Made 1st soap....but it smells

[cre8tivelegance]

Hi everyone!

I finally took the plunge and made my first soap last night. It actually wasn't as hard as I was anticipating.....at least not the process.....finding the right oils, well, now.....that's a different story.

I wanted to make a high conditioning soap. So I researched all the oil properties and found the oils I wanted to use but the problem is.......the soap ended up stinking really bad! I even used a FO....white tea and ginger scent. Can anyone tell me which oil is causing the soap to smell bad? Here's a list of the oils I used:

Coconut Oil

mango butter

Palm Kernel

avocado

hazelnut

rice bran

sesame

walnut

thanks!

[CareBear]

First, wait and see - some FOs change (morph) and then change back. I personally don't think it's the oil (unless you used the dark, toasted sesame oil), but I've never used hazlenut or walnut so I cannot speak for those.

[Purple Lilac]

Both hazelnut and walnut oils have a strong nutty smell.

[cre8tivelegance]

I did use a dark sesame oil.....on the can it says "pure sesame oil" and I think this may be my culprit.....it does have the same smell as the stinkyness of the soap.....will this eventually go away during the cure time? I hope so because I do like the properties of this oil but good grief....who wants to wash with smelly soap

[Meridith]

Give it some time as the odor just may cure out of it. I made a shampoo bar with Neem oil which stinks to high heaven. I only used about 5% in hope it wouldn't smell as strong but at first it did. The smell of the Neem oil has finally cured out and can barely be detected.

[cre8tivelegance]

do you remember how long it took for it to cure out?

[Meridith]

I started to notice the smell curing out after about a week.

[cre8tivelegance]

I'm curious about something.......are there different kinds of sesame oil? I'm definitely using the darker one that is causing the smell.....but like I said, I like the properties this oil gives....is there another oil that has similiar properties but doesn't stink? One more question.....I've read a lot about coconut oil....mainly that it can be drying.....what is the highest percentage that should be used for this oil?

Thanks everyone for your responses......I appreciate the input!

[SoapInTheCity]

Did you just use water for the liquid? I made soap twice with fruit juice and it was such a rancid disgusting scent! Oh and a soap made from beer smelled awful too!

[CareBear]

The darker one is generally made from toasted sesame seeds and has a marvelous foody smell - GREAT for cooking chinese food - not sure for soap though.

It's the exact same oil though, just different flavor and scent.

It is available, somewhere, untoasted

[Meridith]

Did you just use water for the liquid? I made soap twice with fruit juice and it was such a rancid disgusting scent! Oh and a soap made from beer smelled awful too!

I can imagine that a soap made with beer would smell disgusting. Beer smells gross to begin with that I can't imagine adding lye to it would improve the smell.

edited for typo