Neem oil

[kandlekrazy]

2 hours ago, Moonstar said:

I have a question for anyone out there about adding activated charcoal to soap. Do you find this addition to be too drying for sensitive skin ? I know its good for 

acne/problem skin types but wasn't sure about sensitive skin. 

As a sensitive, dry skin user I can tell you that I can use it once in a while but if I do it even 2 days in a row it makes my dry skin worse and rosacea worse.  I think it's more for those with oily or maybe even normal skin.

[Moonstar]

11 minutes ago, kandlekrazy said:

As a sensitive, dry skin user I can tell you that I can use it once in a while but if I do it even 2 days in a row it makes my dry skin worse and rosacea worse.  I think it's more for those with oily or maybe even normal skin.

Thanks, that's what I thought

[ChrisR]

3 hours ago, Moonstar said:

I have a question for anyone out there about adding activated charcoal to soap. Do you find this addition to be too drying for sensitive skin ? I know its good for 

acne/problem skin types but wasn't sure about sensitive skin. 

I've used it as a swirl in some goat's milk soap I made a few years ago and it wasn't drying.  Hopefully someone will chime in that's used it In a whole bar.

 

This is where I get my neem oil:  http://www.essentialwholesale.com/product/1317/neem-oil-filtered-certified-organic

[Candybee]

Thank you ChrisR for your recipe and insight in use of neem oil. The info from your recipe and this thread has helped me a great deal to tweak my own recipe and narrow down my additives.

[Moonstar]

Ok this is a dumb question but is palm oil and palm kernel oil the same thing ?  Im looking at WSP since theres no way I would need 7 lbs being that

Im a beginner with CP - although soapers choice has great prices, thats just too much product  I really want to try Chris's Neem recipe for my

grandson.

Edited April 9, 2017 by Moonstar

[Candybee]

Palm Kernal Oil (PKO) and Palm oil are not the same. PKO works very much like coconut oil or babassu. It creates lots of big fluffy lather, hardens the bar, and adds cleansing value. Palm oil is more like shea, mango, lard, cocoa butter. Think more 'butter' as in moisturizing, emolliency, and creaminess. It also adds some hardness to the bar too. Both feel very different in your soap as they have different fatty acids with different molecular chain structures. They can both be used together in a recipe or as part of a recipe to give you a nice, creamy, bubbly, hard bar of soap.

[Moonstar]

30 minutes ago, Candybee said:

Palm Kernal Oil (PKO) and Palm oil are not the same. PKO works very much like coconut oil or babassu. It creates lots of big fluffy lather, hardens the bar, and adds cleansing value. Palm oil is more like shea, mango, lard, cocoa butter. Think more 'butter' as in moisturizing, emolliency, and creaminess. It also adds some hardness to the bar too. Both feel very different in your soap as they have different fatty acids with different molecular chain structures. They can both be used together in a recipe or as part of a recipe to give you a nice, creamy, bubbly, hard bar of soap.

Thanks Candy ! Glad I asked because Chris's Neem oils soap recipe calls for 10 oz of PKO + 10 oz of Babassu oil - where would I get the PKO in smaller

amounts. Im surprised WSP doesn't carry PKO just palm oil and they also have the palm kernel flakes .... rrrrrrr . This might be a sign that CP is too difficult for me  

Edited April 10, 2017 by Moonstar

[Sponiebr]

17 hours ago, Moonstar said:

Thanks Candy ! Glad I asked because Chris's Neem oils soap recipe calls for 10 oz of PKO + 10 oz of Babassu oil - where would I get the PKO in smaller

amounts. Im surprised WSP doesn't carry PKO just palm oil and they also have the palm kernel flakes .... rrrrrrr . This might be a sign that CP is too difficult for me  

Hey Moonie,

Well, you could get your PKO from somewhere like Brambleberry which will sell you a small quanty of PKO (2 lbs.) https://www.brambleberry.com/Palm-Kernel-Flakes-P3446.aspx 
But to be totally honest 7 lbs. is NOT that much PKO, (it's about a gallon).  

 

And you could get your babassu oil from BB as well... 

Come on! Stick with it! CP is NOT difficult, I mean you CAN make it difficult, and you CAN make it an ungodly expensive endeavor, but soapmaking is neither in itself expensive nor difficult. I'm very much the cheap bastard when it comes to soapmaking. I very RARELY buy "real soap making tools". There are exceptions:

Your scale, you NEED THIS, don't skimp on your scale, and baby it as though it were your most prized possession. I use this scale https://www.amazon.com/My-Weigh-KD-8000-Kitchen-Digital/dp/B01C6CN1VY/ref=sr_1_2?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1491844491&sr=1-2&keywords=kd8000+scale 

Stick Blender, GET ONE! I use this one and it's just fine: https://www.amazon.com/Proctor-Silex-59738A-Proctor-Silex-Blender/dp/B00TJTASYG/ref=dp_ob_title_kitchen,  

Apart from that, everything else can be pretty much gotten from Dollar Tree and from Walmart. 

This is just a suggestion, but (and I've never worked with neem before) you might just wing down to Walmart and snag some oils:

GV Shortening, NOT THE 100% Vegetable the OTHER one in the BLUE can, You could use Bakerite as it's the same as the GV Shortening.
Coconut Oil: the 2 pack of Luanna is the best deal.
GV Classic Olive Oil the 101 ounce jug is the best deal, just skip the Extra Virgin Olive oil, it's not really needed and it's slightly more expensive. 
Humeco Castor Oil: 6 ounce bottles over in the Health Care section sitting by the Milk of Magnesia and Metamucil. 

That's usually what I put into my soaps up there.... I do use more exotic stuff like palm oil now, but those are the basics. And when my supply of BrambleBerry Coconut oil and Palm Oil run out, if I can't get in on some sort of SUPER sale I'll just go back to buying my oils from Wallyworld.  

Also you might want to start with making up some regular soap to learn the methods and how fast things move, what thin trace looks like, what it looks like when you HAVE TO GET THE SOAP INTO THE MOLD NOW! OMG!!!!!!! NOOOO!!!!!!!! (Whew, I can't believe I saved it) looks like...  If you'd like post your formularion of your neem oil soap I'll see if I can work up a version that doesn't need "exotic" oils. It's up to you. 

HTH,

Sponiebr: The Executor of Bad Ideas and Sundry Services

(It's REALLY a LOT of fun!) 

Edited April 10, 2017 by Sponiebr
I didn't see ChrisR's previous posting... I'll work on sump'n and post it.

[Shari]

Wholesale Supplies Plus does carry PKO --- here you go!

 

http://www.wholesalesuppliesplus.com/products/palm-kernel-flakes-102-degree-melt.aspx

 

[Moonstar]

18 minutes ago, Shari said:

Wholesale Supplies Plus does carry PKO --- here you go!

 

http://www.wholesalesuppliesplus.com/products/palm-kernel-flakes-102-degree-melt.aspx

 

I thought Palm Kernal Flakes and Palm Kernal oil are 2 different oils ? Im confused lol ! Very thoughtful of you to provide a link  TY !

[Sponiebr]

If all y'all would take a look at this esp: @ChrisR@KrazeKelly, I don't want to steer Moonie wrong here, and I've never made neem oil soap before, but I kept the 25% neem like Chris detailed... BTW: does neem accelerate or anything or is it a well behaved oil? I'm just suggesting this as a good basic Walmart available oils cheap soap. Anywho your comments and input would be greatly appreciated. 

 

Humbly (YES HUMBLY) submitted,
 

Sponiebr: (They're not ALL bad ideas...)  

[Moonstar]

3 hours ago, Sponiebr said:

If all y'all would take a look at this esp: @ChrisR@KrazeKelly, I don't want to steer Moonie wrong here, and I've never made neem oil soap before, but I kept the 25% neem like Chris detailed... BTW: does neem accelerate or anything or is it a well behaved oil? I'm just suggesting this as a good basic Walmart available oils cheap soap. Anywho your comments and input would be greatly appreciated. 

 

Humbly (YES HUMBLY) submitted,
 

Sponiebr: (They're not ALL bad ideas...)  

Oh thank you Sponie for going through all the extra effort. Its just that I really wanna try my hand at Chris's neem oil recipe seeing that my grandsons skin condition is 

flaring up again  But Im starting to wonder if I should even try CP seeing that I have to ask if PKO is the SAME as Palm Kernal Flakes  BTW WSP does carry the 

Palm Kernel Flakes but as you can see by my dumb question Im not sure if thats what the recipe calls for .... oh geez lol ! 

[Sponiebr]

Just now, Moonstar said:

Oh thank you Sponie for going through all the extra effort. Its just that I really wanna try my hand at Chris's neem oil recipe seeing that my grandsons skin condition is 

flaring up again  But Im starting to wonder if I should even try CP seeing that I have to ask if PKO is the SAME as Palm Kernal Flakes  BTW WSP does carry the 

Palm Kernel Flakes but as you can see by my dumb question Im not sure if thats what the recipe calls for .... oh geez lol ! 

AFAIK The PKO and the Palm Kernel Oil Flakes are the same, it's just that the flakes are a little easier to manage esp in cold climates. IIRC One's a block and the other is in flake form. (There is also a hydrogenated PKO, and that's a different beast...) 

[KrazeKelly]

On 4/10/2017 at 1:40 PM, Sponiebr said:

If all y'all would take a look at this esp: @ChrisR@KrazeKelly, I don't want to steer Moonie wrong here, and I've never made neem oil soap before, but I kept the 25% neem like Chris detailed... BTW: does neem accelerate or anything or is it a well behaved oil? I'm just suggesting this as a good basic Walmart available oils cheap soap. Anywho your comments and input would be greatly appreciated. 

 

Humbly (YES HUMBLY) submitted,
 

Sponiebr: (They're not ALL bad ideas...)  

 

I havent used more then 3% in my neem soap so I don't know how it will react. I have a 7 lb jug now so I plain on upping the % in my next batch. I've read to keep it under 20% but no experience with that. I'm no help. Lol ? 

[ChrisR]

You guys can play with the recipe I gave you and switch up some of the ingredients.  I gave you what I use in MY soap that works for my sensitive skin, it's not set in stone LOL!!  I don't have any problem managing the neem oil at a higher rate, it doesn't move real quick, but I don't do anything fancy with it and I don't color it, cause it's pretty dark naturally (brown, but no staining).  I just blend and pour into my molds.  I usually use 100% fresh  goat's milk or coconut milk for my liquid also.  Just have fun with it and find what works for you!!  

[Candybee]

I've been making my neem oil soaps with 15% neem oil and they are lovely! I don't know what all the fuss is about the smell of neem oil. It just smells like earthy garlic to me. In the finished soap I can't smell it at all. But it does retain some of that earthyness. I also used some EOs like lavender, tea tree, geranium, and lemongrass but in varying combos for a variety of neem soaps. I now make three; 1. daily cleansing, 2. acne, and 3. eczema/psoriasis.

 

The one I make for acne is the one I will be sharing in my SOTM tut in June.

 

I did switch out the avocado for sunflower because I wanted a higher linoleic content. (That's regular sunflower not high oleic.) Also, sunflower oil is high in natural vitamin E and excellent for sensitive skin care. I love it because it makes my skin feel ultra soft too.

 

All the recipes and tips shared here in this thread helped me develop my neem oil soap recipes. I am so glad I started this thread because I just love my neem soaps!