Recipe help - Olive oil and sunflower oil

xmasdeer · Nov 6, 2018

Hi, very new to soap making and living in France. I can't speak french much at all so decided to delve into being creative at home.

I have tried a few recipes with different soap calculators, same ingredients but different results from different calculators. One was a disaster, one was great.
I have used the following oils
10% avocado oil
20% coconut oil
50% olive oil
20% sunflower oil

I find it difficult to find palm oil and castor oil, as well as some other oils.

I would like to cut down on coconut and avocado a little to save money. Can I increase the sunflower oil content and reduce others in this recipe and what will the result be? I have made soap with just olive oil and another with olive oil and sunflower oil but didn't like them much. I am looking for a nice basic recipe for everyone for christmas.

shunt2011 · Nov 6, 2018

If you don't have access to palm or lard you can make soap with just the oils you have. However, it will be just okay soap and will require quite a longer cure before being a better soap. Castor oil helps with stable lather/bubbles. Coconut is the bubbles but can also be stripping to some. Are you using High Oleic Sunflower? If so you can certainly up that more and remove the avocado. Coconut I like at 20-25% but you can go lower. Using 1 soap calculator will give you consistent results. Try Soapee.com or soapcalc.net

xmasdeer · Nov 6, 2018

Thank you, I will check out changes and see what results from it.

Dean · Nov 6, 2018

You can harden with shea and cocoa butter if you have access. Refined has less unsaponifiables which is preferred if you don't want it to reduce lather.

Where are you from originally?

xmasdeer · Nov 6, 2018

Dean said:
You can harden with shea and cocoa butter if you have access. Might be pricey tho.

Do you mean by this that if I reduce the coconut oil the soap will be a softer soap, and do I need to replace it with shea butter or beeswax to make it harder? I am still trying to understand the combination of oils.

Dean · Nov 6, 2018

xmasdeer said:
Do you mean by this that if I reduce the coconut oil the soap will be a softer soap, and do I need to replace it with shea butter or beeswax to make it harder? I am still trying to understand the combination of oils.

Coconut oil provides hardness and lather but is stripping/ drying and creates soluble bar. If you want to reduce coconut, you can go as low as 15 and get good lather. Hard oils/butters produce hard soap. I recently used refined shea for hardness but I typically use hydrogenated soybean oil (soy wax) from online vendors for hardness.

This what I find is simple recipe guide.
15% CO for lather.
5% Castor for lather boost (if available but is not necessary)
Enough saturated fats for a soap calc hardness factor of about 50% (or 50% saturated fats). You can go much lower but the lower you go the more bendable the bar is when its wears thin.
The rest is filler with an high oleic liquid oil. I prefer almond.

I don't have experience with beeswax. Search the forum. There was a recent post about it.