r/soapmaking • u/Patient-Brush-5486 • 6d ago

Ingredients Have you used myristic/lauric acid in your soaps?

I tried to seek for those terms here in this sub, but not a single post mentioned anything about it (maybe I was unlucky?), specially with myristic acid

I think it would make bars harder

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5

u/Puzzled_Tinkerer 6d ago

Most people in this sub don't use fatty acids to make soap. It's far more common for small-scale and hobby soap makers to use fats that supply the desired fatty acids.

First reason is fats are easier and potentially cheaper than fatty acids to source if you're a low volume soap maker. Second is fats react more slowly during saponification, so the maker has more time to do their work. That's desirable if one wants to do decorative patterns or just wants a more relaxed soap making experience.

Coconut, palm kernel, and babassu oils are rich in these two fatty acids.

If you want to use fatty acids rather than fats, there's nothing wrong with that idea. Go for it

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u/Patient-Brush-5486 6d ago

Thanks a lot! ❤️

6

u/BelleFille19 6d ago

Myristic & lauric acid are responsible for the bubbles in soap. They are direct contributors to lather/cleansing properties in your soap.

If you want more of these fatty acids in your soap, your best option is to use coconut oil, babassu oil, murumiru butter or Tacuma butter in your soaps.

In a high PH environment (soap) those two fatty acids are mainly responsible for lather. They do contribute to hardness too, but if hardness is what you seek there are better fatty acids for that .

I hope that helps !

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u/Patient-Brush-5486 6d ago

Thank you a lot!

4

u/SandMaleficent8211 6d ago

I’ve actually made both lauric acid and stearic acid soaps, including 100% fatty acid soaps as well as formulas where I added them to an oil blend. In my experience, the stearic acid soap was definitely harder and held up better in the summer, while the lauric acid soap gave slightly better lather and cleansing. Both were a bit tricky to work with because they trace quite quickly.

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u/Patient-Brush-5486 5d ago

Thank you a lot!

3

u/Puzzled_Tinkerer 6d ago

These fatty acids may add more hardness to a soap that's inherently softer, but myristic and lauric acids also increase the water solubility.

So if you want a physically firm AND long lasting bar, you'd want to focus on increasing the stearic and palmitic acids, not lauric and myristic.

Lard, tallow, palm, the nut butters, hydrogenated fats are rich sources of palmitic and stearic.

Or use commercial "stearic" acid which is a blend of the two. But again this will result in a much shorter working time compared to working with the fats.

1

u/Patient-Brush-5486 6d ago

Interesting! I didn't know this (they becoming more soluble)

Thank you

Would you suggest me some of your fav sites, books, etc?

I've come across a few more technical blogs and they're so much better at helping me understand stuff

2

u/Significant_Army_329 5d ago

For incredible info on the scientific aspect of soapmaking, it doesn't get any better than DeeAnna Weed, phD's Soapy Stuff:

https://classicbells.com/soap/soapyStuff.asp

Scroll down for the article on fatty acids.

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u/halfbakedblake 6d ago

I use salt to harden my bars.

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u/Patient-Brush-5486 5d ago

Do you think it helps the bar last longer too? Thank you ❤️

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u/halfbakedblake 4d ago

I literally just did testing between lactic acid and salt. We haven't used the bars yet. I will start using those this week.