Attention veteran soap makers! Will you help me?

[haleytetroe]

I am trying to figure out how to make a recipe with what I have, except I can't find a recipe for the ingredients I have! I HAVE NO IDEA HOW TO RATIO THIS. Okay so I have canola oil, grape seed oil, and olive oil. I can buy readily available oils, but I live in Canada, and coconut oil is ridiculously expensive. (Cannot find Shea & cocoa butter, so I can't use that ) But I will buy a small amount of coconut oil if need be. I'm thinking of trying a 2 lb batch. I am willing to hear any suggestions!
I especially need help with the ratios!

 

[green soap]

Canola and grape seed oils have an abundance of linoleic and linolenic fatty acids which can cause soap to oxidize and go rancid fast. I do not recommend using them.

Olive oil is fine, you can make a 100% olive oil soap but it should be cured for a long time, at least 3 months, preferably 6 months. Soap made with all OO has a texture that some describe as silky, others as slimy.

If you can get just a little coconut oil, and just a bit of shea or cocoa butter for creaminess, you can do Olive oil : coconut oil : shea or cocoa in ratios of 70 : 25: 5 for a great soap. If Shea or cocoa are unaffordable, Olive oil: coconut oil at 70: 30 ratio makes a wonderful soap.

If you can find castor oil, you can do Olive : castor 95:5 for a castile with more bubbles than just 100% olive oil soaps.

You can also use animal fats/oils but I don't use them so have no experience. They are more economical and I am sure others will chime in on the ratios to use for them.

Good luck in your soaping.

 

[Obsidian]

You don't need butter if you can find lard, tallow or palm. Those will contribute to a hard, long lasting bar. Coconut is kind of important, it helps make the soap more cleansing and have good bubbles. You don't need much for a 2lb batch. You can use the cheapest you can find, no need for organic or virgin in soap.

This would be a good starting point.

50% lard or palm, lard really makes the best soap
25% olive oil
20% coconut
5% castor

 

[Susie]

^What Obsidian said!

Lard and/or Tallow should be widely available. You may have to look by the meats or in the baking section.

Castor Oil will help stabilize your lather. It should be in the pharmacy by the laxatives. It is going to be a bit more pricey than lard, but you use only a little bit.

Do you know how to use SoapCalc or another lye calculator?

 

[Cindy2428]

Welcome to your soaping journey and may you soon become a hopeless addict!

May I suggest you first start with a free program: soapcalc.net It looks a little overwhelming at first, but it provides a comprehensive list of soap making oils and describes the properties that each oil brings to the party. A soaper here wrote an awesome tutorial on how to use it. Maybe someone will direct you there.

Oils suggestion: Castor oil - 5% available in the laxative section in drugstore. (Expensive to buy this way, but readily available). Avocado oil - Awesome oil! I've used up to 40%. Would suggest a minim of 10%.
Lard/Manteca - My new love if you don't have objection to animal fats. It's inexpensive, makes a beautiful white bar of soap with creamy lather. Some use at 100%. I've gone to 80%. Beef Tallow - You can make for free. Do a simple search for rendering tallow or plenty of you tube vids out there.

Ultimately I would suggest learning about oils and the properties they bring to your soap. I started making a binder of all the oils in soapcalc, researched each oil - still working on it.... If you are going to do all this work, wait 4-6 weeks, I would think you would want to learn more about what you are making.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

I would also suggest following the advice of Obsidian.

While there is a certain amount of freedom with soaping, there are also certain constaints and it is not always possible to make a good soap without certain things. For example, castor at 5% makes a good soap better, but a 100% castor soap would be utterly rubbish!

 

[lsg]

I agree with the others, tallow or lard along with olive oil and Castor oil will make a nice bar. If you can find the new Crisco in your supermarkets, it contains palm. You can also make a 95% olive oil, 5% Castor oil Castile type soap.

 

[cmzaha]

check out Millersoap.com and look at the canolive soap recipes. I do make these quite often and have kept bars up to a year testing to see if they will last without dos. I did a swap a few years ago and one was included in my box, it was one of the soaps I was very impressed with. I would pass on the grapeseed oil and go with the canolive. They do call for some coconut oil www.millersoap.com/soapallveg.html#Canolive. Even a 100% lard soap will give you a decent bar of soap that lathers. Lard makes wonderful soap

 

[haleytetroe]

Thank you for all your responses! I had no idea that canola oil makes soap go rancid quick, that's going to save a lot of time and effort! Lol I'm definitely going to get some coconut oil! I'll try my best at this first batch! Thank you again!