Soy Lecithin

[angel2211]

What is soy lecithin and how does it affect soaps?

I live near absolutely no suppliers at all and my supplier is closed for stock taking for a whole 2 weeks :undecided .

I found a website that told me what soap supplies i can get that are just from my local supermarket. One of them was copha but it went on to say

"the manufacturer has recently decided to add soy lecithin to the coconut oil.. it can still be used, but we prefer to discourage using soy lecithin added copha for soapmaking."

What are your ideas and views on this. I'm DESPERATE to make soap and was going to give it a go using copha just to see what happened but seeing as i've never made soap i've got nothing to compare with.

Also any ideas what i can use for a mould till my supplier opens was thinking of a bowl shaped cup, pringles tin, plastic cutler draw... Yes as you can see i'm way up there on prestige and looks.....lol

[carol k]

i don't make soap but you can find soy lecithin at any health food store, i got some at my local gnc store.

[angel2211]

i don't make soap but you can find soy lecithin at any health food store, i got some at my local gnc store.

i've never made soaps before either, but found out that copher is actually coconut oil but they are putting soy lechitin in it now so wasn't sure if it was still ok to use it for soap making. Went to buy some when i was at the supermarket to check out if it said how much etc. and thought i'll try it and see what happens but they were out of it. I'm doing a search now on soaps and what is safe etc.. found a site that said Sodium hydroxide (lye) was ok to use at 98-99% pure. Just checking to see if this is true. But at the end of the day if all else fails i'll just make it and if it doesn't turn out then at least i'll know:undecided

Thanks for your reply hun

[sudsnwicks]

Not sure about the lecithin...for the lye, it needs to be 100% lye but it doesn't need to be 100% pure. Hope that makes sense! For lye there are different grades - laboratory grade which is something like 99% pure while technical grade is slightly lower, maybe something like 98% pure. So, the techical grade would do for soap making, as the lab grade would cost quite a bit more.

[angel2211]

ROFPMSL....this is going to sound dumb but.... here goes....

what you said made sense but it didn't make sense if that sounds normal...lol I understand that it has to be 100% lye but not neccesarily 100% pure

same as if i put 100% pure petrol into a jerry can then added to it an additive for say my fuel injectors the petrol is 100% pure but the contents of the jerry can aren't 100% petrol...

if that made sense???

but i'm confused on does that mean that my 98% would be ok to use for soaps??

[Guest SecretBuddy14]

Read this article.

http://www.thesoydaily.com/SFC/MSPproducts532.asp

It will explain what soy lecithin is and how it's used. Interestingly enough, it mentions that the excess of it was once sold off for soap manufacturing (or something like that). It derives from soy now, but lecithin is in other things.

I tried to find an SAP for soy lecithin, but haven't had success yet. I think if you could find that, or maybe even it's fatty acid profile, if it has one, you'd be okay. Or skip that and just know how much of it is in the coconut oil. Say if it's 3% of the CO, then add 3% more of the CO when you weigh it out.

Can't answer the question on lye, don't know that off the top of my head and no time to research.

Good luck and I'd say it's at least worth experimenting with.

[angel2211]

WOW it can be used for alot of stuff. My FIL has heart probelms and cholesterol problems so i printed that article twice. A copy for him and a copy for me. Thanks heaps SB14.

But what is SAP???

And yeppers as soon as my scales turn up i'm gonna experiment. I'm bound to have failures along the way anyway, and I'm not one to sit there going oh but if i bugger it up i've wasted this amount of money. I'm the type of person that says ok i buggered up lets try again . My MIL hates it she'll buy fish for $5, and i'll spend $500. When they die she says that cost me $5 and if i loose one I cry for days......lol

Probably lucky i'm geared the way i am cos what ive been reading soap making is an expensive hobby so probably a good thing.

Thanks for your help

[sudsnwicks]

Angel, SAP is an abbreviation for saponification value. It's a number associated with each oil that allows you to calculate how much lye is needed to turn it into soap. So, what SB14 is saying, is that if your coconut oil has an additive in it, then it may affect the amount of lye you have to add to it to turn it into soap. The problem you might run into, is that you may end up with a soap that has too much lye, because your coconut oil had less coconut oil in it than you thought.

[angel2211]

Gosh dang that just htrough a spanner into my works....lol i was just gonna try it and see how it turned out but i'm guessing i'd better not now seeing as i don't want too much lye in it. Considering 3 of my kids are old enough to want to try everything i make, i don't want to burn them or give them a reaction to it.. Thanks very much for that. I'll let my fingers do the walking and try to find actual coconut oil. Thank you.

[CareBear]

Well you could make it anyway and see how it goes! But that probably wouldn't be nice. There is a lye test or two out there though (litmus paper - which you probably don't have and the tongue test - if it feels zingy it's got active lye) if you get frantic enough!

Or just use a different recipe! You can even make 100% olive oil or a million other things. Check out your grocery store - not cost effective but what the heck! What oils and butters do you have or can you get? (grapeseed, olive, soy, lard, crisco, castor, sunflower...)

[angel2211]

Well you could make it anyway and see how it goes! But that probably wouldn't be nice. There is a lye test or two out there though (litmus paper - which you probably don't have and the tongue test - if it feels zingy it's got active lye) if you get frantic enough!

Or just use a different recipe! You can even make 100% olive oil or a million other things. Check out your grocery store - not cost effective but what the heck! What oils and butters do you have or can you get? (grapeseed, olive, soy, lard, crisco, castor, sunflower...)

Hewell just sent me a link to a post that was on here about a newbie competition and it had a tonne of links in it. I read those and they explained all about the oils and how they work in soap and how to make a recipe for your own soap. After printing out everything that i've saved so far i've run out of ink in my printer, so monday im getting more ink and i'm going to print out everything from that post. I tell ya it was a god send of a post.

Here is the list from that post of the oils:

Cleansing: Coconut Oil, Palm Kernal Oil, Babassu Oil

Soft Oils: Sweet Almond, Apricot Kernal, Avocado, Castor, Hazelnut, Hemp, Meadowfoam, Olive, Passion Fruit, Rice Bran, Soybean, Walnut, Wheat Germ

Hard Oils: Shea Butter, Cocoa Butter, Kokum Butter, Coconut Oil, Palm Oil, Palm Kernal Oil, Lard, Tallow

I can get olive oil, rice bran, avocado oil, Lard. I looked down there for castor oil but couldn't find any, anywhere. And i found a website that said in australia Palm Oil can be bought from the supermarket, it is packaged as Frymasta. I went down and they had Palm oil too. So as you can see i can only get hard and soft oils, but can't get any cleansing oils. Not sure if you need to have cleansing oils though.

I can't get litmus paper so with the tongue test if it feels zingy you said it has active lye, does that mean i shouldn't feel any zing at all if i put my tongue to it?

I'm off to read through that post and see if i can make a recipe with those oils

[CareBear]

I just made a soap that is 90% olive and 10% castor = castille soap - very mild.

I washed with it, and so did a friend, and it was a great, mild soap that does wash but isn't stripping at all. Probably not the best for a sweaty man, say - but great for sensitive sking.

Yup to the no zing. And you will know what it means when you try it! Not scary, but very obvious.

[angel2211]

I just made a soap that is 90% olive and 10% castor = castille soap - very mild.

I washed with it, and so did a friend, and it was a great, mild soap that does wash but isn't stripping at all. Probably not the best for a sweaty man, say - but great for sensitive sking.

Yup to the no zing. And you will know what it means when you try it! Not scary, but very obvious.

OMG you are a god send because alot of my recipes call for flakes or shavings of castille soap, now i can make my own and use that. My hubby has to have a sensitive skin soap so this would probably work wonders for him, more so in the winter, he does sweat alot in the summer.

Thanks a bunch carolgrant.