Teach Soap

Huh. I thought Tocopherol was Vit E and Vit E was used in a preservative. So what's the tocopherol for? Why does Dr Bronner's put it it in all his bars? Should I still keep putting a few drops per loaf?

Vitamin E will slow the oxidation rate of oils you add it to. Theoretically it is added to keep the superfat oils stable for longer periods, which in turn keeps the soap from getting DOS. Theoretically. The only way you could guarantee the vitamin E being in the superfat oils would be with a batch of HP where the superfat oils were added after the cooking process. IE: after saponification when there is no active lye.

There is nothing wrong with adding it to your soap loaves. It would just be more for label appeal, as there is no way of knowing how much of it, if any, made it through saponification.

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~~Heather~~
Mad [soaping] Scientist

Ok, thank you. I guess I will have to learn about HP at some point perhaps instead of rebatching which pretty much didn't work from the place I bought my instructions from originally. The point of HP is so that you can add expensive delicate stuff like EOs and Vit E and it not get beat up by the saponification?

Pretty much!

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~~Heather~~
Mad [soaping] Scientist

Vitamin E is not a preservative and it will not survive the lye monster. There is no need to add it to CP soap.

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

Interesting. Ok. Thank you.

Hmmm. That is interesting. Ok. So if Vit E does not survive the lye monster yet tocopherol is in all of Dr Bronner's soaps does that mean Dr. Bronner's soap must not be cold-processed? But Dr B.'s ' Magic ' soaps list sodium hydroxide on the label but s/he also puts in parenthesis that there is no NaOH left after saponification. So how does he get his tocopherol in his/her bars?

Is HP (Hot Process, right) the same thing as Melt'n Pour Soaps? Can someone give me a link on HP? What's the difference between Melt'n Pour and rebatching? Why can't I Melt'n Pour my own rebatched cold-processed soaps? I'm trying to figure this out somebody help me out here pls...

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Anna Rose @-}--
blog

Aha! Thank you very much Anna Rose. I think is starting to make sense now. In poetry a rose is often symbolic for a secret. Herbologists prolly prefer to add essential oils to homemade MP after the lye monster is long gone.

HP is basically cooked CP. It can be cut sooner as saponification happens during cooking rather than in the mold. But it still does best with a nice long cure, like CP.

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~~Heather~~
Mad [soaping] Scientist