Hello! I have bought nearly everything I need to make my first batch of soap! I just need my containers, safety goggles (I have bad hearing and I am taking no chances with regular safety glasses lol), oil, and lye. While I wait for everything to arrive in the mail, I'm working on a list of oils to get. I will be getting olive and coconut for sure. I was hoping for some input on what oils people really enjoy using and ones I should avoid. If it makes any difference, my heat is set at 74 and I will be doing CP. I don't want to spend a ton of money while I'm just starting out, but I do want to use more than just coconut and olive. Bonus points if I can get it in walmart, Wegmans (regional grocery store that usually carries a larger variety of less common and imported items), or Amazon. I was thinking of pumpkin seed oil, sesame, or safflower?
Favorite and most hated oils to use?
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Blue1969
Well-Known Member
I only use beef tallow. It s easy to find at any butcher, and, if you render t yoursefl, it costs next to nothing and sometimes it is free. I have never bothered to use anything else. We live in a remote village, so it is very difficult to get anythng that is not locally sourced.
If you aren't opposed to using animal fats, I would recommend lard. It is very easy to work with and makes lovely soap. I use high oleic (HO) sunflower oil because it is less expensive here than safflower oil. I know the prices vary depending on location, and lots of soapers use safflower. And it has been harder for me to find the HO sunflower lately. Rice bran is another popular oil that is usually grocery store available. Castor oil is pretty easily found in pharmacies or that section of Walmart, used at 5% in your recipe. Avocado is another pretty readily available oil.
Keep it simple for your first batch. If you find that you love soap making (and you will, I'm sure) you can add butters and other oils later. Good luck and post pictures when you do make your soap.
Keep it simple for your first batch. If you find that you love soap making (and you will, I'm sure) you can add butters and other oils later. Good luck and post pictures when you do make your soap.
Carly B
Well-Known Member
I agree about both the lard and tallow. Walmart sells an 8 pound and a 4 pound tub of lard. Also get some castor oil. use it at 5% in almost all my batches, and as a hobby soaper, I only make one or two pound (or smaller) batches at a time, and I just ordered another bottle from Amazon. A 16 ounce bottle lasts a long time.
It's fun to experiment with different oils, but my basic soap is olive oil, coconut oil, castor oil, and either lard, tallow, or both (Hubby's favorite s a lard/tallow soap). With just those ingredients you can have fun experimenting by using the oils in different proportions. Then, as you are more familiar with soaping, you can try other oils, but those will give you a lot of options to start.
It's fun to experiment with different oils, but my basic soap is olive oil, coconut oil, castor oil, and either lard, tallow, or both (Hubby's favorite s a lard/tallow soap). With just those ingredients you can have fun experimenting by using the oils in different proportions. Then, as you are more familiar with soaping, you can try other oils, but those will give you a lot of options to start.
I made a recipe after much fiddling around on soapcalc. I'm thinking 5% castor oil, 40% lard, 30% olive, and 25% coconut. Everything looks to be in the average ranges. I considered corn or canola oil rather than olive, but I know olive oil is very gentle and will balance the coconut. I'm having my sister test it out with me if it turns out good. She has rather sensitive skin, so it should be a good test. Do you think a 1.5 pound soap loaf mold would be OK for a test batch?
That is a very good-sized batch to start. Big enough to get a feel for it, but not so big that you end up with tons of soap. 
One thing to know is that the suggested Cleansing range in soap calculators is really misleading for today’s users. I really wish they would change it!
First of all, the term “cleansing” refers to how much of your skin oils will be stripped away. You can compensate a bit with extra superfat, but that comes with its own set of issues.
Second, even a soap with a 0 cleansing value will still get you clean. It won’t be great for laundry soap or dish soap, or perhaps mechanic soap, but it will be very nice for your skin.
For these reasons, many hand-crafted soapmakers keep their cleansing number in their recipe at the very low end of the suggested Cleansing range, or even below it.
Looking at your proposed recipe, it is a good basic recipe to start. But because CO is so high in cleansing, many people will find a soap made with 25% CO to be way too harsh and drying for their skin.
Because CO is the primary bubble-making oil, when we reduce CO, we usually add some form of sugar (table sugar, honey, sorbitol, etc) to compensate. The bubbly factor of sugar won’t appear in the soap calculator, but you will get nice bubbles in your soap despite the low “bubbly” number.
Bottom line, I’d reduce your CO to 20%, up the lard by 5%, and add 1T of sugar per pound of oils. The sugar needs to be predissolved in your water before add the lye to the water.
Good luck, have fun, and keep us posted on how it goes for you!
One thing to know is that the suggested Cleansing range in soap calculators is really misleading for today’s users. I really wish they would change it!
First of all, the term “cleansing” refers to how much of your skin oils will be stripped away. You can compensate a bit with extra superfat, but that comes with its own set of issues.
Second, even a soap with a 0 cleansing value will still get you clean. It won’t be great for laundry soap or dish soap, or perhaps mechanic soap, but it will be very nice for your skin.
For these reasons, many hand-crafted soapmakers keep their cleansing number in their recipe at the very low end of the suggested Cleansing range, or even below it.
Looking at your proposed recipe, it is a good basic recipe to start. But because CO is so high in cleansing, many people will find a soap made with 25% CO to be way too harsh and drying for their skin.
Because CO is the primary bubble-making oil, when we reduce CO, we usually add some form of sugar (table sugar, honey, sorbitol, etc) to compensate. The bubbly factor of sugar won’t appear in the soap calculator, but you will get nice bubbles in your soap despite the low “bubbly” number.
Bottom line, I’d reduce your CO to 20%, up the lard by 5%, and add 1T of sugar per pound of oils. The sugar needs to be predissolved in your water before add the lye to the water.
Good luck, have fun, and keep us posted on how it goes for you!
I saw that walmart sells duck tallow. Have you ever tested out duck tallow?
Thank you! I saw that people were suggesting sugar in other posts, but I wasn't sure when in the process you add it. I saw on the soap buddy calculator gave options to put additives in the oil, the liquid, or after trace and I had no clue when was the right time. So I measure the water then add the sugar then add the lye. I have read that if the room temperature is too cold it can cause a false trace. I am guessing 74° is probably too cold because the coconut and lard will be solids. Is there a way to keep them gently warmed without turning up my heat? When I would batch tie dye and had to keep it really warm I would use a heating pad or keep them in my bathroom. I cannot make the soap in my bathroom though because it is a very small room with no ventilation.That is a very good-sized batch to start. Big enough to get a feel for it, but not so big that you end up with tons of soap.
One thing to know is that the suggested Cleansing range in soap calculators is really misleading for today’s users. I really wish they would change it!
First of all, the term “cleansing” refers to how much of your skin oils will be stripped away. You can compensate a bit with extra superfat, but that comes with its own set of issues.
Second, even a soap with a 0 cleansing value will still get you clean. It won’t be great for laundry soap or dish soap, or perhaps mechanic soap, but it will be very nice for your skin.
For these reasons, many hand-crafted soapmakers keep their cleansing number in their recipe at the very low end of the suggested Cleansing range, or even below it.
Looking at your proposed recipe, it is a good basic recipe to start. But because CO is so high in cleansing, many people will find a soap made with 25% CO to be way too harsh and drying for their skin.
Because CO is the primary bubble-making oil, when we reduce CO, we usually add some form of sugar (table sugar, honey, sorbitol, etc) to compensate. The bubbly factor of sugar won’t appear in the soap calculator, but you will get nice bubbles in your soap despite the low “bubbly” number.
Bottom line, I’d reduce your CO to 20%, up the lard by 5%, and add 1T of sugar per pound of oils. The sugar needs to be predissolved in your water before add the lye to the water.
Good luck, have fun, and keep us posted on how it goes for you!
I generally make 20oz (total weight) test batches. Use Lye Concentration not Water as % of Oils at around 33%-35%.
The actual temperature of your house doesn't matter, it's the temperature of your Lye Solution and Oils/Butters. False Trace comes from your Oils and Lye Solution being too cold, not the room you make it is.
When you make up your Lye Solution (add the Sodium Hydroxide to the water, NOT water to Sodium Hydroxide) it's going to heat up to around 200F-220F so you are going to want to let it cool down to around 110F. A lot of folks melt their hard oils in the microwave in 'bursts'...three minutes to start, then one to two minutes afterwards. You want the hard oils fully melted...they should be clear, but not overheated. Around 110F.
I would wait on the Duck Tallow until you have made several batches of soap. We know, we all went through the same thing when we first started making soap...all those Oils and Butters...oh my!
The actual temperature of your house doesn't matter, it's the temperature of your Lye Solution and Oils/Butters. False Trace comes from your Oils and Lye Solution being too cold, not the room you make it is.
When you make up your Lye Solution (add the Sodium Hydroxide to the water, NOT water to Sodium Hydroxide) it's going to heat up to around 200F-220F so you are going to want to let it cool down to around 110F. A lot of folks melt their hard oils in the microwave in 'bursts'...three minutes to start, then one to two minutes afterwards. You want the hard oils fully melted...they should be clear, but not overheated. Around 110F.
I would wait on the Duck Tallow until you have made several batches of soap. We know, we all went through the same thing when we first started making soap...all those Oils and Butters...oh my!
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If Walmart and Wegman's are close enough, you should totally check out their high oleic sunflower oil and avocado oils. When Wegman's is not the only grocery store in an area, they tend to be very comparable to other stores, even Walmart. If you're not opposed, I'd suggest beef tallow but I also like rice bran oil. I do strongly suggest that you avoid any temptation to use butter in ANY form as a soaping oil.
I think your recipe looks good as is. I use coconut oil at 25% and don't find it too drying. Everyone is different, so if you decide to lower the CO percentage to 20 or even less you might want to add some sugar. I warm some of my batch water to help the sugar dissolve. Once it is dissolved I pour it back into the rest of the batch water and add the lye to that. If your sister has overly sensitive skin, a lower percentage of coconut oil might be better. I like olive oil, but there are people who find that drying. You are at the beginning of your journey and will likely have to experiment a bit to find out what you like.
A 1.5 pound batch size sounds very reasonable. You will have enough for testing, but won't get over-run with soap quite so fast.
A 1.5 pound batch size sounds very reasonable. You will have enough for testing, but won't get over-run with soap quite so fast.
First I melt my MB oils to around 150F to avoid/limit stearic spots. While the oil mix is cooling, I mix my additives (sorbitol and sodium citrate) in some reserved water, and add that to my room temp MB lye solution. The lye solution gets warmer again when that additional water is added, so I let everything cool to around 90-100F.
That temp range works well to keep my recipe fluid enough to make designs, without getting false trace. But I don't tend to soap with butters or beeswax, or a large amount of PKO. If I were using any of those, I'd probably go with the temps that @TheGecko recommends, since those ingredients have a higher melt point.
Carly B
Well-Known Member
I have never seen tallow of any sort at Walmart, and I would have grabbed some if I did. But I wouldn't use that oily gold on soap. Duck fat potatoes are the bomb.
Alright, so I'm looking at Wegmans online to see what they have in stock. There is: canola, corn, Avocado, peanut, grapeseed, HO sunflower, sesame, cottonseed (infused with onion and garlic), safflower, almond, walnut, macadamia nut, red palm, hemp seed, jojoba, argan (very expensive), rosehip (also expensive), sweet almond, baobab, and apricot kernel. At least it looks like I won't have to pay shipping when I want small sizes of some of the "fancier" oils to practice with lol. Are any of these worth buying eventually?
I find coconut oil to be a bit drying on my skin and rarely use it. I use babassu oil or palm kernel oil instead.
Tallow has cleansing numbers and use that instead of coconut oil as well.
Avocado, sweet almond, baobab and apricot kernel oils if you want to experiment. Canola if you feel you want to do a shampoo bar. Rosehip, Argan and jojoba are great in hair or skin care. Canola and hemp have a short oil life so I would hold off until can use them up quickly.
I prefer butters in soap even if I make a tallow or lard soap. I am old and in a cold climate. I focus on conditioning and like using butters for skin care and soap.
These, of course, are all personal preferences. Everyone will have a different opinion and they are all good choices for the most part. It works for them and their clients.
I love playing with new oils and butters. Experimenting with oils and butters is part of the fun.
I saw that baobab has some really great benefits for skin. I'm thinking maybe once I get good at soap making, I could make my husband a very gentle face bar that has some baobab oil in it. He hates the he have thick scale like flakes on his face and that his skin is always so red, but also thinks going to a dermatologist is pointless because skin care is not at the top of his priorities. If I can just make a very gentle cleansing bar, maybe it would help just a little in boosting his confidence!
I also use a ton of oils in cooking, but not canola. Right now I have a large thing of sunflower oil because I prefer cooking with that as a substitute when ever olive oil or vegetable is listed. So I'll probably definitely grab up the Avocado oil because if I end up not liking it much in soap I can definitely still use it. Never cooked with hemp seed oil before, but they are like 12 FL Oz bottles so I may consider getting some for soap eventually when I need more cooking oil anyways just so I have a back up plan and it doesn't go to waste.
Good luck
Carly B
Well-Known Member
Remember that a lot of the beneficial properties of oils are "killed," for lack of a better word, during saponification. I have added small amounts of specialty oils (I LOVE emu oil, for example) to either melt and pour or rebatch bars, because the oils are not chemically altered.
Unless you are going for label appeal, save the argan and baobab and other expensive oils for lotion or lotion bars or rebatch/M&P. You will notice their benefits and appreciate them much more that way.
Forgot to add that I have made a batch of facial soap for myself--I rebatched some of my soap and added emu oil and homemade oat milk, and it's very nice. I would also recommend keeping hemp oil in the fridge, because it can go off quickly.
Unless you are going for label appeal, save the argan and baobab and other expensive oils for lotion or lotion bars or rebatch/M&P. You will notice their benefits and appreciate them much more that way.
Forgot to add that I have made a batch of facial soap for myself--I rebatched some of my soap and added emu oil and homemade oat milk, and it's very nice. I would also recommend keeping hemp oil in the fridge, because it can go off quickly.
I would suggest to make very small batches when trying an expensive oil in soap for the first time. Some oils change dramatically when saponified, while others seems to retain their desired qualities.
For instance, many folks find coconut oil to be moisturizing in its raw form, but in soap, it’s extremely drying to the skin. In contrast, most people find that shea butter remains quite conditioning to the skin whether it is raw, or saponified.
So, have fun experimenting with small batches to see what works for you and those dear to you. And if you are thinking of selling someday, keep close track of costs; that way, you know what to charge when you do sell.
I don’t sell as a business, but certain friends and family are gaga over specific soap recipes, lotions, etc. They are happy to pay the cost for me to make some expensive things for them. I don’t charge anywhere near retail, so it is a win-win. I get to play with and try out expensive ingredients, and they enjoy them.
For instance, many folks find coconut oil to be moisturizing in its raw form, but in soap, it’s extremely drying to the skin. In contrast, most people find that shea butter remains quite conditioning to the skin whether it is raw, or saponified.
So, have fun experimenting with small batches to see what works for you and those dear to you. And if you are thinking of selling someday, keep close track of costs; that way, you know what to charge when you do sell.
I don’t sell as a business, but certain friends and family are gaga over specific soap recipes, lotions, etc. They are happy to pay the cost for me to make some expensive things for them. I don’t charge anywhere near retail, so it is a win-win. I get to play with and try out expensive ingredients, and they enjoy them.
Zany_in_CO
Saponifier
You might enjoy reading this thread for learning more about buying oils (and molds) locally:
GROCERY STORE SOAP
Also, to get off on the right foot, I always recommend Lovin' Soap Studio's Basics:
GUIDE TO MAKING COLD PROCESSED SOAP
Excellent choice! Well done you!
BASIC TRINITY OF OILS
BTO SoapCalc Printout
HTH (Hope This Helps) and HAPPY SOAPING!
I also want to mention...I don't "hate" any oil or butter; it's simply a matter of personal preference. Like any other new soap maker, I tried a lot of different oils and butters in varying amounts. Some I liked the results of, some I did not but I'm not going to tell which ones I didn't like simply because you aren't me and I don't want to dissuade you from trying something that could turn out to be perfect for you.
And a few things to consider:
1) Soap is a wash on/rinse off product that is maybe on your skin for five or ten minutes. Imagine putting on hand lotion and then immediately washing it off...zero benefit.
2) Sodium Hydroxide destroys the majority of 'benefits' an oil or butter may bring to the table. Hence why we look at fatty acid profiles of them since that is what is what comes OUT of the pot.
3) What kind of soap maker are you? Are you someone who wants to make soap for family/friends or do you want to make a business out of it? If it's a hobby, it doesn't matter what you spend on oils/butters, but if it's going to be a business, then you have to consider costs. I knit...when I knit for family/friends I'm not overly concerned about the cost of the yarn, but when I make my Bath Scrubbies for my business, I do consider costs...I also consider quality. Now there is not a lot of leeway of the Scrubbie Yarn...not many companies make it, but cotton yarn...tons of it around. I could maximize my profits by using a cheap cotton yarn, but instead I chosen a better quality cotton even though it costs more. And I'm the same way when it comes to choosing my ingredients for soap making. I could make more money if I eliminated Cocoa and Shea Butter, but we're only talking 30 cents a bar and I'd rather make a good bar of soap as opposed to a cheap bar of soap.
And a few things to consider:
1) Soap is a wash on/rinse off product that is maybe on your skin for five or ten minutes. Imagine putting on hand lotion and then immediately washing it off...zero benefit.
2) Sodium Hydroxide destroys the majority of 'benefits' an oil or butter may bring to the table. Hence why we look at fatty acid profiles of them since that is what is what comes OUT of the pot.
3) What kind of soap maker are you? Are you someone who wants to make soap for family/friends or do you want to make a business out of it? If it's a hobby, it doesn't matter what you spend on oils/butters, but if it's going to be a business, then you have to consider costs. I knit...when I knit for family/friends I'm not overly concerned about the cost of the yarn, but when I make my Bath Scrubbies for my business, I do consider costs...I also consider quality. Now there is not a lot of leeway of the Scrubbie Yarn...not many companies make it, but cotton yarn...tons of it around. I could maximize my profits by using a cheap cotton yarn, but instead I chosen a better quality cotton even though it costs more. And I'm the same way when it comes to choosing my ingredients for soap making. I could make more money if I eliminated Cocoa and Shea Butter, but we're only talking 30 cents a bar and I'd rather make a good bar of soap as opposed to a cheap bar of soap.
