesage.com And then you can coop at the yahoo group soapingcoopcentral. I love the FO's and EO's lillian gets.
so far, i've not seen any sunflower, is this something you order online?? i'm getting to a walmart this weekend i hope, and if its there, i'll get some. i ordered some FO from wholesale supplies plus, anyone have experience with them? good i hope!
I have gotten a few FOs from WSP and they were nice. I get my HO sunflower from Columbus foods on-line along with all my other oils. I just can't get anything local for less, except for lard.
i see you're in nebraska, what part? we are close to your border. i can really understand ordering everything--there is VERY little around here worth using. the lard is cheaper out of town too, so like this weekend, when i do get to a city, i really stock up. the clerks gotta wonder why this woman is buying lard by the cart?!! lol! i do not know about the 'HO' in your post? i will look online and check out the place you mention. thanks!
I'm about 25 miles west of Lincoln in SE Nebraska. HO = High Oleic I've read that HO was better for soap making than regular sunflower. I can't remember why. :LOL I *think* it has a longer shelf life. But I could be wrong.
Hmmm, I've heard of those towns but never been. I had to check mapquest. We've only been in Nebraska 4.5 years. I haven't ventured much beyond Lincoln and a few little towns right around us. We are actually 3 miles west of Milford.
