Fractionated Coconut Oil
by Zene Kaye
(South Africa)
I made a few soap batches with fractionated coconut oil. When I cut it into bars I realised that the soap's colour is darker (in comparison with soap I made without coconut oil).
The other thing is that I get the impression that the soap batch also gets warmer after pouring it into the mould.(I am not pouring the soap into individual moulds, but in a wooden block mould)
The soap however when I used it, was perfect without any problems and the lather was great.
Is it fine if I use fractionated coconut oil?
There are 3 differant kind of coconut oil, at 76 degrees and another one at 92 degrees I think)and of course the fractionated.
I also want to know, what does grapeseed extract do to your soap and is it a preservative?
Thanks
zene kaye
Answer:You are quite right, there are three types of coconut oil.
Coconut oil 72 degrees and 92 degrees are both solid at room temperature and are cold pressed from the fruit.
Fractionated coconut oil is liquid at room temperature because it goes through an additional process called fractionation that removes the unsaturated elements.
I noticed when I looked it up on SoapCalc that it's acid makeup is quite different from the other two. Most of the usual acids we look for in a soap making oil have been removed from the fractionated coconut oil.
I use Coconut oil 72 degrees in my soap making but the other two can be used as well. One thing to note about the fractionated coconut oil is that is much more expensive than the other two.
I'm afraid I can't comment on how fractionated coconut oil behaves in soap making because I have never used it nor have I heard anything about it being used. Sorry about that...:)
As for Grapefruit Seed Extract...Here's the link to the page about
Preservatives and Grapefruit Seed Extract...you can read up on my explanation about it there.
Cathy