Advice Appreciated

[Zany_in_CO]

There are large soap makers down here that use kukui nut oil (North Shore Soap Factory)

I visited North Shore Soap Factory. What I saw is something I've seen many times before with popular soaps like Dr. Squatch online. They contain the 3 legs of the Basic Trinity of Oils starter formula, i.e., Coconut, Palm & Olive. Easy to create and tweak to your liking.

TIPS: Sub shea butter for the palm. Add 5% Castor to increase lather and add just 2 oz Kukui Nut Oil (deduct both from Olive amount). I've used oat flour and corn starch (1 tsp - 1 Tbls PPO) -- both are nice in CP. Add to the warmed oils along with your fragrance before adding the lye solution.

Kukui Nut Unscented Natural Soap

INGREDIENTS: Saponified oils of coconut*, palm*, olive and castor; Hawaiian kukui nut oil; oat flour*, cornstarch.

See "Ed's Bayberry Soap" PDF attached. A printout of the Trinity formula I made for a customer request to dupe his favorite soap he bought online until they discontinued it.

HAPPY SOAPING!

 

[Cassie]

An update, I did find a macadamia nut oil manufacturer on Maui! It's not the cheapest but not the most expensive either, $0.35 per oz before factoring in shipping. I'm planning on ordering some to see how it is in soap and body butters/lotion bars.

Also I did end up making a test soap batch with kokum butter and it came out much harder! I was able to demold and cut it after 1 day. It did accelerate but that might have been due to the fragrance. I used passionflower and acai berry from Nature's Garden and it turned the soap orange at first and accelerated trace. I ended up having to scoop the soap into the mold but it ended up coming out ok. I used the following recipe:
Castor oil 5%
Canola oil 10%
Coconut oil 25%
Grapeseed oil 10%
Olive oil 25%
Shea butter 15%
Kokum butter 10%

Once it cures I will have to see how it lathers but so far I like the kokum butter for soaps and body butters.

 

[dibbles]

Beautiful! I’m glad you were able to source macadamia nut oil. I hope you like it.

 

[dmcgee5034]

Beautiful soap @Cassie!