Teach Soap

Just wondering what all you can juice to make soap. I know you can do carrots and cucumbers but what else? Also what properties to they lend to the soap?

Pumpkin, cooked and mashed is good and recently I picked aloe vera from the garden, peeled one side and then blended blended blended it and it has turned out well. I was going to scoop the gel out but it was just to tedious for me.
I have used bananas, perhaps use half the water required to dissolve caustic soda add it to your oil and then add mashed banana.
And I am just wondering about watermelon and tomatoes they probably work too.
I think the jury is out to whether any of the properties remain.

Like it was already said, pumpkin does well in soap.
I've used pureed cucumber, pureed avocado, pureed carrot, tomato paste, pureed blueberry, pureed blackberries. I honestly don't know if much of anything survives saponification, so I really only use it for color. It can make good label appeal as well.

Here's my experience with what colors I've gotten from the purees.
Cucumber: Very light green
Tomato Paste: Light orange
Blueberries: Light Gray
Avocado:Medium green that fades after a few months to a light green
Carrot:Yellowish Orange
Blackberries: Purple, but eventually faded to a bluish gray

Then there are all the herbal & spice infusions you can do for colorants, too

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Genny

You can use anything you can juice to soap, really, literally! I've done other than what already mentioned: ginger, basil, cilantro, spinach, cranberry, coconut water, mango, pineapple... Well that's all I can think of for now. You can even soap with egg, makes very good facial soap.

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Shieh Design Studio
https://www.facebook.com/ShiehDesignStudio
http://soapandrestless.blogspot.com

My banana was a bit darker than another I had seen, next time, I will soap even cooler.
Here is a photo of three colours I did 2 or 3 months ago. The tomato one is pretty rough looking but it is me just playing!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ret5mcp7/8 ... hotostream

I just checked what I did for the banana soap - used normal amout of water and put the mashed banana into the oils after the lye. I use extra virgin OO, so my soaps may be a little darker than some.

I used banana with buttermilk in this soap and added a little TD to whiten it, not dark color at all:

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Shieh Design Studio
https://www.facebook.com/ShiehDesignStudio
http://soapandrestless.blogspot.com

What are the benefits to soaping with:

Tomato/tomato paste
Cucumber
Egg
Tussah or other silk (mentioned in another thread)
Banana
Pumpkin
Ginger
Basil
Blueberry
Carrot
Avocado
Cranberry
Coconut water (coconut milk? coconut cream?)

Is it all about color, or are there other benefits -- the kind we're not allowed to advertise as being properties/benefits of our soaps?

I can only tell you my personal opinion:

Egg in soap is like the old time facial, it tightens up your skin and adds shine. Have you tried applying egg white as a facial masque? In soap it's similar, but less because you wash right off.

Silk adds, we'll silky slippery feeling to the suds.

Banana increases bubbling power because of the sugar and it adds texture and visual interest to the soap as the seeds oxidize to brown speckles.

Ginger if use a good amount gives you that heating sensation under hot water shower, not burning, just warm, it's said to increase circulation. I felt a little, but again it washes right off so not too much.

Pineapple has a lot of enzyme, very exfoliating, good facial soap additive, but be careful not to use a lot, it would seize your batter and weaken your lye. It is probably not suitable for sensitive skin.

Papaya in soap to me is very soothing for my face, adds that silkiness and makes my face feel replenished without any residue. But papaya is too expensive and harder to find, not a year round additive.

Coconut water is different from coconut milk (or cream), it adds silkiness and produces very small but delicate bubbles. When using full amount as your liquid it would make your soap soft for longer unless you add sodium lactate or CPOP to help out if your are as impatient as me.

Coconut milk is excellent in soap. I recently did a blind milk soap test that included goat milk, cow milk, coconut milk and breast milk soaps, and coconut milk soap is the winner of the overall performance. Most testers were surprised that goat milk soap did not meet the expectation. Coconut milk which is basically coconut extract in water, can be found in different concentration. I usually buy the one with the highest concentration without any additives. The one I like usually is 60%~70% concentration and once open it can only keep in the fridge for 2 days because there's no preservatives. Coconut milk gets the best of 2 milk soap groups, the plant milk and the animal milks. Plant milks like almond, soy, hemp, oat... etc. adds silkiness to the soap, but they aren't really moisturizing because they have no fatty acid. Animal milks have a lot of fat and protein and sugar, well if you use full fat fresh milk like I do, and so they boost bubbling power in soap and usually creamier. Coconut milk is the only milk that not only adds silkiness but also has lots of fat and sugar. It makes the creamiest lather amount all milks I ever tried.

The rest of other organic additives I don't feel anything, just for coloring and label appeal.

_________________
Shieh Design Studio
https://www.facebook.com/ShiehDesignStudio
http://soapandrestless.blogspot.com

Thank you for all that info!

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Linda
I know the voices in my head aren't real, but they sure have some great ideas!

It may have been your unbelievable beautiful creation that I saw cat040876 (I am so bad I have forgotten your name!). I don't use TD at all. I did use coconut cream in my banana soap though.
I love your blind soap test too, very interesting.

Surely I am not the only one curious about this and someone has tried it. I was wondering what the soap would turn out like if instead of the smooshy yummy part of a banana you ate that and soaped with the inner peel. I know it has a pleasant smell, a somewhat astringent flavor, and natural chemical properties that you can take advantage of to rid yourself of plantar warts. Anyone?

I just made myself a fruit platter and was reminded I have strawberries in the freezer for soap and there is also rock melon/cantelope and kiwi fruit that we could use.
I put any left over fruit that is not going to be eaten or at its use by date straight in the freezer whole or chopped.
I am eating a banana now and looked at the inside skin but it would be too tedious for me to bother removing it! A bit like the aloe vera, I just peeled one side and blended the rest.
Also just wanted to say I would love to try Genny's idea of the blackberries if I could find free ones, but they are a noxious weed over here and a bit too expensive when you can buy them at the supermarket, to put into soap.

There's a mulberry tree along the fence line that the neighbor absolutely hates but I love because it is one of the first fruits for the cardinals and blue jays in spring. I don't know what it would do in soap but it stains my feet purple pretty intensely.