Best hard oils for soap

Flutter · Jun 30, 2017

So I have learned that some oils are better than others for soap making. I keep hearing/reading that olive oil and palm oil are pretty much the staples for soaping. Then I saw something about canola oil recently too. Are there others?

What are your favorite base/hard oils for soaps?

toxikon · Jun 30, 2017

There's generally 3 types of oils:

Soft oils are generally oils that are liquid at room temperature such as olive oil, castor oil, sweet almond, rice bran…etc. As a general rule, soap made from a high percentage of these oils will be on the softer side.

Hard oils are oils, fats and butters that are solid but scoopable at room temperature such as palm oil, lard, tallow, coconut oil, mango butter and shea butter. Hard oils make a hard bar of soap.

Brittle oils are oils that are solid at room temperature but require some chipping at or a bit of elbow grease to break them up. These generally include palm kernel oil and cocoa butter. Brittle oils make a hard bar of soap.

The big three hard base oils are: Lard, Palm or Tallow. These can be used in a very high percentage in your recipe and produce a great soap. Lard is very popular around here and makes a lovely bar of soap!

Read more about oils here: http://www.lovinsoap.com/oils-chart/

BrewerGeorge · Jun 30, 2017

I can't do much better for concise imparting of information that toxikon's post. I just wanted to emphasize to Flutter that palm oil and palm kernel oil are not the same thing. That's an easy mixup to have and they have very different functions in soap.

kchaystack · Jun 30, 2017

Yeah I have never used palm kernal, but I would not say it has the same use as cocoa butter. The fatty acid profile is closer to coconut oil, so you have to watch how much you use so the soap doesn't strip your skin.

IrishLass · Jun 30, 2017

I would add that there is one more type of oil: Bubbly/Cleansing Oils: Coconut Oil, PKO, and Babassu Oil.

As far as base/staples go, I have several favorites that I utilize in different formulas:

Olive
Castor
Lard
Tallow
Coconut
PKO flakes
Cocoa Butter
Illipe Butter
Kokum Butter
Rice Bran Oil
Avocado Oil

If there were ever a world shortage of oils/fats, though, I would sure hope that I could at least still get these staples:

olive
lard
castor
coconut.

You can make some pretty wonderful soap with just those 4.

IrishLass

penelopejane · Jun 30, 2017

Flutter said:
So I have learned that some oils are better than others for soap making. I keep hearing/reading that olive oil and palm oil are pretty much the staples for soaping. Then I saw something about canola oil recently too. Are there others?

What are your favorite base/hard oils for soaps?

Your access to reasonably priced oils, which would influence my choice, depends on where you live. Palm, olive and coconut are cheap in Australia. Lards is cheap in the US.

Flutter · Jun 30, 2017

I would rather not use lard or tallow and don't really want to use palm oil either. So I am looking for reasonably priced alternatives.

Right now I have lots of olive oil, canola oil and coconut oil on hand. I also have some shea butter, cocoa butter and rice bran oil (my fav for many other things) too.

Do you have to use castor oil in soap? I am out of that at the moment.

IrishLass · Jun 30, 2017

You don't need to use castor oil. I use it because it adds a nice oomphy touch to my lather that I like very much.

You can actually make very nice soap with just the oils/butters you have on hand.

IrishLass

Obsidian · Jun 30, 2017

What did you see recently about canola? In small quantities its ok but larger % can cause DOS quite quickly. Personally, I won't use canola, it seems like a cheap filler oil to me, much like soy.

Nao · Jun 30, 2017

Well, I played around a little on soapee and this is what I came up with, all property numbers are within range:
Coconut 20%
Olive 30%
Rapeseed 10%
Shea 40%

I have made testing soaps before with a similar recipe but with 30% Shea, same coconut amount and higher soft oils and that one came out fine, so I assume 40% will work too. Some sugar to boost the bubbles probably wouldn't hurt.

Rapeseed is one of my favourite oils, it's ridiculously conditioning and you really don't need more than 10-15%. That amount will also allow you to not go over the 15% linoleic + linolenic acids that some say will keep the chance of DOS pretty low. The only times I've had DOS in my rapeseed soaps where when I used 50%+ or stored them under extremely poor conditions, e.g in puddles of water or in tied off plastic bags.

The Efficacious Gentleman · Jul 1, 2017

Unless you have very strong reasons not to use lard, I would suggest giving it a try. "Would rather not use" doesn't sound like it's religious or vegetarian grounds. Don't worry about being able to give your soap away - once they know how good it is they won't care about what is in it

fuzz-juzz · Jul 1, 2017

I recently tried PKO and I'm very much in love with it.
I know it has the same properties as CO but it feels a bit different in the actual soap.
I also like shea and cocoa butters. I use about 5% of each.
I quite like lard, after long hate/love relationship with it. It's really hard to come by here in Australia. My parents render lard sometimes, but in really small quantities which I save for roasted potatoes.

Out of soft oils, my favourite is RBO. I swapped most of my OO % for RBO. I use it at about 15-20%. The other day I used it at 50%, trying to create mild facial bar.
Big mistake, it created squishy, mushy disaster. It was 500gr batch so not a huge waste lol.

Kittish · Jul 1, 2017

Fuzz-juzz, thank you. I think you may have just saved me making a mistake. I had planned to completely swap RBO in for OO in a batch of soap, at 50%. The OO recipe came out beautiful...so I think I won't change it after all.

penelopejane · Jul 1, 2017

I keep RB to 10% for that reason. I like it in soap (not just because it's ultra cheap) so I still use it but small amounts. I think it gives the soap a silky feel.

0115d8cf · Jul 1, 2017

Seconding shea or cocoa butter instead of palm/tallow/lard, which I don't really like using either.

Saponificarian · Jul 1, 2017

^^^ This! I love Shea butter in soap. I can't use Lard because you are not even suppose to touch pork from my side of the world. I have used tallow but I really really love Shea and Cocoa butter. There is a recipe I use for my one year and five year old that is 80% Shea Butter, 10% Cocoa Butter and 10% PKO. It does need ageing 'latherwise' (don't think that is a word) but from 3 months, Lather is creamy and dense. At 6 months, believe me, it is unbelievably good. This recipe is not for you if you love big bubbles though.

ETA: I add sugar for bubbles and sometimes Coconut milk too.

MiHan · Jul 8, 2017

I really like coconut oil. It gives a nice smell when making the soap, and out of the five batches I made only the one with 100% coconut oil worked...

Best hard oils for soap

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