Vitamin E (mixed tocopherols)
Sold to hold off rancidity and orange spots.
Opens the calculator’s starter recipe, 1000 g of oils, with this additive at the dose it fills in, ready to change.
What it is
Vitamin E is sold for cosmetics as tocopherols; Lotioncrafter’s mixed tocopherols T50 is a liquid of 0.93–0.95 g per mL.
Merck Index; Lotioncrafter primary source
How much
- 0.06 % of the batch filled in Cavitch, The Natural Soap Book primary source
- 0.1 % of the oils in a controlled test Dunn, “The Dreaded Orange Spot” primary source
- up to 3 % of the batch in rinse-off products, the highest reported use: not a recommendation CIR primary source
The calculator fills in 0.06 % of the batch: 0.9 g for the 1000 g of oils in its starter recipe.
When and how
- Usually: into the oils.
- Also used: at light trace.
- Stir it in as it is.
Cavitch, The Natural Soap Book primary source, McDaniel, Essentially Soap primary source
What it does to the recipe
- It changes neither the lye nor the water: it is only weight in the bar.
Cavitch, The Natural Soap Book primary source
Worth knowing
- Caution: In Dunn’s test, at 0.1 % of the oils, it did nothing against rancidity. Dunn, “The Dreaded Orange Spot” primary source
- Saponification breaks tocopherols down. Czauderna & Kowalczyk (2007) primary source
Spoons and drops
- 1 tsp ≈ 4.63 g (4.58–4.68 g)
- 1 tbsp ≈ 13.9 g (13.8–14 g)
- 1 cup ≈ 222 g (220–225 g)
- 1 drop ≈ 25 mg (20–30 mg): droppers differ
Merck Index; Lotioncrafter primary source, Österreichisches Arzneibuch primary source, Aroma-Zone supplier or guide
INCI name
Tocopherol
- CAS number
- 54-28-4, 16698-35-4, 10191-41-0, 119-13-1, 1406-18-4, 1406-66-2, 2074-53-5, 59-02-9, 7616-22-0
- EC number
- 200-201-5, 240-747-1, 233-466-0, 204-299-0, 215-798-8, 218-197-9, 200-412-2
Guides that discuss it
Sources
Susan Miller Cavitch, The Natural Soap Book (Storey Publishing, 1995): honey, "no more than 4 tablespoons (59 ml) of warm honey for a 12-pound (5.45 kg) batch of soap" (pp. 66–67); vitamin E at about 0.06 % and grapefruit seed extract at 0.5–5 % of the ingredients, in the oils before the lye; the Goat Milk Soap (pp. 110–114) takes "½ pound (227 g) cold goat milk" beside "2½ pounds (1.13 kg) cold, distilled water", the lye solution drizzled into the milk at 80 °F, because too much goat milk "makes the soap more vulnerable to premature rancidity"; fresh aloe gel "can sting and itch".
Robert McDaniel, Essentially Soap (2000): honey’s colour "depends on the amount of honey used and the temperature when the honey is added"; vitamin E at trace (p. 94).
Kevin M. Dunn, "The Dreaded Orange Spot", The Handcrafted Soapmaker (Winter 2005/06): additives at 0.1 % of the oil weight in olive-oil soap held at 60 °C. Rosemary extract and EDTA "lengthened the induction period beyond 300 hours", BHT to 150; grapefruit seed extract, vitamin C, vitamin E and sodium citrate were "virtually identical" to plain olive-oil soap; BHT with sodium citrate did best, and "ROE + Sodium Citrate actually performed worse than ROE alone".
Cosmetic Ingredient Review, tocopherol: up to 3 % in rinse-off products.
The highest concentration reported to CIR in industry surveys: what has been used, not a recommendation.
M. Czauderna and J. Kowalczyk (2007): alkaline saponification decomposes tocopherols.
dl-alpha-tocopherol, 0.950 at 25 °C (The Merck Index, via PubChem); mixed tocopherols T50, 0.93–0.95 g/mL (Lotioncrafter safety data sheet, 2025).
Österreichisches Arzneibuch (ÖAB), drop table for the Ph. Eur. standard dropper at 20 °C (2024 draft, BASG): refined olive oil 22 mg a drop, sunflower and castor oil 24 mg, lactic acid 29 mg, glycerol 42–43 mg.
Aroma-Zone technical sheets, bottle dropper: CO₂ rosemary extract "1ml = 0.98g = 30 gouttes"; natural vitamin E 32 drops per mL; lactic acid about 36 drops per mL.