Coconut Oil Soap Recipe

by liz ellis
(new zealand)

I have been given a soap recipe that the guy swears by - so I ran it through the soap cal and it comes out differently - here is his recipe:

935 grams coconut oil
136 grams lye
272 grams water

Apparently I can use Kremelta (coconut oil and soya lecithin vegetable shortening) and you use the coconut oil 76 when you enter it on the soap calc.

My problem is that the lye and water have a different amount and I have played with the super fat % but the lye still stays high - am I STILL doing something wrong on the soap calc or should I just forget it and stick to the castille soap recipe which works for me.

I really would like to try this recipe as it seems simple - my kind of thing - and I know my daughter would be interested in using it as well.

liz

Answer:

I've run the coconut oil recipe through SoapCalc and the recipe looks fine.

Remember that each lye calculator will have a slight variance when it comes to amounts but it is not big enough of a difference to worry about.

My calculations show the following for this recipe:

Super Fat = 20% approximately.
Water % = 29% approximately.

The reduced water will speed up trace time so the process might be quite fast but the soya lecithin in the Kremelta might slow it back down a little.

Soaps high in coconut oil can be drying which is why this recipe has a high super fat. That should counter the drying effects of the soap.

Coconut oil soap is very cleansing and is great at cutting grease. It produces big fluffy bubbles as well.

This soap recipe looks like a good one to try. Once it's done you can compare the Coconut oil soap with your Castile soap and see what you like about each one.

Good luck,

Cathy