Recipes without coconut or palm oil?

[Zhuliya]

Hi everyone,
I see that many of you use coconut and palm oils as your base oils for most of your soaps. I know these make hard, bubbly soaps and that's why they are so often used in soap recipes. But I was wondering if you have any recipe that doesn't use these two oils (or animal fats)...

I have loads of olive oil, which is very cheap around here, as well as rice, corn, sunflower, castor, etc...

I have been trying to experiment without coconut or palm, but I haven't been very successful so far

 

[Bubbles Galore]

95% Olive Oil
5% Castor Oil

Makes a very nice bar of soap. :wink:

 

[falldowngobump]

Does is have much bubble?

 

[judymoody]

What Jenny said. You could up the castor to 10% It provides nice bubbles.

 

[Zhuliya]

how about olive, grapeseed and castor?

 

[jennikate]

One thing keep in mind Olive oil maks nice hard soap but needs long cure time. I do mean long like get nice hard bar leave it alone curing for min 3 months. I have made nice bars olive oil 90 castor 5 and cocoa butter 5 percents. Hope this helps welcome to soaping.

 

[honor435]

Are you opposed to using coconut? that would add a lot to your soap.

 

[Zhuliya]

No, I'm not opposed to it, I just can't find it at a decent price, so I would like to use as little as possible (meaning, not in each and every soap I make).

 

[ToniD]

When making a soap that is all or largely olive, it helps to reduce your water/liquid amount. I can't remember what lye concentration works well for castile and don't have my notes with me--look for a post on lye concentration, or maybe someone will tell you.

I personally like to use buttermilk in my castile, it alters the lather slightly to make a nice soap. or add castor as mentioned above. Never tried Cocoa butter in a high olive recipe--sounds nice!

ditto the long cure.

 

[TheSoapMagician]

No, I'm not opposed to it, I just can't find it at a decent price, so I would like to use as little as possible (meaning, not in each and every soap I make).

I get LouAna coconut oil at Wal-Mart in the cooking oil section.

 

[judymoody]

So do I. But I don't know how many Wal-Marts there are in Italy.

 

[mariflo]

I hear you honey!!!
I've got to deal with the same problem ...

I found that adding a little beeswax to your olive and castor oil soap makes a harder bar (the soap becomes harder faster). Also if you add some clay then your soap will become more creamy.
Try to experiment in small batches and see if you like the way it turns out

mari

 

[Zhuliya]

thanks everyone for the advice, I've heard that small African or Caribbean shops sell cheap coconut oils here in Italy, but I haven't found one yet. While I look for it, I'll try with all your suggestions.
Thanks a lot everyone for the useful advice!

 

[zajcek]

Hi, Zhuliya, I found coconut oil at decent price (4 euro/kg) in Hofer. But they don't carry this oil all the year, just before the end of the year (november, maybe december too). Don't know if Hofer is in Italy. But, can you tell me, where do you buy castor oil (which is in Slovenija very very very pricey)?

 

[Hazel]

Can you find palm kernel oil? It can be used as a substitute for coconut. I did a batch at the end of November which was oo/pko/castor and it's not completely cured but the sample I just tried (knock on wood) seems very nice. You wouldn't have to add castor. The pko would help with bubbles.

 

[Zhuliya]

I am coming back to this topic just to give you some feedback on my experiments: I have tried a recipe that I made up changing another one I read from a book. It has no coconut or palm oil, but the soap is hard and has a wonderful lather.

I used:
65% olive
20% grapeseed
10% sweet almond
5% castor

I also used goat milk instead of water, and I have to tell you a got a really gentle and wonderful soap, which I already love!