Palm-free and vegan?

[LittleSaphyrs]

Hi! New soapmaker here. I have made one (so far) successful batch of CP (recipe I used listed below). It lathers fine and I really like it, we will see how it behaves after a cure. It is a bit drying however, but I hope the the cure will help with that.

Now, to the question. I prefer not to use palm oil, for personal reasons, and I formulated a recipe with tallow instead, because of it's similar properties. It worked very well, but I feel like it could be improved.

First of all, it was quite a chore to render the tallow, and it didn't yield very much for a lot of work. Second of all, I'd like a vegan option. Now, I don't mind using tallow or lard, and I'm sure I will continue with that, but I'd like the option of not using any animal fats as well. If any of you wonderful people here would like to take a look at my recipe and give any pointers it would be highly appreciated.

Recipe:
Beef Tallow 40%
Olive Oil (virgin) 30%
Coconut Oil 25%
Castor Oil 5%

Superfat at 5% and water 38% with a lye concentration of 27.261 % (calculated in SoapCalc)

I have ordered some Shea butter to maybe replace some of the coconut oil to make it a bit more conditioning, any thoughts?

Any pointers and advice are welcomed, thank you!

 

[dixiedragon]

I like this recipe:

Castor 5
Coconut 20
Shea butter 50
Sunflower 25
2% superfat

The sunflower could probably be replaced with olive, or maybe divided between the two. This recipe definitely needs an 8+ week cure - it is quite "meh" at 4 weeks. It also gets pretty thick pretty fast - fancy swirls will be tough!

 

[BrewerGeorge]

Hi! New soapmaker here. I have made one (so far) successful batch of CP (recipe I used listed below). It lathers fine and I really like it, we will see how it behaves after a cure. It is a bit drying however, but I hope the the cure will help with that.

Now, to the question. I prefer not to use palm oil, for personal reasons, and I formulated a recipe with tallow instead, because of it's similar properties. It worked very well, but I feel like it could be improved.

First of all, it was quite a chore to render the tallow, and it didn't yield very much for a lot of work. Second of all, I'd like a vegan option. Now, I don't mind using tallow or lard, and I'm sure I will continue with that, but I'd like the option of not using any animal fats as well. If any of you wonderful people here would like to take a look at my recipe and give any pointers it would be highly appreciated.

Recipe:
Beef Tallow 40%
Olive Oil (virgin) 30%
Coconut Oil 25%
Castor Oil 5%

Superfat at 5% and water 38% with a lye concentration of 27.261 % (calculated in SoapCalc)

I have ordered some Shea butter to maybe replace some of the coconut oil to make it a bit more conditioning, any thoughts?

Any pointers and advice are welcomed, thank you!

Similar to what dixie says above, a good start would be just replacing the beef tallow in your recipe with shea butter. You can tweak the olive and coconut amounts as you wish once you have a reference. I personally like a bit more coconut (25% vs my normal 20%) in a vegan bar because it helps overcome the shea's lather dampening effect.

Also, there is no need to use virgin olive oil. "Classic" olive oil is actually better than a fruity, green extra virgin. For that matter, if you can get high-oleic versions of safflower, sunflower, or canola/rapeseed where you are they are cheaper and work great as the soft oil.

 

[dixiedragon]

I agree with Brewer regarding the olive oil. I use the stuff from Costco that is just "olive oil" vs virgin or extra virgin.

The 2% superfat in this soap is to help compensate for the lather killing effect of the shea butter. I would say it is not noticeably less lathery than my standard recipe (20% coconut, 5% superfat).

 

[Dean]

I use soy wax (100% hydrogenated soy bean oil) to replace palm. Its cheaper than shea and cocoa butters.

Similar to what dixie says above, a good start would be just replacing the beef tallow in your recipe with shea butter. You can tweak the olive and coconut amounts as you wish once you have a reference. I personally like a bit more coconut (25% vs my normal 20%) in a vegan bar because it helps overcome the shea's lather dampening effect.

Also, there is no need to use virgin olive oil. "Classic" olive oil is actually better than a fruity, green extra virgin. For that matter, if you can get high-oleic versions of safflower, sunflower, or canola/rapeseed where you are they are cheaper and work great as the soft oil.

Hi George.

I didnt know shea hindered lather. What is the max amt of shea in % that can be used w/o hindering lather?

 

[BrewerGeorge]

I use soy wax (100% hydrogenated soy bean oil) to replace palm. Its cheaper than shea and cocoa butters.

Hi George.
I didnt know shea hindered lather. What is the max amt of shea in % that can be used w/o hindering lather?

It depends how refined it is and how many unsaponifiables it has. You'll just have to experiment with your supplier.