Unsaponifiables are components of an oily (oil

Oil

An oil is any substance that is liquid at ambient temperatures and does not mix with water but may mix with other oils and organic solvents. This general definition includes vegetable oils, volatile essential oils, petrochemical oils, and synthetic oils....

, fat

Fat

Fats consist of a wide group of compounds that are generally soluble in organic solvents and generally insoluble in water. Chemically, fats are triglycerides, triesters of glycerol and any of several fatty acids. Fats may be either solid or liquid at room temperature, depending on their structure...

, wax

Wax

thumb|right|[[Cetyl palmitate]], a typical wax ester.Wax refers to a class of chemical compounds that are plastic near ambient temperatures. Characteristically, they melt above 45 °C to give a low viscosity liquid. Waxes are insoluble in water but soluble in organic, nonpolar solvents...

) mixture that fail to form soaps when blended with lye

Lye

Lye is a corrosive alkaline substance, commonly sodium hydroxide or historically potassium hydroxide . Previously, lye was among the many different alkalis leached from hardwood ashes...

. Since saponifiable components of the original oil mixture do form soaps, the result of a soap making procedure is a mixture of soaps and other, frequently oily, materials.

Unsaponifiable constituents are an important consideration when selecting oil mixtures for the manufacture of soaps. Unsaponifiables can be beneficial to a soap formula, because they may have properties such as moisturization, conditioning

Conditioning

Conditioning may refer to:* In psychology, the process of performing some particular action to directly influence an individual's learning; see education...

, vitamin

Vitamin

A vitamin is an organic compound required as a nutrient in tiny amounts by an organism. In other words, an organic chemical compound is called a vitamin when it cannot be synthesized in sufficient quantities by an organism, and must be obtained from the diet. Thus, the term is conditional both on...

s, texture, etc. On the other hand, if the proportion of unsaponifiables is too high, or the specific unsaponifiables present don't provide significant benefits, a defective or inferior soap product can result.

Percentage of unsaponifiables

Here are some examples of the percentage of unsaponifiable material in various substances:

• low percentage (<1%) : refined
  Refining
  Refining is the process of purification of a substance or a form. The term is usually used of a natural resource that is almost in a usable form, but which is more useful in its pure form. For instance, most types of natural petroleum will burn straight from the ground, but it will burn poorly...
  
   oils
  Triglyceride
  A triglyceride is an ester derived from glycerol and three fatty acids. There are many triglycerides, depending on the oil source, some are highly unsaturated, some less so....
  
  , refined shea butter
  Shea butter
  Shea butter is a slightly yellowish or ivory-colored fat extracted from the nut of the African shea tree . It is widely used in cosmetics as a moisturizer, salve or lotion. Shea butter is edible and may be used in food preparation...
  
  , olive oil
  Olive oil
  Olive oil is an oil obtained from the olive , a traditional tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin. It is commonly used in cooking, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and soaps and as a fuel for traditional oil lamps...
  
  
• high percentage (6-17%): unrefined shea butter
• very high percentage (50+%): beeswax
  Beeswax
  Beeswax is a natural wax produced in the bee hive of honey bees of the genus Apis. It is mainly esters of fatty acids and various long chain alcohols...
  
  
• unsaponifiable (~100%) mineral oil
  Mineral oil
  A mineral oil is any of various colorless, odorless, light mixtures of alkanes in the C15 to C40 range from a non-vegetable source, particularly a distillate of petroleum....
  
  , paraffin wax