Yes, I guess it is possible without castor. But when I ordered my soap cutter from Turkey, I also ordered three soaps from her. I wanted to see how her soaps compared to mine, and since she is selling, I wanted to see if my soaps are good enough for sales. I know that the soap I made last is not, because of scratchy activated charcoal and not a too pleasant scent. But that is not the most important, I wanted to compare the recipe, lather, feel etc. And I'm sooo glad I bought soaps from her! I could instantly feel an enormous difference. Her soaps is like luxury bars, so silky smooth and with a rich lather. I don't know how to describe it, but it feels like pure luxury. So, I went to her website and looked up her ingredients. She used olive, palm, coconut, sunflower and castor + color and scent. I don't know how much of each she is using, other than that it is in falling order, and I don't want to find out either, since I don't think it's fair to copy her. But I do think she has added a mystery ingredient. I can't figure out what it might be, but the bars have a peculiar smell. My mother says is smells lye. And yes, maybe it is lye. Because the smell reminds of that lye you use on wood to lighen it. It might be her fragrance oils, but all three bars have the same sort of scent, so I suspect some ingredient in the soap itself. Well, I don't know. Maybe it is the Turkey Red Castor Oil, since she is in Turkey? No, who knows. But it is a peculiar scent, and the bars are not lye heavy (I have zap tested).
My recipe is shea, olive, coconut and rapeseed. The shea, coconut and rapeseed is from a vegetable lard type of product, so I just added olive. But my bubbles are really not at all good enough. I don't have that silky smooth feel either. Something has to be done to be able to get up to her level. So I think adding castor will help with the bubbles. I feel I need it. I don't want to up the coconut too much, but I can try to add some extra coconut too. And sugar. I forgot that when I made my soap, since I was supposed to add it to slightly cooled lye, but messed things up.
I think I will try to formulate a recipe like this and see if I can get closer to her rich, foaming bars of soap: Shea, high oleic sunflower, coconut, rapesseed and castor. I don't have palm oil. I hope that the shea can be a replacer for palm, somewhat. I think I will add some kaolin clay too. But I have to wait until my supplies from England and Germany arrives before I can make the soap, since I have ordered mica, clay and castor.
