Project 3.3, My Soap Recipe

Since my last post, I have done some investigating about the types of oils I would like to include in my recipe. I have learned that most of the ingredients when used in combination have a shelf life, which I was never aware of, and since my recipe yields 1000g of soap (about 2 pounds) I have devised that I will be giving some as gifts since I am unsure if I will be able to use it all before it expires. This also keeps me motivated to continue leaning about the project so I can supply something since for my friends and family.

-With this new knowledges, I tried to pick oils that have long shelf lives and therefore environmentally friendly properties. The first of which I learned of was meadowfoam oil. I haven't ever heard of this oil before but I learned that it comes from a western US native plant, the meadowfoam. This is great in retrospect to the other sorts of imported oils that the US receives. While the US has made traditionally imported oils like olive oil for more than 150 years, I also find it benefit to have US native plant oils in my soap. Yes, olives can be grown in HI and CA and FL and probably other warm places, but as far as I am concerned, olives are not from North America.

- I do want to mention that I do have olive oil in my soap recipe as well for its moisturizing properties. Also, when you are formulating your soap recipes, most of the oils that you choose to use, can only be using in certain percentiles. So if I wanted to completely avoid olive oil, I would have to come up with 80% of oils that could only be using in 5-10 percentiles to make a very long (and expensive) recipe. In other words, I am being monetarily conscientious. I also don't know how good it is to have a million different ingredients in your recipes anyways... isn't that the whole point of being healthy? Minimal ingredients. So unless they find a Rochester, NY native plant that produces oil with cleansing, moisturizing and whatever else properties, I'll stick to experimenting with my olive oil thank you very much.

- I also had sweet olive oil in mind, again for its nourishing properties, but then I remembered that one of my friends is allergic to almonds so I had to ditch that idea out of fear that they would die in the shower. Not good.

- So instead of sweet almond oil, I chose hemp oil. Which I know has become a very popular material in the past decade.

- I am also using coconut oil which is in replacement of the sweet almond oil, but works perfectly because I had since forgotten the CLEANSING properties of soap. Go figure. (And I made sure to check with my friend who is allergic to everything- coconut is safe apparently) I, however, don't really like coconut oil but I will set it aside for the purposes of this experiment.