Soap Making Oils

We all know that everybody's skin is different. By using a variety of soap making oils, you can tailor a soap to meet the needs of any skin type.

I start by combining oils to create blends that produce a hard bar of soap with a full lather.

This usually consists of Coconut, Palm and Olive oils to start. Then, I'll add in one or two other oils in smaller quantities for their specific skin care characteristics.

Listed below, you'll find information about some of the base oils available, what their skin care benefits are and what qualities they will give to your soap.

Apricot Kernel Oil	Avocado Oil	Babassu Oil
Borage Oil	Calendula Oil	Camellia Oil
Canola	Castor Oil	Cocoa Butter
Coconut Oil	Corn Oil	Crisco
Emu Oil	Evening Primrose Oil	Flax (Linseed) Oil
Grapeseed Oil	Hazelnut Oil	Hemp Seed Oil
Jojoba Oil	Kokum Butter	Kukui Nut Oil
Lanolin	Lard	Macadamia Nut Oil
Mango Butter	Meadowfoam Oil	Mink Oil
Monoi de Tahiti	Mowrah Butter	Neem Oil
Olive Oil	Palm Kernel Oil	Palm Oil
Plum Kernel Oil	Pomegranate Oil	Pumpkin Seed Oil
Red Palm Oil	Rice Bran Oil	Rosehip Seed Oil
Safflower Oil	Sesame Oil	Shea Butter
Sunflower Oil	Sweet Almond Oil	Tamanu Oil
Tallow (beef)	Walnut Oil	Wheat Germ Oil

Formulating a Recipe

When I'm creating a new recipe, I start with my Basic Homemade Soap recipe which contains 30% Coconut Oil, 40% Olive Oil and 30% Palm Oil.

Depending on the type of soap I want to make, I'll replace some of one or more soap making oils with another that has similar soap making qualities.

For example - If I want to use 10% Apricot Kernel oil, I will take 10% of the Olive oil out. If I want to use Palm Kernel oil then I will remove some Coconut oil.

Likewise for Palm oil and Tallow. Then I'll run the changed recipe through the lye calculator for the correct sodium hydroxide amounts.

The tables below group together soap making oils that share the same general soap making qualities.

While most oils will preform many functions, I have listed them by the ones that I feel they are best at.

Bring on the Bubbles

These three oils are wonderful. They are the ones that provide the big fluffy bubbles, give cleansing action and make your soaps nice and solid. Remember to try to keep their combined totals to no more than 30% or they may dry out your skin.

If you do decide to make a soap that contains a large percentage of coconut oil be sure to increase the amount of free oils (superfat) in order counter act the drying effects.

Oil, Fat or Butter	Hardness	Cleanse	Full Lather	Stable Lather	Condition
Babassu	X	X	X
Coconut	X	X	X
Palm Kernel	X	X	X

Condition Me

This next set of oils will give your soaps their conditioning ability. Each oil has its own unique skin care qualities that you can utilize to create specialty soaps. These oils usually make up 40% of one of my recipes.

Oil, Fat or Butter	Hardness	Cleanse	Full Lather	Stable Lather	Condition
Apricot Kernel					X
Avocado					X
Borage					X
Camellia					X
Evening Primrose					X
Hazelnut					X
Hemp Seed					X
Kukui Nut					X
Macadamia Nut					X
Neem					X
Olive					X
Pumpkin Seed					X
Sweet Almond					X
Wheat Germ					X

The Anomaly

Castor oil is in a league of its own. This oil not only conditions but provides a fluffy and creamy lather. One drawback with this oil though....it produces a very soft bar. Good thing a little goes a long way. When I use this oil, I only replace a small amount (5% - 10%) of the Olive oil and the soap bar will still be firm.

Oil, Fat or Butter	Hardness	Cleanse	Full Lather	Stable Lather	Condition
Castor			X	X	X

Love That Creamy Lather

Since we need to limit the amount of oils like Coconut in our soaps, this set of soap making oils is used to lend further strength to the soap bar and provide conditioning stable lathers.

Oil, Fat or Butter	Hardness	Cleanse	Full Lather	Stable Lather	Condition
Palm	X			X	X
Lard	X			X	X
Cocoa Butter	X			X	X
Shea Butter	X			X	X
Mango Butter	X			X	X
Kokum Butter	X			X	X
Beef Tallow	X			X	X
Sheep Tallow	X			X	X
Coffee Bean	X			X	X

Still can't decide what oils to use? Check out the homemade soap recipes page for a great selection of soaps using many of the oils listed above.