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<pre>In a message dated 3/21/01 4:33:55 AM, OliveOil@yahoogroups.com writes:

<<When saponified, olive, palm or coconut should yield about the same
glycerol
content. The fact that you can detect a difference in soaps made from 2
different EVOOs suggests that the differences in soap qualities you observe
may reflect other factors in the soap making process as well, for example use
of too much or too little caustic.
>>

What does EVOO stand for, please?
At any rate, not sure it will affect my response. Soap made from
different oils has VERY different characteristics. The hardness of the bar,
its cleansing power, how fluffy the lather is, how long the lather lasts,
skin conditioning attributes, etc. These are summarized quite well in a
chart on p. 96 of Susan Cavitch's book The Soapmaker's Companion.
Actually, soapers these days fine tune the amount of lye they use, using
computers. We usually use 3-5 different oils in a recipe, to get the
qualilties we want in the final soap. We purposely use more oils than the
lye can turn into soap, so that a certain percentage of the original oils are
left to have a bit of "lotion" efect on the skin. This is called
"superfatting." More expensive oils with better skin conditioning qualities
are added after saponification is about 50% finished, just before pouring the
soap into the molds, so that they have a superior survival rate as oils in
the finished soap.
Any difference in the initial oils does affect the final product.
Shivani
</pre>
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