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How do OILS affect your soap?!
By Moore family | May 15, 2009
I got a shipment of soapmaking supplies in today, including olive oil, coconut oil, and palm oil, some of the major ingredients I use in my soap. I wonder how many people realize what oils in soap do – or not do – for their skin. When first experimenting with soap making, I followed a simple recipe that used primarily vegetable shortening as the oil (fat), with a smattering of olive oil. It was certainly a cheap option for producing soap…and it worked for the time being, but as I began to develope my soap recipes, I began to look into other oils that would provide complete care for the skin, from moisturizing to rejuvanting skin cells, from gently cleaning baby’s face to aiding mature skin types. 
After all, oils are the primary components of a natural soap bar, composing approximately sixty-five percent of the ingredients of bar soap. It would make sense then, that the type and quality of oil used in the soap drastically effects how that soap works for your skin, for the essential nature of any soap is directly related to the oils within it. The oils used in soap affect both the physical nature of the soap bar (feel, texture, hardness, etc.) and the skin-care properties of the bar (moisturizing, softening, protecting, etc.) Too much of one oil can create a bar of soap that is hard to the point of being brittle and cracking. Too much of another type of oil will produce soap that is soft, sticky, and quickly melts away in the soap dish.
Some oils are ultra-moisturizing for the skin, yet will spoil in a natural bar of soap like ours (since we don’t use the often harmful chemical preservatives found in many commercial soap) unless used in the correct proportions. Other oils will leave a greasy film on the surface of the skin. It was important, than, that I used the right kind of oils in the right proportions to get just the perfect bar of soap! I also wanted to use oils that would compliment and enhance the qualities of goat milk in my soap. In the next blog, I’ll begin to look at the oils I did choose, and why I chose them. Right now, it’s time to go get that oil stored away!
Topics: Goat Milk Soap, Natural Soap, Oils | No Comments »
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