Question ???

selah925 · Aug 23, 2008

What is a good percentage ratio for coconut oil, palm kernel oil, and olive oil? I have tried running it through a soap calc., but each time I get one soap quality good, the others aren't. I want to use about 5lbs of oils.

Thanks!

Also, any suggestions of where to buy palm kernel oil? Oh ... and one more thing .... would 5 lbs of oil generally use 12 ounces of lye and 32 ounces of water?

Becky · Aug 24, 2008

Is it absolutely necessary that you use only coconut, palm kernal & olive oil? You have 2 very cleansing oils and one gentler oil there - maybe trying to add another gentler oil, like rice bran or sweet almond oil to your recipe.

As for how much lye and water you will need for any given amount of oils, that is what your lye calculator will tell you. Each oil has a different SAP value, therefore will need a different amount of lye to saponify. Nearly every recipe will need a differing amount of lye depending on what amount of what oil you are using. The water amount will depend on your lye calculator, and if you are taking any kind of water discount.

Maybe if you post your recipe, we can give you some help?

selah925 · Aug 24, 2008

No. It is definitely not necessary to use those three oils, but the reason I had planned to was that they were the common base oils I saw listed in most internet soap businesses. I assumed that it was a pretty good mixture. Not true? I also wanted to simplify from using 6 oils to less. What base oils would you use for most recipes?

Would you add the sweet almond or rice bran at the beginning or after trace?

I don't really have a specific recipe right now, but was trying to create my base ingredients to have mostly consistent with most recipes.

Thank you so much for your help!

Becky · Aug 25, 2008

Selah, I'm one of those lazy soapers who doesn't believe that adding an oil after trace has any great benefit :lol:

I add all my oils to the pot, including the FO, then the lye & mix.

As for a base recipe, mine has just palm oil, coconut oil and olive oil. Sometimes I add some Rice bran oil to it, depending on if I remembered to buy some at the shop.

What you need to do when trying to develop a recipe, rather than concentrate on what everyone else uses, is concentrate on what you want out of your soap, and choose the oils to suit.

This list http://www.soapnuts.com/indexoils.html gives you the quick check on the type of lather you can expect from each oil when soaped.

This http://www.colebrothers.com/soap/oils.html is a really nice explanation of what each oil will bring to your soap.

Once you have decided what you want from your soap, take some time to just play around with different amounts of different oils & see how you go. The quest for the perfect recipe is long tho - I think most of us are still looking for it! :lol:

selah925 · Aug 25, 2008

Thanks for the links and your suggestions! There are just so many oils all so unique that sometimes it gets overwhelming to decide what to use. Trial and error, I guess.

MikeInPdx · Aug 25, 2008

Here's an example of a balanced simple recipe and may be a good place to start experimenting.

Try:

25% Coconut
40% Palm Oil (not Palm Kernel)
35% Olive Oil

This gives you a balanced bar with good hardness, cleansing, conditioning and lots of bubbly and creamy lather.

I use variations of this with Crisco and lard for most of my soaps....occasionally castor if I want it extra bubbly.