ISO inexpensive ingredients at still make good soap

[DWinMadison]

I paid about $20 for 8 pounds of lye on AAA Chemicals.

That's amazing! Although since I'm not in the soap business, Im not sure I'd want 20lbs of lye around my house.

 

[DWinMadison]

I paid about $20 for 8 pounds of lye on AAA Chemicals.

$6.40 for 2lbs from AAA is about half of Lowe's price, but the shipping would cost me $11, so as long as my local Lowe's carries it, I'm better off that way. Still, I may stock up since it sounds like fewer and fewer retailers are carrying it.

 

[LovelyMalia]

To those of you buying your oils at Walmart, what isles do they usually have this stuff? I'm wondering if I'm missing it because I didn't find coconut oil at my local Walmart (but then again, they don't sell the toe seperators for when I want to paint my toenails either!)

I have a Shaw's supermarket and that seems to be the only place to find oils since they have an "all organic line" and it costs an arm and a leg for coconut oil!

 

[Gryfonmoon]

$6.40 for 2lbs from AAA is about half of Lowe's price, but the shipping would cost me $11, so as long as my local Lowe's carries it, I'm better off that way. Still, I may stock up since it sounds like fewer and fewer retailers are carrying it.

Oops, my bad, I got the technical grade lye, not the food grade. I quoted the wrong price. The technical grade is $18.59 for 8 pounds. When you buy more in bulk it gets a bit cheaper of course.

With shipping, 8 pounds of technical grade lye from AAA Chemicals costs me 24 cents an ounce.

At my local Lowes, I pay roughly 50 cents an ounce (I included the 7% sales tax in my area). Since I make quite a bit of soap, I personally couldn't justify the cost of Lowes any longer.

 

[Genny]

To those of you buying your oils at Walmart, what isles do they usually have this stuff? I'm wondering if I'm missing it because I didn't find coconut oil at my local Walmart (but then again, they don't sell the toe seperators for when I want to paint my toenails either!)

I have a Shaw's supermarket and that seems to be the only place to find oils since they have an "all organic line" and it costs an arm and a leg for coconut oil!

Some walmarts have it in the baking section, some put it in the pharmacy area and some put it in the bath & body section.

 

[DWinMadison]

To those of you buying your oils at Walmart, what isles do they usually have this stuff? I'm wondering if I'm missing it because I didn't find coconut oil at my local Walmart (but then again, they don't sell the toe seperators for when I want to paint my toenails either!)

I have a Shaw's supermarket and that seems to be the only place to find oils since they have an "all organic line" and it costs an arm and a leg for coconut oil!

I've not looked at Walmart, but our Kroger has coconut oil in BOTH the organic and regular baking/oils sections. In the regular oils it LouAna brand. I also found the Spectrum palm oil at Kroger in the organic section as well, but they stock it apart from the other oils for some reason.

 

[MaitriBB]

I like to only use ingredients that I can get locally.

I'm lucky to have a local country store that sells coconut oil in 2-gallon tubs

I buy lard from Walmart, grapeseed oil from Walmart/Hy-Vee, and castor oil from Essential Depot via Amazon (huzzah Prime free 2-day shipping!) I *could* get castor oil from Walmart but the max I can get in one container is 4 oz and that's only 2 batches, so I prefer to buy it by the quart.