Cheap or steep part 2 - the results! Are cheap soap making oils just as good as the most expensive?

Today we are bringing you Part Two of our "Cheap Or Steep!" soap making experiment - the results!
I you haven't yet seen part one, we suggest watching it before viewing this video, as this is the second part of the experiment where we bring you the results. You can view part one here:
• Cheap or steep? We mak...
Though we only published part one last Friday, the soaps have already been curing or between 5 and 6 weeks and we can't wait any longer to see how they turn out.
In today's video, we analyse both the final cheap and final steep bar and chat through what we like about them. We then do a blind "wash test" to see which soap we rate as the best. Is it possible that the cheap bar could outperform the steep one, or is it a no-brainer that the steep one will in hands down? Watch our results video, to see which way things turn out!
Should you wish to recreate either recipe, they are both posted below:
For our Cheap recipe:
Sodium Hydroxide 99g
Water 148g
Lard 325g
Coconut oil 145g
Rapeseed Oil 217g
Castor Oil 36g
Lavender Essential Oil (from the Soapery) 21g
For our Steep recipe:
Sodium Hydroxide 103g
Water 155g
Monoi De Tahiti Infused Oil 145g
Murumuru Butter 72g
Kokum Butter 145g
Illipe Butter 72g
Apricot Kernel Oil 108g
Avocado Oil 72g
Rosehip Oil 72g
Castor Oil 36g
High Altitude French Lavender Essential Oil (from the Mystic Moments) 21g
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[@jilljackson4097]

Thanks Anne and Wayne. Good experiment to watch without having to pay for the expensive ingredients 😉😍

[@TheSussexHandmadeSoapCompany]

Thank you Jill. It was such a fun experiment to do. On the plus side, the left over expensive ingredients have allowed me to be creative with other formulations over the last couple of weeks, which has been fun too!

[@datbat1]

Great demo, you two. That was fun, and your results make perfect sense. Performance is not really about the oils themselves, in my opinion; it's more about fatty acid profiles. I make all my recipes according to my preferred fatty acid profiles: lauric + myristic = 22: palmitic + stearic = 22; oleic + linoleic = 46; ricinoleic = 7. I always shoot for a 43:57 sat to unsat ratio. Whether I'm using cheap oils or "fancy" ones, I adjust the proportion of oils till I hit that profile. The combinations of oils perform more or less the same when the numbers are on target. I will say, though, that especially cheap oils like canola tend to cause DOS in my soaps, so I don't use that. I use olive (not virgin) and/or avocado instead. That's a good happy medium for price. I get extra lather from sugar and sodium citrate. Honestly, I suspect I could put sugar and sodium citrate in margarine and Crisco and still get okay soap, though I would have a psychological barrier to using it. It's fun to experiment with exotic oils, but in the end, all handcrafted soap is good soap.

[@Hilary_ClarbySoaps]

🥳🥳 yay for the lard win 😁. This was such good fun to watch, thank you for the laugh and I’m chuffed the lard soap won 😃. Wayne behaves like my other half…who’s always being asked to ‘smell this, try this, what does this feel like on your skin etc…’ and the answer is often ‘yeah it’s nice…is that the right answer?’ 😂😂 Sometimes we as a formulator over analyse…and the bloke just says it like it is 😂. Thanks for cheering me up this morning 🙏🏻

[@TheSussexHandmadeSoapCompany]

I know! I laughed when I watched it back and saw how different his and my reactions were! I am lucky really that he generally just lets me get on with things! The lard soap has now taken pride of place on our own sink and it is so lovely to use!

[@nancykelly9712]

Your test might be slightly skewed having not changed the water. Interesting results though!

[@TheSussexHandmadeSoapCompany]

I thought I had covered every possible base to keep the test fair, but you are right! I never thought to switch the water between soaps! If we ever do a test like this again, I will definitely be switching the water!

[@debbyflowers1488]

Fun! It is fun to see Wayne once in a while!

[@TheSussexHandmadeSoapCompany]

I had to convince him to come and take his place in front of the camera! He's not as much of a show off as me :-D

[@lenahahn5579]

Really cool content. Very entertainimg and also useful and teaching 😀❤️👍👍👍

[@TheSussexHandmadeSoapCompany]

Thank you! I debated cutting out some of our messing about to make the video a bit shorter, but decided against it as I loved the fact that this video showed a little more of what we are actually like in real life :-D

[@DebsShipley1969]

The Wayne bit was so funny. 😂

[@TheSussexHandmadeSoapCompany]

I know, he doesn't come on camera often, but when he does he steals the show! :-D

[@janlee-buxton857]

So funny to watch! Thank you for a good chuckle, and great to see Wayne too! I won't use lard myself (being vegan), but I've heard it does make good soap. So apparently does palm oil, which I won't use either ... but hey ho...❤️

[@TheSussexHandmadeSoapCompany]

I am glad we could give you a laugh :-) We won't use palm oil in our soaps either as there are so many alternatives and we don't like to use palm in our products if it is at all avoidable. I have also heard that it makes a good soap, but we are happy with how our non-palm soaps perform so no need to use it in our opinion, but each to their own, as they say :-)

[@kittyr7786]

That was really interesting! Thank you from Canada!

[@TheSussexHandmadeSoapCompany]

You are very welcome and hello from the UK!

[@LowVisionUKTerrysView]

hahaha, hilarious - loved it, and Sir Wayne made an appearance too haha. I enjoyed this comparison Anne, thanks so much..just goes to show...Terry

[@brendajackson294]

I really enjoyed this one. Hi to Wayne.

[@jankates1274]

This is a great fun video. I do make one lard soap and it gets repeat custom. Now I’m curious to know what the addition of kaolin clay makes to the cheap bar. My R&A brain is free wheeling right now.

[@kattaylor9294]

Brilliant! Good to know!

[@aordinarygirl7403]

This was so fun to watch! Thank you guys ♥️ always a pleasure

[@TheSussexHandmadeSoapCompany]

Thank you :-) This has been one of my favourite videos to create so far, I loved the whole experimentation thing!

[@DebsShipley1969]

Both video's are brilliant. Thank you very much

[@TheSussexHandmadeSoapCompany]

Thank you Debs, glad you enjoyed them :-)

[@katarzynaderkacz39]

Great content, thank you 💙💙💙

[@TheSussexHandmadeSoapCompany]

You are very welcome Katarzyna, glad you enjoyed it :-)

[@bjdefilippo447]

What fun! Thanks for an interesting experiment. I'm curious about how sensitive your nose is. For example, can you smell the difference between different lavender varietals under normal circumstances? (Because that might help determine whether we might expect to smell a difference in the oils.) I suspect that you are correct and the saponification is likely to minimize any differences.

[@TheSussexHandmadeSoapCompany]

That is actually a very good point that I never even really considered. My nose honestly isn't the best, so it may well be that someone with a stronger nose may smell the differences (I could smell a difference in the neat oils, but still not a massive difference). Wayne's nose is very strong though and he didn't note any massive change in scent between the two bars.

[@kellensimonedossantos8442]

Kkkk A D O R E I a comédia da dupla e principalmente por nos proporcionar sobre essa diferença de óleos caros e baratos mas fiquei pasma com a cor que ficou o de Rosa Mosqueta nunca imaginei que ficasse amarelo eu pensando que ficaria um levecrosadinho affffiiii muito obrigada por nos mostrar a diferença de Balneário Camboriu SC Brasil 🇧🇷

[@TheSussexHandmadeSoapCompany]

Thank you! Yes, the rosehip turned such a beautiful yellow colour and I was not expecting that either! I am glad you enjoy our videos, thank you.

[@ThePetraji]

Thanks for documenting that there is little - if any - advantage to using expensive oils after saponification. However, pity you did not change the water after the first test. God job though.

[@paolauceda8481]

Loved this experiment! Thank you for doing this 💚 I would love to see one just like this for refined vs unrefined /virgin oils in soapmaking, have you ever tried this?

[@melizamilbert9560]

So, really there’s no point using essential oils in soap making because we can’t really reap the benefits of the essential oils used?

[@elvishsoapalchemy]

if you dont have a lot of money use soy wax 415 ( pure soy wax) to relace any butters, palm and animal fats i recommend up to 15%.

[@boop7313]

Thankyou for sharing that! do you know if ecosoya melt soy wax is the same thing? - pure soy wax? I have some of that but when I look up the suppliers website it doesn't list ingredients, it just say it's all natural soy wax.

[@brindavancrafts424]

@@boop7313 I seem to remember that if the soy is hydrogenated then you can use it in soap making

[@TheSussexHandmadeSoapCompany]

Thank you for the suggestion. I have never experimented with soy wax in soap, but I think I need to now!

[@elvishsoapalchemy]

@@boop7313 Soy wax 415 is the only skin safe soy wax the other soy waxes are not skin safe.

[@elvishsoapalchemy]

@@TheSussexHandmadeSoapCompany here is my recipe i use when i tried soy wax 415- 15% soy wax 415, 25% coconut oil and 60% olive oil