Sodium Laurate (and oleate, and linoleate, and stearate...) revisited

Longtime readers will recall this Palahniuk-inspired image from my articles on the old site about the twelve-carbon detergents Sodium Lauryl/Dodecyl Sulfate and sodium laurate/dodecanoate.

Today, I point you to Adam Engelhart's excellent (and thoroughly overdocumented) home preparation of countless soaps. The roundup:

• Lavender oil - in an almond oil base, I think. "Oils" from something that smells nice either come in tiny expensive vials (in which case they're a steam distillation of all the volatile greasy things in there, the "essential oil"), or in large, slightly less expensive bottles (the above, dissolved in a less expensive "carrier" oil, such as grapeseed, almond, etc.) Essential oils tend to be volatile hydrocarbons like the terpenes we've mentioned here, not true triglyceride "fats." Making soap out of them is impossible. So here, he probably ends up with carrier oil soap (and hopefully the lye doesn't chew up the lavender fragrance elements too badly).
• Flaxseed oil
• Coconut oil
• Peanut oil
• EVOO
• Partially hydrogenated vegetable oil
• Rapeseed/Canola Oil
• Grapeseed oil
• Lard
• Sesame oil
• Walnut oil
• Jojoba oil
• Rich creamery butter

He's a good man, and thorough.

Start with the background, then see the entries where he saponifies coconut and olive oils, a mixture of coconut and olive oils, and walnut oil, lard and canola oil, and finally check out the videos.. You may want to brace yourself for some soap-related entries over here.

See you tomorrow.