Favorite recipes? Without Olive, Lard, Tallow, and Palm?

[Rahmi]

I'm wondering if anyone would be willing to share their fave recipes for soaps without Olive oil, palm oil, lard and tallow? Butters are also not high on my list, including shea and cocoa butter. These oils are not easy to get/cost effective for me.

Oils I can get aplenty here:
Coconut oil, sunflower, rice bran, sesame oil, mustard seed oil, castor oil
I have some beeswax for few projects, but after they're gone it would not be easy for me to source it.
I'm trying to come up with a basic recipe that I can stick with. Thanks!

 

[steffamarie]

I use rice bran in place of olive oil in just about every recipe and it works well. You can make a pretty nice bastille-type bar with 75% rice bran, 20% coconut, and 5% castor. It will take longer to unmold and cure with coconut being your only hard oil. If you can get other butters like mango butter or kokum butter you can add those at 10-15% (taking away from the rice bran) to add hardness.

 

[shunt2011]

You could make a okay soap with Rice Bran, Coconut and castor oil. It will take a longer cure. I would do 75% Rice Bran, 20% Coconut and 5% Castor. Rice Bran is similar to Olive.

 

[Zany_in_CO]

Hi Rahmi and Welcome! When you have time, you may want to go to the Introduction Forum and tell us a little bit about yourself, including your soap making experience. It's a good way to meet other SMF members from India who could maybe help you to source ingredients -- among other things.

Eliminating olive oil, lard, tallow, palm oil and butters is a bit of a stumper for me. That being said, a lot of members are having fun doing variations on a basic castile/bastile soap that could work for you. I'm fairly certain 85% almond oil would be a good sub for the olive oil in the recipe, along with 10% coconut oil and 5% castor to add hardness and lather. 1 tablespoon sugar to boost lather optional. Here's a link:

Zany's No Slime Castile

 

[Rahmi]

Thanks all! I'll be trying that high percentage of rbo soon.

Shunt, when you said longer cure, how much longer? 2 mo? 6mo?

Zany, I did introduce myself sometime back in that section

 

[Zany_in_CO]

Zany, I did introduce myself sometime back in that section

So you did! I found it. Very interesting. Thank you.
https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/hello-from-south-india.75320/

 

[RobinRogers]

I would think 40% CO, 15% AvO, 25% RBO, 15 % Sweet Almond, and 5% CO would make a nice soap. I haven’t tried it but would surely be willing.

 

[earlene]

I have made soap with sesame oil, and liked it. It does darken the soap, but I don't think that matters unless you are going for a white soap. I also liked the nutty scent it lends to the soap, and it sure seemed to contribute nicely to bubbles.

Offhand, I don't recall a specific recipe, but using RBO at a fairly high percentage worked well for me in many soaps. Depending on your skin's preferences, you could use CO at 30% or less, as it is very drying to the skin in soap. But that's really a personal preference. In some cases higher CO percentages work, but not always for everyone. I take it India is quite humid, so I am guessing a higher CO percentage might be okay for you, but again, it really depends on your skin as well as the recipe itself.

Just be prepared for the fact that the soap made with only soft oils and CO will not be extremely long lasting soap. But you can make some very nice soap with the oils you listed.

Is the sunflower oil available to you high oleic or low oleic? I prefer to use HO Sunflower rather than the regular suflower oil that is more prone to DOS. I have never used mustard seed oil, but maybe someday I'll have the opportunity to see what it is like. For the most part, I have only used castor at about 5%, but several folks here use it at a higher percentage, so perhaps you can experiment with the percentages and see how that works for your situation.

Oils I can get aplenty here:
Coconut oil, sunflower, rice bran, sesame oil, mustard seed oil, castor oil

One other suggestions I'd make is to try a recipe with egg yolks to add a bit more bubbles and and to offset some of the harshness of a high CO soap. My skin really responds well to soap with egg yolks. If eggs are available to you, that is.

 

[szaza]

All very good suggestions above!! I'd like to add a 100% coconut oil soap with 20% superfat. Lovely soap, but not very long lasting either.
If you want a lasting soap you could try to experiment with salt bars or soleseife, which contain high amounts of CO together with some soft oils and last way longer thanks to the added salt (they do require a longer cure, especially the salt bars). There are plenty of recipes for both salt bars and soleseife to be found on this forum [emoji6]

 

[dixiedragon]

5% beeswax makes a huge difference in hardness. I found this by Googling:

Look for Khadi & Village Industries stores/outlets in your city/town/village. They sell good quality bee wax and honey bee related products.​

Is this store an option for you? I also notice that Carnuba wax is often mentioned when I google India and Beeswax. Beeswax keeps for a long time and you'd need a small amount, so IMO it would be worthwhile to try a recipe with 5% beeswax and if you like it, make an effort to source it. Beeswax is very popular in wood polishes, so if you know a woodworker or if you have a store that supplies woodworkers, that might be a place to go. If you like it, you could buy a larger quantity - 5-10 lbs - and it would last you for years. it keeps very well.

 

[Rahmi]

Thanks so much all, you've given me many ideas to try!

I think I will try beeswax next, I've been wanting to but still intimidated soaping hot and I don't want to do HP.

 

[KiwiMoose]

I use soy wax at 20% in my soap. If you can source that, and add your other oils as mentioned, you will get a nice bar that is also quite long-lasting. My main oils are soy wax, coconut oil and Olive all at 20%, then rice bran, avocado and castor. You could do something similar?