Guest guest Posted February 21, 2000 Report Share Posted February 21, 2000 > From: " Arrivillaga " <arrivill@...> > 1.- Do you always scent soaps and toiletries in general with scented oils > and not with water based fragances? Well, unless you include a water-based fragrance in the water you mix with lye, the water-based fragrance won't combine with everything else - plus, there needs to be a way to account for the extra water you'd be adding, so including it with the lye makes sense. Some people do use things like tea or strong infusions in their lye water in hopes that scent will come through, but it's usually not likely that it will. Using fragrance or essential oils, which have very high concentrations of scent, is a safer bet for fragrancing. > 2.- When you talk about soy oil, or safflower oil is the cooking type? You can cook with any of the oils or butters used for soapmaking. Whether you'd want to or not is the question. (Mmmm.... castor-fried potatoes... *grin*). I use soybean oil in my soap, but it's the hydrogenated kind (aka Crisco). Liquid oils of all sorts - including regular, normal cooking oil, straight off the grocery shelves - are used, but in general, they can make very soft soap. Combined with " hard " oils, they work out well, though. > 3.- I can´t get emulsifying wax but I got borax. Are they interchangeable? Nope, nope, nope. Unless you completely reformulate your recipe, you can't interchange them. I'm sure a lotionmaker can be of more help here. > 4.- Can I make avocado oil myself? It's possible, but pretty unlikely. Unless you have expeller machinery, you won't get anything useful. Plus, it's just cheaper to buy it - at least around here, avocadoes are usually over $1.50 each and I'm sure I'd need a lot more than $9 worth to get 16 oz of oil! > 5.- Aloe Vera gel: fresh? I mean getting the crystal from a fresh plant? What do you mean by this? If you're asking if you can get it from the plant, yes, but it takes a LOT of plant. If you're asking if you *need* to use it fresh, the answer's no - except that you need to be sure that if you buy it, you're buying PURE aloe vera, with no other ingredients. Hope that helps! Branwen Ona-Stella Enterprises http://www.ona-stella.com/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 21, 2000 Report Share Posted February 21, 2000 In a message dated 2/21/00 9:35:24 AM Eastern Standard Time, arrivill@... writes: Lulu, I'll do my best, and all my answers are with toiletries in mind, rather than soap, since I don't make soap: << 1.- Do you always scent soaps and toiletries in general with scented oils and not with water based fragances?>> Yes, either fragrance oils or essential oils. << 2.- When you talk about soy oil, or safflower oil is the cooking type?>> Look for cold-pressed oils, sometimes found in the cooking section of the store. <3.- I can´t get emulsifying wax but I got borax. Are they interchangeable?> No, borax binds with beeswax and other substances to emulsify products; whereas, emulsifying wax doesn't. So, use whichever one the recipe calls for. <4.- Can I make avocado oil myself?> Don't really know, but I doubt it. < 5.- Aloe Vera gel: fresh? I mean getting the crystal from a fresh plant? >> You can easily get the gel from the leaf and use it, but it doesn't come out crystallized, and I don't think you can crystallize it yourself. These answers are to the best of my knowledge. If anyone else has other information, please relate it for us! :-) Beth Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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