Teach Soap

Since so many of you seem to like rice bran oil I decided to try it... and guess what? I love it too! Where do folks get theirs from? I've searches most of my usual sites and it is generally $5-7 for 16oz, but I can get 34oz at Trader Joe's for $4.50. Any suggestions?

Also: what is a good substitute for palm / lard? I want to do some vegan batches that are palm free, but can't find anything that with similar hardness and properties. Was thinking babassu, but it doesn't give me that super hard bar I like. Generally I do palm, cocoa butter and sodium lactate for a nice hard bar. Ideas?

Thank you in advance, my lovelies!

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~~Heather~~
Mad [soaping] Scientist

The best price I know of for Rice Bran Oil is from Soapers Choice, $12.50 for 7 pounds and $59.50 for 35 pounds. That's about .11 per pound before shipping. I'd say stick with Trader Joes if you go there anyway..... and stop calling me that.

PS - Even with a bad winter, SueW and I have stayed TOASTY while we have been outdoors. Thanks!

It has been a year since I have made a batch of soap without lard. Any before that had palm. I did experiment with no lard or palm but never got very far. All of my notes tell me its either palm oil, tallow or lard. I use babassu but will divide that with my percentage of coconut or palm kernel. I would and sometimes will do all babassu but it is the cost that has me using some of the others.
I have my last attempt at a veggie, no palm that I will PM you with... I would post it but do not want others to think it is a tried and true recipe.
I do like ricebran oil, usually just get it at the grocery store, but I like grapeseed even more. Have you tried that one?

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Susie
Sometimes A Mistake is so much fun, You just have to do it again!

I recently bought some kokum (?sp) butter to try a no palm/no lard soap, but haven't made it yet. It's much harder than cocoa, shea, or mango which are my usual butter staples.

I'm sorry to say I gave up on rice bran in soap. A couple of years ago when the price of olive oil went up, I bought some rice bran oil. I subbed half of the rice bran for olive in my soaps. I didn't care for the final texture and the feel of the bars. I went back to olive. I don't use palm or shea butter.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

Thank you everyone! Much appreciated

Glad you and SueW are staying toasty DaveW! <3

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~~Heather~~
Mad [soaping] Scientist

I've been using more rice bran, too. I really like the bubbles, and how hard the bars get. I'm still experimenting with it, and may eventually sub it for part of the olive instead of all, but even a bar that was rice bran, coconut, and palm in equal parts with about 10% cocoa butter was not drying to my normally dry skin, which I thought was pretty impressive. I get mine from Soaper's Choice. Since I use RBO in balms, too (nice for mature skin!), I get it in larger quantities.

As for palm free, have you bee to the Lovin' Soap blog? She went palm free a while ago, and probably has some recipes. I tried this one ages ago: http://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-body- ... acial-bar/ and although it's a nice soap, though it takes time to firm up.

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Lesli Sagan
Avital's Apiaries
Like us: http://www.facebook.com/AvitalsApiaries

You can use shortening for the palm/lard. Check the ingredients for all vegetable (Soybean)
Crisco has palm in it. Some have animal fat. You could also use other hard oils like
shea or cocoa butter. Babassu is a substitute for coconut oil.
Kathy

Olive Oil will also contribute to a hard bar. depending on much
you use, It will require a bit longer cure time.
Kathy

My normal recipe is 35% olive, 20% coconut, 15% rbo, 25% palm, 5% castor, 5% shea. Makes an extremely hard bar, cutable after a day. When I did 35% palm and no rbo it took up to a week before I could cut it, if gelled. Non-gelled took up to 2 weeks.

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~~Heather~~
Mad [soaping] Scientist

i made a loaf using no palm or lard. It was 30% olive and the rest equally cocoa butter and sunflower seed oil, bc i had sunflower oil I needed to use up. I added dissolved sea salt to harden the bars up and they came out nicely, altho they are not ready for another couple weeks yet so I have not used one. But try hardening it up with salt. I think cocao butter itself is pretty good for making a hard bar, and olive too as well, plus coconut is excellent for hard/lathering just dont use more than 30% coconut

My normal recipe is 50% olive, 30% coconut, and 20% avocado. I superstar at 7% and use a 27% lye solution. My bars are generally able to be unmolded the next day if gelled. I use to suffer from really dry skin but haven't had a problem since using this recipe.I don't use Palm because it is a pain and I don't use lard because I want an all vegetable oil recipe. I haven't tried vegetable shortening because I am afraid it would be overly greasy. I do play around and add cocoa butter at 5% or I used mango butter in the last batch I made with oat milk. It is very creamy, not much lather but really nice.

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Haven

I just want to say that $4 at Trader Joes is good. I went to whole foods to get mine and it was a lot more. I know more tun $4. I've yet to use it because I'm new to the site and figured I might as well try it. Never used it before. so, I won't know how much difference it's going to make in my soap

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~~~Cheryl~~~

I've done an olive and coconut mix that turned out well--I used it for swirling, since it's slow to set up.

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Lesli Sagan
Avital's Apiaries
Like us: http://www.facebook.com/AvitalsApiaries