# Rice Bran Oil vs. Safflower



## Kalne (Oct 25, 2007)

I've used RBO since the beginning of my soap making. Back then it was dirt cheap and I liked it in my soap. There's not much diff. now in the prices between RBO and SAF or even sunflower so I was thinking of trying safflower because a lot of you here have talked about using it. I buy almost all my oils from Columbus so I'm not bound to what I can find locally (which is a big fat nothing).

So I went into soapcalc to look at the difference. Wow. RBO has a hardness value of 26 while SAF is only 7. BUT 69 vs. 92 on conditioning. 1 vs 0 on bubbliness and 25 vs 7 on creaminess. So, just looking at those numbers RBO seems the better choice for hardness and lather and SAF the better choice for conditioning. Why can't one oil have it all? Anyway, I've heard you all say it makes a hard bar...does it take longer to get hard? Is that why it's rated so low on the calc? And what do you think of the lather you get with it? Anything else to consider?


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## Aja-Sammati (Oct 26, 2007)

I find soap calc numbers on safflower hardness to be bunk. In fact in a single oil soap test done by a member of the Handcrafted Soap Guild, they found that safflower made a very hard soap. Personally I like both in soap, and I like RBO better than olive, though I can get olive cheaper. One of my favorite recipes has both safflower and RBO.


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## Kalne (Oct 25, 2007)

Thanks Michelle. I saw two single soap tests and both rated safflower as producing very hard white bars. Another reason I'd like to try it...I find RBO doesn't make the whitest soap. I'm going to get some in my next oil order and give it a try.


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