I appreciate your suggestions.
Thank you, but unfortunately the many recipes that I came up with were no good, so I thought that it would be good to consult this forum.
The Basic Trinity of Oils formula is a good starting point for designing a recipe.that works for you. Once you understand what each leg of the trinity (coconut, olive, palm) brings to a balanced formula you should be able to use all of the oils you listed. Some will work better than others. Keep castor to 5% max. Since you don't have access to palm you will need a solid oil like Hydrogenated Soy Bean if that's available? Ghee is not recommended due to being odorific in soap. The same applies to neem, although it is said to be good for skin issues and generally used at a small %.
It would dissolve in water very quickly and was quite drying even though I used a 7% super fat. The qualities of the soap that the soap calculator gave me told that the INS and iodine values were not in the range and indicated the bar of soap was soft. Those were the main problems with my soap.
Thank you, that might work. The problem that I faced with a 100% coconut oil soap was that it was not a long lasting soap. It probably was because I did not not cure it for long enough.
It seems like it will be a good soap.
Thank you. This is quite helpful, but high oleic sunflower oil is not available.Your list of oils made me recall this thread about a long-ago recipe called Genny's Shampoo [NOT] Bar*, which used soybean and castor oils:
Genny's Shampoo Bar recipe--and question
I remember trying a variation of it because I'd never used so much (10%) castor before. It worked well, made a very nice and gentle bath bar.
Since you don't have shea butter or olive oil, perhaps you could try upping the soybean oil just a bit, adding coconut oil, and substituting sunflower oil for the olive & avocado. Here's me just noodling around; see if you think something along these lines would be worth trying with a small batch. I might add a little salt to the lye water as well. Just a thought! You have lots of options to play with, especially if you can source that soy wax. Good luck!
*added [NOT] because the consensus from the thread is that it was fine for a regular soap bar but not really suitable for shampoo
(Edited to correct link)
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No worries, I just chose that one automatically. The SAP value for regular and high-oleic sunflower oil appears to be exactly the same (on SoapCalc, anyway) although the fatty acid profile certainly looks different!
Unfortunately, sunflower oil probably won't work. The fatty acid profile is what really matters. Regardless of that, thank you for your help.
I agree about the fatty acids, and it's too bad high-oleic (or even mid-oleic) isn't an option for you.
). Best wishes to you with your search and experimentation!
I have not tried salt bars. I think this might be really good. I too live in a climate which has a hot and humid summers and salt bars are likely to be generally long lasting. Thank you for all your help.I agree about the fatty acids, and it's too bad high-oleic (or even mid-oleic) isn't an option for you.
My last notion concerns those 100% coconut oil soaps with high superfat as mentioned by Blufuz and AliensrReal: such nice soaps, but I like them best as salt bars. Since you are an experienced maker you've probably tried salt bars already, but thought I'd mention them on the off chance that you haven't. Salt bars are some of my favorite soaps ever, but then I live in a generally warm and humid climate, which may make a difference. Maybe they would last longer for you than plain coconut oil soap, but I'm not sure. Just a thought (I promise to stop noodling on!
