It's not that hard to make your own soap, and then you know what's in it. I made some this year, only the second time in my life, and it turned out quite good despite all my "mistakes". If I can do it . . .
I was just a schoolgirl when I made my first batch of soap; an uncle visiting from the country brought us a gift - a few packs of lard, which we were not in the habit of using. As far as I recall, I just added caustic soda, but maybe I've forgotten a step. We used that for years; it went as hard as anything. This time I wanted originally to make a soap with no salicylates, which would mean using animal fat rather than vegetable, as far as I could work out. So I bought some lard, then decided to add some commercial RBD coconut oil anyway (Copha) and also bought some olive oil specially for the job. Ended up not using the olive oil this time (next time!). Added epsom salts and borax, one by mistake because I thought it was the other, but I forget which way round. I think I may have added CS. I stirred it with a twig of wormwood. My little salute to Hulda. Fantastic soft lather, and great for washing clothes. Gave some as presents, people seemed to like it. It probably qualifies for title of "superfatted". I collected recipes off the net, and used the one that seemd to most closely resemble the ingredients I had on hand. For all the recipes, I basically ended up using Hulda Clark's, then added ideas from other sites. Next time I'll make some with the olive oil I bought, as it's not the same quality I use for eating, and some tinned CNO I bought. Then I plan to just make coconut oil soap thereafter, which VCNO oil I will buy from Kokonut in Canberra, Australia. Question: What is the effect of putting nitrogen in a fat? I bought a couple of cans of coconut oil made in Singapore, and looking at the website of the makers I see they treat it with nitrogen for "freshness" - so I suppose we could call it nitrogenated as opposed to hydrogenated? http://www.simedarbyepl.com.sg/products2.html "CBC is saturated with nitrogen before it is packed to keep the oil fresh." My friend who also bought some of this same oil said it tasted absolutely horrible, so she is only using it on her skin. I don't feel like eating it at that rate, but thought using it for soap might be OK - but am I in danger of washing in nitrites and nitrates? Anybody know about nitrogen? Rowena Sparkling clean in Western Australia -- The Silver List is a moderated forum for discussing Colloidal Silver. Instructions for unsubscribing are posted at: http://silverlist.org To post, address your message to: [email protected] Silver List archive: http://escribe.com/health/thesilverlist/index.html Address Off-Topic messages to: [email protected] OT Archive: http://escribe.com/health/silverofftopiclist/index.html List maintainer: Mike Devour <[email protected]>
