Soap Making Oils and Recipes

This post is quite lenghty, but I was hoping to answer some questions from one of my previous post.
There is a wide range of oils used for making soap, each with it's own special properties. Some oils make lots of bubbles and are cleansing, some oils make almost no bubbles, but great for skin conditioning. What you are looking for is a good balance. As you venture into soap making, you will probably find that the finer, higher-grade oils produce a nicer bar of soap. However, regardless of the oil you use any handmade soap is far ahead of a commercial bar, in my opinion. Some soap making oils may be hard to find locally, therefore this entry is geared with that in mind. And too, a beginner may not want to order expensive oils until more soap making is under their belt. Your grocery store has several oils in which soap can be made. The following recipes are examples using easy to find oils.


Familiarize yourself with a lye calculator. This is the one I use: http://www.soapcalc.net/calc/soapcalcWP.asp and before long you will be making your own soap recipes in the amount of oils to suit your needs.

Some people like to substitute goat's milk for water and that is ok.  It makes a little creamier bar.
If you want to add fragrance oil, do this as soon as your soap is blended good or at very beginning of trace.  Most fragrance oils will be at about 1/2 to 1 ounce per pound, according to the strength of fragrance and also to your preference.
For colors, I use Select Shades.  One has to learn how much to use by experimenting with the colors.
(1.) All Vegetable Oils Soap Recipe:

38 oz Oils
COCONUT OIL 9.5 oz (269.32 grams)
OLIVE OIL 15.2 oz (430.91 grams)
VEGETABLE SHORTENING 13.3 oz (377.04 grams)

WATER 13.3 oz (377.04)
LYE 5.32 oz (150.99)

(2.) Gerry's Grocery Store Soap Recipe (not all vegetable)

Pre-Creamed shortening has some Beef Tallow and Lard and will produce a nice and creamy hard bar.

38 oz Oils
COCONUT OIL 10.26 oz (290.86 grams)
PRE-CREAMED SHORTENING 11.4 oz (323.18 grams)
OLIVE OIL 10.64 oz (301.63 grams)
CASTOR OIL 1.9 oz (53.86 grams)
CANOLA OIL 3.8 oz (107.72 grams)

WATER 13.3 oz (377.04 grams)
LYE 5.32 oz (150.14 grams)
I am assuming you know the steps to soap making. It is not as hard as it seems, in fact it is very easy. In my opinion, working with a thermometer is not necessary, as I do not think the temperature is extremely crucial. Of course, you don't want your oils and lye to be of really great temperature differences.
The steps I take in preparing to make soap:

I mix my lye and water and leave it to cool down as work with my oils. I melt my solid oils on medium heat. I remove from heat to start cooling down while I am preparing all of my liquid oils and lining my mold with freezer paper. I add my liquid oils to my warm oils. When I feel that my mixtures (oils and my lye water) are about 110 - 120 degrees or a little above, I mix them together, stir with my stick blender and in a very few minutes the soap is ready to pour into my mold.

CAUTION: I must remind you, never pour water into your lye crystals. Always pour the lye crystals into your water slowly, stirring. Do this in a well-ventilated area or outside. Wear you rubber gloves and eye protection in case of spill or splash. The lye water mix if really not as scary as it seems, but do be care not to get it on your skin. Rinse with water or vinegar immediately if you should.