Olive and Palm Oil scarcity

by May
(Accra)

I have recently moved to Ghana in West Africa and Olive oil is extremely expensive and difficult to obtain. The Palm oil here is only red palm which I have used but as you know it only makes a yellow/orange bar.

I am a vegetarian and do not wish to use lard to replace palm oil. The oils which are plentiful and relatively cheap are shea butter, cocoa butter, sesame seed, canola, corn & soybean. Can shea butter and cocoa butter be substitutes for palm oil? Can soybean,canola, sesame and corn oils be substitutes for olive oil? Appreciate your thoughts. Thanks

May

Answer:

Any oil can be used to make soap. The oils I use in my recipes are ones I can obtain easily here in Canada.

It would be a good idea to use a lye calculator like SoapCalc to create your own recipe using the oils that are plentiful and easily obtainable to you.

Check out my page on Soap Making Oils and scroll down to the heading "Formulating a Recipe". The information there will give you an idea of what oils to use for what purpose in your recipes.

Good luck,
Cathy