Soap Supplies

[noskiveez]

Ok, I've been lurking for about a year so I guess its time to come out of hiding. I'm not quite making soap yet. I have a tendency to do a lot of research first.

I have a friend who buys her supplies from Soapers Choice and I've put together a pretty hefty order and was wondering if there was a good place other than Soapers Choice to buy oils? Meaning price wise/affordability.

I had originally planned to get things at another place and it was nearly twice the price of Soapers Choice.

I'm Vanessa, by the way! Im here because I have a baby who has soap reactions.

 

[ilovedoxies]

Check out Columbus Foods.

Sam's has gallon size olive oil at a decent price, too.

 

[MeadowHillFarmCT]

Hi Vanessa - Welcome and I hope you find a solution to your baby's allergy...

Columbus oil is Soapers Choice and I found it is the cheapest... Shipping is high but I don't think any higher than others... I usually get my order in about 3 days.

Good luck

 

[NancyRogers]

Perhaps you should first try your hand at a batch or two using oils you can find locally to be sure that soaping is for you. I totally recommend Soapers Choice, but ordering from them is making a big commitment to a hobby you haven't dabbled in yet.

You can make an excellent soap using things available at your local Wal-Mart. If you have a Whole Foods near you, even better. Wal-Mart has Olive Oil, Castor Oil, Coconut Oil, Lard and GV Shortening (the kind with the tallow). Whole Foods has a brand of shortening called Spectrum. It's 100% Palm Oil.
They also have cocoa butter and shea butter, along with many other oils.

Then if you decide that you do want to make soap on a larger scale, it is much cheaper to order in bulk.

 

[judymoody]

Hi Vanessa, Welcome!

I'm in NM and I have found that shipping at Soaper's Choice tends to go up in increments. Three gallons is a kind of sweet spot where it's good value for the quantity you're getting.

I agree with Nancy not to go overboard at first. I did - I bought something like 10 gallons of oils and 10 lbs of beeswax (I have about 9.8 lbs of that left!) Wheat Germ oil - what was I thinking? Babassu? Lovely oil but not all that different from PKO.

I have made many batches by this point and my "go to" oils are olive, palm kernel, coconut, palm, and castor. I sometimes use small quantities of high oleic safflower or sunflower and grapeseed for certain recipes (available at the local supermarket). I also find that the new Crisco (palm and soy based) works surprisingly well. If you're not opposed to animal fats, lard is a good substitute for palm oil and makes a great hard white bar.

If I were to limit myself to three kinds, I'd get palm kernel oil, palm oil, and castor oil. Those are expensive to get locally. As Nancy mentioned you can get Louanna brand Coconut Oil at the Walmart Supercenter as well as in many grocery stores - the price is comparable to what you'd pay at Soaper's Choice when you factor in the shipping. Olive oil - try your local big box store like Sam's or Costco.

If you live in the middle of nowhere and have to drive forever to get to a Costco or a Walmart, then I'd add Coconut and Olive Oil to your Soaper's Choice order.

Good luck and enjoy.

 

[soapbuddy]

Welcome!
I've used Soaper's Choice also.

 

[craftgirl08]

Yup, Soaper's Choice (Columbus Foods) for me!! Great prices and fast shipping. :wink:

 

[Stacey]

Yesterday I was doing some calculating on buying locally and buying through Soaper's Choice. I'll share my findings with you.

BUT! You must keep in mind two things:
1. I hate math. Me and numbers are rarely on speaking terms. So hopefully I calculated everything correctly. Please run the numbers yourself before you take my word on it.

2. The shipping costs are to my location in central MN. Your location could be a different amount.

Hope this helps you as much as it helped me!

BTW: I ordered from Soaper's Choice at about 2:00 pm yesterday and my order shipped out yesterday before the end of the work day. I should have it tomorrow afternoon. Now that's fast service right there. :shock:

Found out some interesting things. First and foremost: It costs the same to buy Olive Oil locally. Probably cheaper if I can buy it at Sam’s Club/Costco.

Coconut Oil is way cheaper if I buy in a 50lb cube. That’s a lot of Coconut Oil but I’m sure I can use it up no problem. (Salt Bars are 100% coconut oil)

I can buy castor oil locally but it’s an insane price when compared to Soaperschoice.

Shea butter and Palm oil I have to buy from Soaperschoice because I can’t get it locally.

Coconut oil 76 Degree:
Walmart: $5.98 for 31.5 oz.=$.19 per oz.
Soaperschoice: $17.22 for 112 oz. (7 lb. bottle)+ $7.06 (S&H)=$.22 per oz.
$80.50 for 800 oz. (50 lb. cube) + $17.42 (S&H) =$.12 per oz
Olive Oil:
Walmart: $20.28 for 101 oz=$.20
Soaperschoice: $99.05 for 560 oz.(35 lbs)+ $13.69 (S&H)=$.20

Shea butter:
Soapershcoice: $85.00 for 400 oz (25 lbs)+10.58 (S&H)=$.24
$36.60 for 160oz (10 lbs)+7.06 (S&H)=$.29
Palm Oil:
Soaperschoice: $76.00 for 800 oz (50lbs)+ $17.42 (S&H)=$.12
$14.70 for 112 oz (7 lbs) + $7.06 (S&H)= $.19

 

[noskiveez]

Ive placed my order at Soapers Choice. Im pretty glad I asked. Im pretty confident that this is something I want to try. I did manage to hit a few specialty grocery store so I was able to knock a few things off my list and save myself quite a bit on shipping. Im a bit more of a do-it-myselfer when it comes to things. Id rather make my own stuff than buy it commercially. It kind of gives me a bit of pride using something I made. Im also a bit of a naturalist, if such a word does exist. I tried to put my order together consisting of things I would likely want to try making. Ive been researching about making homemade lip balms and lotions too. I did find a 64 oz bottle of food grade grapeseed oil and thought I hit the jackpot.

I would like to try something with Coffee Butter but the stuff cost a fortune. Maybe another time. :roll:

I do have one more question about molds. I am having my husband build a wooden mold. How can I determine how much soap will fit in it or how big I should make it so that It holds a decent amount of soap.

 

[paillo]

i buy pretty much all my oils in large-ish quantities from soapers choice -- 50 lb containers of coconut and palm, 10 or 25 lbs of shea butter, 7 lbs castor, avocado, sweet almond. can't afford the mango, cocoa or coffee butters any more i love that their palm oil is organic and sustainably sourced.) i also get sodium lactate in quantity.

olive oil i buy locally from my food lion -- i wait until it goes on a buy-one-get-one-free sale and snap it up. this happens frequently, so i have a good stash of olive for a great price.

ditto on should have waited to buy large quantities of oil that i find i don't use much, e.g. babassu, flax seed, high-oleic sunflower. i guess i'm in a rut with my favorite go-to oils, will have to remember to switch it up!

 

[noskiveez]

I wished I could have found smaller quanities of beeswax after seeing how much is used in each recipe that calls for it.

 

[PrairieCraft]

Try making some lotion bars. That will use your beeswax up. 1/3 hard oil, 1/3 soft oil and 1/3 beeswax. Melt, add FO if you like, stir, pour and ta da.

 

[dcornett]

I haven't found anywhere cheaper than soapers choice (columbus foods) and they ship really fast!

 

[Guest]

When I place orders for supplies over $30, I always use Wholesale Supplies Plus because of the FREE SHIPPING.

 

[dcornett]

When I place orders for supplies over $30, I always use Wholesale Supplies Plus because of the FREE SHIPPING.

With most companies the more you order the more reasonable the shipping rate gets, you can see what I mean on sc's shipping chart http://www.soaperschoice.com/vegetableo ... chart.html. That's NOT true of a company like wsp where the max shipping rate is rolled into the price of each and every item you order. Whether you make out better with one company, or the other will pretty much depend on how much you order. If you're ordering bulk sizes it will DEFINETLY pay you to compare prices. :wink:

 

[honor435]

look at wholesale supplies.com and oils by nature, at soapers I believe for butters they only sell 10lbs or more, so if you want a smaller quantity of butters try those two places.

 

[SideDoorSoaps]

Small FYI: Oils by nature is closed currently. I loved ordering from them. I now order from Soaper's Choice.

 

[honor435]

youre kiddiing? why? do you know?

 

[CiCi]

Ok, I've been lurking for about a year so I guess its time to come out of hiding. I'm not quite making soap yet. I have a tendency to do a lot of research first.

I have a friend who buys her supplies from Soapers Choice and I've put together a pretty hefty order and was wondering if there was a good place other than Soapers Choice to buy oils? Meaning price wise/affordability.

I had originally planned to get things at another place and it was nearly twice the price of Soapers Choice.

I'm Vanessa, by the way! Im here because I have a baby who has soap reactions.

Try Cibaria. They are next to you, in California: http://www.cibaria.com

Natural Oils International is also in California http://www.naturaloils.com

Snowdrift Farm is in your state, but their oils are on the high side. Not sure how that would balance out with the shipping cost from SC.

I like MMS. Their prices seem to be reasonable.

When I ordered from SC, my shipping was $86. I had to find a better way. Also, if you have a local Cash & Carry, you can get your olive and grapeseed oils rather inexpensively. Costco also has pure olive oil that is a great price. Try your Asian food markets for Rice Bran oils. If you have a restaurant supply house, you can get coconut oil and more. If you can show a tax id number, many times they will order what you need. It is best to try and find as much locally as possible and then order the more specialty oils. It really saves on shipping. Hope this helps you a bit.

 

[noskiveez]

Shipping was pretty hefty. I paid $50.06 to ship everything.

After I ordered everything I did start looking on making lotions and lotion bars and lip balms to help use up some of those ingredients and get things out of them that are "useable" in our household.

My husband built me some drop side loaf molds like Ive seen on Soapmolds.com and Ive got some glass pans with glass lids I can also use. Maybe later on down the road I can order some fancy molds.

Now I am just waiting for everything to arrive. Ive gotten shipping notifications from the company I ordered the lye from and from Soapers Choice.

Im giddy with excitement. We've got a few bars of handmade soap left that was given to us...time to wash 'sparingly'