My 5 Favorite Soap Recipes
When I make soap I use my own recipes and all of my soap is fragrance free. There are some great soap calculators on the web (just Google "soap calculator") and once you learn the characteristics of the different oils you can make a recipe that has the right balance of hardness, cleaning power, moisturizing and bubbles for your personal needs.
I've used a lot of different oils but have started reducing the number and variety of oils so that I generally use only 5 recipes. I thought I'd share my 5 favorite recipes here. If you want scented soap just follow your normal soap making process and add fragrance to your personal liking.
I started making soap because of my allergies. 20+ years ago there were few choices in hypoallergenic soap so a friend taught me how to make my own. It's so easy to make and so much better than any store-bought soap that I've kept at it. It's also really inexpensive. I use some expensive oils but it's not expensive when you think about how much soap you get from one batch. Soap can be made with oils from the grocery store (coconut, olive, Crisco, etc.), you just have to work up a recipe and go for it. I even made some from rendered bacon fat once and it made a great soap.
Here are the recipes that I work with now. Recipes can be doubled, tripled or whatever to make larger batches. The proportions stay the same no matter the volume. Just apply the ratio to every ingredient.
All measurements are in ounces
Shea Butter
32 ounces
Coconut oil 9.5 ounces
Shea Butter 6
Olive Oil (use the lightest olive oil) 8
Palm Oil 7
Castor Oil 1
Stearic Acid .5
Lye 4.55
Water 12.2
Cocoa Butter
makes 35 ounces
Coconut Oil 8
Cocoa Butter 5
Palm Oil 4
Sweet Almont Oil 5
Olive Oil 8
Palm Kernal Oil 3
Castor Oil 1
Stearic Acid 1
Lye 5.05
Water 13.5
Apricot Shea Olive
makes 36 ounces
Coconut Oil 7
Apricot Kernal Oil 3
Shea Butter 3
Olive Oil 9
Palm Kernal Oil 4
Palm Oil 9
Castor Oil 1
Lye 5.15
Water 13.7
Almond Mango
makes 32 ounces
Sweet Almond Oil 3.5
Coconut Oil 9.5
Mango Butter 4.5
Olive Oil 5
Palm Oil 8
Stearic Acid .5
Castor Oil 1
Lye 4.6
Water 12.2
Apricot Avocado Olive
makes 40 ounces
Coconut Oil 6
Apricot Kernal Oil 4.5
Avocado Oil 4.5
Olive Oil 9
Palm Kernal Oil 4
Palm Oil 9
Stearic Acid 1.5
Caster Oil 1.5
Lye 5.6
Water 15.2
I've used a lot of different oils but have started reducing the number and variety of oils so that I generally use only 5 recipes. I thought I'd share my 5 favorite recipes here. If you want scented soap just follow your normal soap making process and add fragrance to your personal liking.
I started making soap because of my allergies. 20+ years ago there were few choices in hypoallergenic soap so a friend taught me how to make my own. It's so easy to make and so much better than any store-bought soap that I've kept at it. It's also really inexpensive. I use some expensive oils but it's not expensive when you think about how much soap you get from one batch. Soap can be made with oils from the grocery store (coconut, olive, Crisco, etc.), you just have to work up a recipe and go for it. I even made some from rendered bacon fat once and it made a great soap.
Here are the recipes that I work with now. Recipes can be doubled, tripled or whatever to make larger batches. The proportions stay the same no matter the volume. Just apply the ratio to every ingredient.
All measurements are in ounces
Shea Butter
32 ounces
Coconut oil 9.5 ounces
Shea Butter 6
Olive Oil (use the lightest olive oil) 8
Palm Oil 7
Castor Oil 1
Stearic Acid .5
Lye 4.55
Water 12.2
Cocoa Butter
makes 35 ounces
Coconut Oil 8
Cocoa Butter 5
Palm Oil 4
Sweet Almont Oil 5
Olive Oil 8
Palm Kernal Oil 3
Castor Oil 1
Stearic Acid 1
Lye 5.05
Water 13.5
Apricot Shea Olive
makes 36 ounces
Coconut Oil 7
Apricot Kernal Oil 3
Shea Butter 3
Olive Oil 9
Palm Kernal Oil 4
Palm Oil 9
Castor Oil 1
Lye 5.15
Water 13.7
Almond Mango
makes 32 ounces
Sweet Almond Oil 3.5
Coconut Oil 9.5
Mango Butter 4.5
Olive Oil 5
Palm Oil 8
Stearic Acid .5
Castor Oil 1
Lye 4.6
Water 12.2
Apricot Avocado Olive
makes 40 ounces
Coconut Oil 6
Apricot Kernal Oil 4.5
Avocado Oil 4.5
Olive Oil 9
Palm Kernal Oil 4
Palm Oil 9
Stearic Acid 1.5
Caster Oil 1.5
Lye 5.6
Water 15.2
