1. Check the environment.

Soaps made and cured in unheated sheds, garages, basements, or chilly spare rooms are more prone to soda ash.

If it’s too cold for you to comfortably live in a room, it’s likely too cold for the soap.

Try switching rooms, or using a small heater in your work area

2. Check the water.

Amount - Soaps made with less water are less likely to develop soda ash. Reduce the amount of liquid in your recipe.

Temperature - Use warmer (100°F+) lye solution and oil temps.

Type - Distilled (or deionized) water is less likely to cause soda ash, soap scum, and early rancidity.

3. Add something new.

If you don’t already use beeswax, try adding 0.5 to 2% beeswax to your soap recipe.

Not only does it help reduce soda ash, but it helps harden soap too.

4. Embrace gel phase.

The hotter temperatures of gel phase help to reduce the risk of soda ash.

If your house is cold and it’s hard to reach gel phase, try placing the covered mold on a warm heating pad for 20 to 30 minutes to jump start the process.

5. Patience, patience, patience. (This one is hard for me too!) 😊

Keep freshly poured soap in the mold and covered for at least 24 to 36 hours.

Most soda ash forms when raw soap batter meets carbon dioxide in the open air.

Resisting the urge to unmold too soon really helps!

Happy soapmaking! ❤

Jan, The Nerdy Farm Wife

PS: Even with our best efforts, soda ash still sometimes happens.

If so, try steaming the ashy layer off with a handheld garment steamer (check your local Target or Walmart), or try ​Modern Soapmaking’s tip of washing it off of bars​.

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Today, we’re focusing on how to use the SoapCalc lye calculator. (This is a lesson from my Soapmaking Success Course - Subscribers can use coupon code SUBSTACK to save 15% off.)

Here is the website where you will find SoapCalc:

http://soapcalc.net/calc/soapcalcwp.asp

Notice it is http instead of https, which means it doesn’t have a security certificate, so some browsers may give an insecure site warning. Unfortunately, that’s what we have to work with when using SoapCalc. Be assured that many people use it just fine every day, but if you’re not comfortable with that, then try the calculator at Majestic Mountain Sage or Bramble Berry.

For this example, I’m going to use the very first soap recipe I shared in the Introductory Module of my soap course - Lavender Soap.

Oils & Butters

14 oz (397 g) olive oil (50%)

8 oz (227 g) coconut oil (28%)

3 oz (85 g) almond oil (11%)

3 oz (85 g) sunflower oil (11%)

Lye Solution

3.95 oz (112 g) lye (5.5% superfat)

9 oz (255 g) distilled water

Optional Extras

2 tsp purple Brazilian Clay

35 grams lavender essential oil

We’re going to use SoapCalc to view/check the recipe, then I’ll show you how to use it to make some substitutions to the recipe.

***

Box 1 Section: Type of Lye

We are making cold process soap with sodium hydroxide as our type of lye. Sodium hydroxide is also written as NaOH. (The other option, KOH, is potassium hydroxide, used for liquid soap recipes.)

So for this box 1 in SoapCalc, choose NaOH.

***

Box 2 Section: Weight of Oils

You don’t need to input an actual number in the box unless you know it ahead of time, but do choose if you want to work in pounds, ounces, or grams. I use ounces for my soap recipes, so I’ll select ounces here. This number will automatically change when we add oils down in box 6 and calculate the recipe.

***

Box 3 Section: Water

We need water (or another liquid) in a soap recipe in order to dissolve and activate the dry lye powder.

Remember that the water amount is flexible!!

More water makes your soap take longer to reach the trace stage (which can be good if you’re doing a fancy design) and makes your soap more easily reach gel phase. Less water makes your soap reach trace faster, and harden up in the mold faster, but can make it where your soap doesn’t reach gel phase as easily. Less water is also associated with lower amounts of soda ash.

This box/section shows 3 options:

If you’re brand new to soapmaking, just skim this section about water amount if it feels overwhelming, and come back to it when you’re ready to start tinkering outside of ready made recipes.

Water as % of Oils - this is the default calculator option, set at 38%. (Note that this default is a rather high amount of water for palm free cold process recipes.)

What “water as % of oils” means is that the amount of water the calculator says to use in your recipe, is completely based off of the weight of your oils, no matter how much lye the recipe needs. So if you keep this number set at 38% and you enter a recipe with 10 ounces of oil in it, it will calculate that you need 3.8 ounces of water. (Because 38% of 10 ounces = 3.8.) If you change the number to 28% water as % of oils, then the calculator will tell you to use 2.8 ounces water. (Because 28% of 10 ounces = 2.8)

Lye Concentration - this option is a different way of expressing the “water : lye” ratio discussed below. If you were to put 25% in this box, that means that your lye solution would end being composed of 25% lye and 75% water - which is the same thing as saying 3 parts water to 1 part lye. If you want to read more about lye concentrations/solutions, check out Modern Soapmaking’s great article with helpful visuals:

How to Better Understand Lye Discounts When You Make Soap

Water : Lye Ratio - This option lets you set the exact ratio of water to lye that you want. So if you set this number to “2:1” that means you’re telling the lye calculator to figure out how much lye your soap recipe needs, then multiply that number by 2 in order to determine the water amount. Example with a 2:1 ratio, if your recipe requires 4 ounces of lye, it would have you use 8 ounces of water.

My recipes tend to be around 2.1 parts water to 1 part lye, or sometimes 2.2 or 2.3 parts water to 1 part lye. I also usually round the water amount to the closest number to make it easy. I’ve found this water amount gives newer soapmakers enough time to mix to trace, but your soap won’t feel too soft in the mold.

How do you know what number to put in the water:lye box, if the recipe doesn’t tell you?

Divide the total water amount of the recipe by the amount of lye.

So for my lavender soap recipe - it has 9 oz water and 3.95 oz lye.

9 ounces water divided by 3.95 ounces lye = 2.2784 which we are going to round to 2.3

So now you know that the ratio is 2.3 parts water : 1 part lye

and it will be filled into SoapCalc like this: “2.3:1”

***

Box 4 Section: Super Fat

This is the amount of unsaponified oil in the recipe. We talked earlier in the course that if you have exactly enough lye to match up with exactly enough oils, you have a 0% superfat (or 0% extra fat). However, that doesn’t give room for error, and it also makes a rather drying soap. So we want some extra oils in our recipe. The lye calculator will figure this all out for you.

The superfat for most of my recipes ranges between 5% or 6%.

Lower superfat can help slightly improve lather, but if it’s too low (around 0 to 3%), it can also dry out your skin. A higher superfat can feel more moisturizing on your skin, but if it’s too high (over 8%), it can make your soap feel too soft or oily. There are exceptions, such as salt bars (extra high coconut oil needs extra high superfat to balance it), but those are ballpark numbers to keep in mind for now.

This box also contains a fragrance amount. I just mark that as 0 and figure out my essential oils using my chart or EO Calc. If you’re using a fragrance oil, go by the individual vendor guidelines.

The superfat for my lavender soap is 5.5% and it will look like this in SoapCalc:

***

Box 5 Section: Soap Qualities & Fatty Acids

For this section, you’ll see a list of qualities on the left side, such as hardness, cleansing, condition, bubbly, etc, and to the right of that is a list of oils, fats, and waxes to choose from.

If you click on an oil/fat/wax in the list, it will show you the soap qualities associated with that ingredient.

For example, if you click on Almond Butter, it will show a hardness number of 25, a cleansing of 1, conditioning of 74, and bubbliness of 1. That helps you infer things like almond butter might help with soap hardness compared to almond oil, but that it doesn’t contribute towards better bubbles.

If you click down to something like castor oil, you’ll notice the numbers change to reflect that castor oil is high in bubbly when turned into soap. (Which is correct - castor oil is excellent for giving you a more bubbly soap!)

However, please know that SoapCalc numbers are not all that they seem! Some soapmakers get very legalistic about SoapCalc’s numbers, but those numbers don’t take into account many things including what type of liquid you use (aloe can add bubbliness, milk can add creaminess), additives such as sodium lactate that harden soap, long cure times that can turn “soft” olive oil soaps much harder, and so much more.

I highly recommend reading this article over at Classic Bells:

SoapCalc Numbers | Soapy Stuff

For now, we aren’t going to worry about the numbers in this section, but we will use the oils/fats/wax list to select the oils in our recipe, for the next section.

***

Box 6 Section: Recipe Oil List

Here in section 6, we’re finally ready to enter the oils and fats that are in our recipe. You’ll notice it has a row of empty boxes. We are going to fill those in.

As a reminder, our Lavender Soap Recipe is:

14 oz (397 g) olive oil

8 oz (227 g) coconut oil

3 oz (85 g) almond oil

3 oz (85 g) sunflower oil

So first, we’ll find Olive Oil on the oils list and select it. Then click the “+” button or “Add” button and that will make it show up in the first empty box. I’m also going to change the selection on the right from “%” to “oz” and fill in the number 14, because that’s how much olive oil is in our recipe.

It will look like this:

Next, we fill in all of the other oils, butters, fats, and waxes that are in our recipe, then move on to section 7.

***

Box 7 Section: Calculate Recipe + View or Print Recipe

Once the oils are entered, you will first click on “Calculate Recipe”. You’ll notice it might fill in some things as it auto-calculates them, such as percentage of each oil being used in the recipe.

After you click on “1. Calculate Recipe”, you’ll next click right below that on “2. View or Print Recipe” and your final results will appear in a new tab. You can manually type in the title at the top of the page, and add any notes to the bottom of the page, if you’d like.

You’ll notice SoapCalc says to use 9.09 ounces of water, which I just round to 9 ounces. (Remember water amount is flexible and there’s some leeway to adjust it up and down like that.)

How to Change a Recipe:

Let’s say that you want to change the original lavender soap recipe.

Right now, this recipe is made up of a lot of “soft” oils that make a nice mild soap, but it could take a little extra time to firm up in the mold and cure, so you might want to swap some of those liquid oils out for some solid fats to make a harder bar of soap.

We’ll go through two scenarios - swapping out the almond oil for cocoa butter, and then swapping out the almond oil and sunflower oil for tallow.

Substitution Scenario 1 with Cocoa Butter

So our original recipe looks like this:

14 oz (397 g) olive oil

8 oz (227 g) coconut oil

3 oz (85 g) almond oil

3 oz (85 g) sunflower oil

3.95 oz (112 g) lye (5.5% superfat)

9 oz (255 g) distilled water (2.3:1 water:lye)

And we will enter this into SoapCalc, only instead of 3 ounces of almond oil, we’re going to change it to 3 ounces of cocoa butter. It will now look like this:

While the amount of lye changed slightly from 112.09 grams of lye for sweet almond oil, to 112.03 grams of lye for cocoa butter, this isn’t enough to change the original recipe’s lye amount. You would still round to 112 grams and it still equals 3.95 ounces of lye in the new version too.

This isn’t always the case though. Let’s check out what happens when you switch out the sweet almond oil and the sunflower oil with tallow instead:

Substitution Scenario 2 with Tallow

Here’s how SoapCalc would look if we swapped tallow for both the sunflower oil and the sweet almond oil, to make an even harder bar of soap:

As you can see, we have a new lye amount, if we want to keep the 5.5% superfat.

It changed from 3.95 ounces (112 grams) of lye to 3.99 ounces (113 grams) of lye needed for the updated recipe that includes tallow.

If you plan on changing an oil, fat, butter, or wax in an existing soap recipe, then be sure to run your new variation through a lye calculator to make sure no major changes occur.

I hope this information is helpful & happy soapmaking! 😊

Jan, The Nerdy Farm Wife

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One of the best ways to grow as a soapmaker is by experimenting - but that doesn’t mean you have to risk losing a full-sized batch every time you’re curious about trialing a new-to-you ingredient.

In this post, I’ll walk you through how I make mini test batches for both cold process soap and melt & pour soap, so you can confidently experiment without wasting ingredients, in case an idea doesn’t turn out as planned.

I often get asked whether certain ingredients will “work” in soap.

My usual answer is:

I’m not sure, but you should test it out and see what happens!

That’s the beauty of making small test batches. They let you try new colorants, additives, or scent blends, learn how ingredients behave over time, minimize wasted oils and essential oils, and build firsthand experience you’ll actually remember.

Even a failed experiment teaches you something valuable (and I would daresay that the failures usually teach me more than my successes!)

Making Test Batches for Cold Process Soap

(Cold Process Soap is the kind where you handle lye and make soap completely from scratch. Read on further down in the article for directions for ready-made melt and pour soap base tests.)

Most soapmaking guidelines for colorants and essential oils are based on PPO (per pound of oils in a recipe). Because of that, test batches work best when your total oil weight divides evenly into 16 ounces (454 grams).

My go-to sizes for cold process test recipes are:

• 8 ounces of oils (1/2 pound)

• or, 4 ounces of oils (1/4 pound)

How the Math Works

If a colorant is recommended at 1 teaspoon PPO, you can scale it like this:

• Soap recipe containing 16 oz oils = use 1 teaspoon colorant

• Soap recipe with 8 oz oils = use 1/2 teaspoon colorant

• Soap recipe with 4 oz oils = 1/4 teaspoon colorant

This makes it easy to see how a color or additive performs at full strength, just in miniature form.

Cold Process Test Recipe

You can structure your test recipe however you like, but here’s one I use often:

8 oz (227 g) Oils Test Recipe:

• 2.26 oz (64 g) distilled water (2:1 water:lye)

• 1.13 oz (32 g) lye (5% superfat)

• 4 oz (113 g) olive or rice bran oil (50%)

• 2.5 oz (71 g) coconut oil (31%)

• 0.5 oz (14 g) castor oil (6%)

• 1 oz (28 g) refined shea, cocoa, or kokum butter (13%)

Divide the recipe exactly in half, to make a 4 ounce (1/4 pound) oils test recipe.

Tips for Successful Cold Process Test Batches

• Use a tall, narrow container so your immersion blender stays fully submerged; large yogurt containers or quart-size paint containers work well.

• Avoid shallow bowls since they make blending small batches tricky.

• Let your test bars fully cure, then evaluate color, scent, and feel.

• Keep good notes about anything you’d change for next time!

Making Test Batches for Melt & Pour Soap

If you prefer to work with ready-made soap base and skip handling lye directly, you can use a similar concept to make test batches of melt and pour soap.

Since melt & pour additives are usually measured per pound (16 oz) of base, I like dividing the base into smaller, easy-to-calculate portions.

Example: Scaling Down Melt & Pour Additives

If a recipe suggests using:

• 1 teaspoon clay or colorant per 16 oz base

You can test it with:

• 1/4 teaspoon of clay/colorant mixed into 4 oz base

Or, here’s an example using essential oils.

If a recipe suggests using:

• 3 g bergamot + 1 g rosemary per 16 oz base

becomes:

• 0.75 g bergamot + 0.25 g rosemary mixed with 4 oz base

Don’t have a scale that measures tiny amounts? Use approximate teaspoons instead:

• 0.5 g essential oil = about 1/8 teaspoon

• 1 g essential oil = about 1/4 teaspoon

• 2 g essential oil = about 1/2 teaspoon

So in the case of our example above, that would be:

• 0.75 grams (1/8 + 1/16 teaspoon) bergamot essential oil + 0.25 grams (abt 1/16 tsp) rosemary essential oil in 4 oz of melt and pour soap base

  ---

For more soap tips, be sure to check out my print books:

Simple & Natural Soapmaking – 50 unique cold process soap recipes, plus a natural colorants gallery, essential oil information, full color photos for almost every project, and more!

Easy Homemade Melt & Pour Soaps – 50 inspiring recipes featuring natural colorants, herbs, flowers, and essential oils, plus lots of full color photos!

Making test batches is an integral part of my soapmaking life.

I’m always trying new ideas and experiments, and these little batches make it possible to do so, without breaking the bank. 😊

I’ll see you next Tuesday for another natural soapmaking tip, article, printable, or recipe!

Jan, The Nerdy Farm Wife

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As someone with severe childhood eczema, who grew up to have a son with severe eczema, I’ve got some experience with this topic!

While there are many primary factors contributing to eczema, such as genetics, allergies, and diet, what you put on your skin can absolutely help make a difference.

Before I started making soap for my son, he had horrible skin that his pediatrician always commented on to recommended prescription creams. (They didn’t help.) After he had been using my homemade soap for many months, we went back for a well-child visit and the doctor kept rubbing his arm and remarking upon his beautiful skin! ❤

Here are 5 tips to remember when making soap for eczema, followed by several recipe suggestions.

1. Check the amount of cleansing oils in your recipe.

Some oils, specifically coconut, babassu, and palm kernel oil, are very effective cleansers when turned into soap. They also help add great lather and bubbles. Unfortunately for people with dry or sensitive skin, those ingredients in soap can clean too aggressively, stripping the moisture from your skin and leaving it open to an eczema flareup. If you have eczema, try to use a smaller amount of those oils (some prefer as low as 12 or 15%) and/or couple them with a higher superfat. (See #2 below.)

2. Adjust the superfat level of your recipe.

The superfat amount = the amount of extra oils in your recipe that won’t turn into soap. In the case of dry skin, it’s often helpful to have a somewhat higher superfat. You may find that 7 or even 8% superfat works best for your skin. There is a drawback to a higher superfat though; you may notice that the lather is slightly diminished and more creamy, than if you used a lower superfat. If you’ve ever had eczema however, you know that sufferers normally don’t worry about a small bit of lather change, as much as we worry about getting relief!

3. Know common eczema triggers.

A few ingredients that may cause trouble for some, but certainly not all, include: coconut oil, cocoa butter, lanolin, aloe, milk, and/or essential oils such as lemongrass, bay rum, cinnamon, or clove.

On the other hand, some eczema sufferers do extremely well with goat milk soap, so don’t rule out using milk altogether, just be aware that not everyone will benefit from it. (Myself included, likely because I also had a childhood allergy to milk.)

4. Avoid fragrance oils; minimize or eliminate essential oils.

Allergies to fragrance oil is common in eczema sufferers. If you do choose to add essential oils, stick with basics such as lavender and tea tree and add them in low amounts.

5. Avoid scratchy or drying additives.

While clays are wonderful and can add a pretty color to your soap, they can also feel drying, if you’re already prone to eczema or dry skin. In the same manner, avoid exfoliants such as coffee grounds, cornmeal, loofah, pumice, etc, that may scratch or irritate the delicate skin barrier.

In summary, often the simplest and most basic no-frills soap can be best for eczema!

Recipes to Explore

​Mild Unscented Soap Recipes​ - this article contains several recipe suggestion for extra mild, unscented soaps

​Create Custom Soaps, Healing Skin Bar​ - this has a version of the original eczema recipe I created for my son.

​Aleppo Style Soap​ - contains just olive oil and laurel berry fruit oil; excellent for eczema, psoriasis, acne, rashes

​Honey & Dandelion Soap​ - features honey and tamanu oil; friends with eczema & psoriasis have had good experiences with this soap

​Creamy Chickweed Soap​ - gentle and coconut oil free, chickweed is traditionally used for itchy skin and eczema

I hope this information is helpful for you or someone you love!

You can also share this information with others by sending them to my article, ​5 Tips for Making Soaps for Eczema + Recipes​.

See you next Tuesday for another natural soapmaking article, recipe, printable, or tip. 😊

Jan, The Nerdy Farm Wife

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In homemade soap, honey also has the bonus effect of boosting lather, due to its natural sugar content.

For vegan soapmakers: Agave nectar makes a great stand-in for honey and can be used to replace it in equal amounts in most any soap recipe.

How Much to Use in Soap

My personal usage rate for honey and agave nectar in soap tends to vary from 1/2 teaspoon PPO (per pound of oil in a soap recipe) up to or around 1 1/2 teaspoons PPO.

Resist the urge to use too much, as you could end up with a soft very dark soap. Too much can also cause overheating.

Less is best with honey and agave nectar!

Visit my full article for:

• more tips on using honey (or agave),

• plus several natural palm-free soap recipes to use as inspiration!

​Honey & Agave in Soap + Usage Rates & Tips + Recipes​

Happy Soapmaking! 😊

Jan, The Nerdy Farm Wife

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These tips should help!

If you want your soap to be more moisturizing, try:

• increasing the superfat by 1 to 2%

• decreasing the amount of coconut, palm kernel, and babassu oil

• replacing the water amount with milk

• increasing or adding shea butter, avocado oil, and/or sunflower oil

If you want a harder bar of soap, try:

• increasing the amount of solid fats (cocoa or kokum butter, lard, tallow)

• including 1 tsp sodium lactate PPO (per pound of oil), mixed with cooled lye solution

• including 1/2 tsp salt PPO, dissolved in water before adding lye

• adding 1 to 3% beeswax, or 1% soy wax, or 1% stearic acid to your recipe

• making sure to cure soap a minimum of 4 to 6 weeks, or several months for high olive oil soap

For better lather, try:

• adding 1 tsp PPO of honey or agave syrup, diluted with equal amount of water

• adding 1 tsp PPO (per pound of oil) of sugar, diluted with 2x as much water

• increasing the amount of castor oil, coconut oil, or babassu oil in the recipe

• replacing part or all of the water with aloe, milk, beer, or wine

• reducing superfat by 1 to 2%

Don’t forget to use a lye calculator any time you make changes to a recipe.

I hope these tips are helpful - have a great week! 😊

Jan, The Nerdy Farm Wife

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It increases lather and bubbles, and gives a wonderful feel to soap.

With a little bit of preparation, fresh aloe can be used to replace part (or all) of the water amount in almost any cold process soap recipe.

(Don’t have an aloe plant growing nearby? Check the produce section of local grocery stores – I buy mine at Kroger.)

You can learn exactly how to process fresh aloe for soap, plus find a gentle aloe vera facial soap recipe at my article:

​How to Make Fresh Aloe Vera Soap + Aloe Vera Facial Soap Recipe​

Don’t have fresh aloe available?

If you don’t have a way to buy or grow fresh aloe, try using store-bought bottled aloe vera juice or liquid in its place. (The juice, or liquid, is just aloe without the thickeners or gums that turns it into a gel.)

You can also use bottled aloe vera gel instead, just be prepared that the added thickeners (xanthan gum, guar gum, etc) can sometimes make your soap thicken up a little faster than normal.

If using purchased aloe vera gel with added gums and thickeners, try using water for most of the liquid amount, and adding aloe vera gel at trace.

Here’s an example that uses store-bought aloe vera gel:

If your soap recipe calls for 10 ounces of liquid, you could make the lye solution with 9 ounces of water, mix up the soap batter as normal, then when the soap reaches light trace, blend in 1 ounce of aloe vera gel. You still maintain 10 ounces of total liquid, but the additives in the aloe gel have less time to misbehave in your soap.

Happy Soapmaking!

Jan, The Nerdy Farm Wife

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It will be helpful to use as a guide when you want to swap out oils in a natural soap recipe!

Before we get into the chart, let’s cover what each column means, as it relates to soapmaking.

I want to stress though that numbers aren’t everything! I often see newer soapmakers get hung up on making their recipe fit neatly into recommended numbers, at the expense of the creative process and sometimes miss out on making some really great recipe ideas!

Just use these numbers loosely as informational aids, since soap calculators don’t take into account things such as sodium lactate or salt for hardening, aloe or honey or milk for extra lather or creaminess, the amount of your recipe’s superfat, extended cure times, discounted water amount, our unique personal preferences that we look for in a soap, and more.

Property Definitions

In the Oil/Butter column, you’ll find the oil’s name, Latin name or INCI (name that it’s internationally known as), a brief line on how it is in soap, and suggested usage rates. (They are suggestions only, based on my personal experiences and preferences – feel free to experiment outside of those numbers!)

Hardness indicates how well the oil adds to the overall hardness of the soap. A higher number makes for a harder soap. As mentioned above, the numbers don’t tell the whole story here though. Olive oil has a low hardness number of 17, but after an extended cure time, can become a really nice hard soap.

Conditioning is how nice and soothing the oil feels on your skin when made into soap. Oils with a low conditioning number, such as coconut oil or babassu oil, can make your skin feel more tight or dry if used in excess, and/or with a too-low superfat. Oils with a high conditioning number feel nice on your skin, but note that too much total conditioning may come at the price of lower lather and soft soap.

Bubbly is pretty self-explanatory. A higher number means that the oil helps produce or support lots of bubbles when used in soap. A low number or zero, means it doesn’t really contribute to overall lather, but that doesn’t mean your soap will have zero lather. A soap that’s not bubbly can still clean your skin.

Cleansing is based on how well the oil-turned-into-soap will dissolve in hard or salt water, but it also indicates its effectiveness at stripping moisture and oil from your skin. A high cleansing number (such as coconut oil) might feel very harsh on many skin types, unless balanced with a higher superfat and/or other conditioning ingredients. If an oil has a low or zero cleansing number, that doesn’t mean it won’t clean your skin. It means that it’s not as likely to strip your skin or leave it feeling tight and dry after use.

Longevity indicates a rough idea of how long the soap will last when used. A higher number is longer lasting, but a trade-off is that if a soap’s overall longevity number is too-high, it may affect lather/bubbles. If you want your soaps to last longer, look for oils with a higher longevity number.

How to Use the Chart

Use the chart to help you figure out oil substitutions or recipe tweaks, or as a reference when creating your own recipe.

For example, if you make a soap and find it’s not bubbly enough, try checking through the list and finding oils that have a higher bubbly number, then experiment with higher rates of those oils in your recipe.

Related: My article, How to Make Test Batches of Soap, might help you plan out mini test batches while you dial a recipe in.

If you don’t see a favorite oil listed here, no worries! I only picked out the oils I had the most personal experience with using in soap, but you can head over to a lye calculator, click on the desired oil name, and you’ll see its properties listed nearby.

Two Ways to View the Full Chart

The first way to view the chart is to download it right here in Substack, as a PDF:

Soapmaking Oils Properties

256KB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

The second way is to hop over to the full blog post:

Soapmaking Oils Properties and Chart

and you can see the entire chart/table at a glance.

Happy soapmaking!

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It’s especially helpful for acne-prone or oily skin, but can be used for all skin types.

The soaps in the photo above were made using rates from 1/8 tsp per pound of oil (top left soap) all the way to 4 tsp per pound of oil in the bottom right soap.

• How much charcoal should you use in soap?

• When should you add it?

• Does it matter if the lather is gray?

I have the answers to all of those questions, plus a handy usage rate table in my article:

​Charcoal in Soap: Usage Rates + Tips​

You may also be interested in this charcoal soap I made, using the circling Taiwan swirl method:

​Activated Charcoal Soap (Circling Taiwan Swirl)​

Happy soapmaking & I’ll see you next Tuesday for another natural soap tip, article, printable, or recipe!

🖤 Jan, The Nerdy Farm Wife

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Always run the new recipe through a lye calculator to ensure you have the correct amount of lye.

​Download this list:

List Of Oil Substitutions

51.8KB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

Almond Oil, Sweet: use apricot kernel, sunflower, or rice bran instead

Apricot Kernel Oil: use sweet almond, sunflower, or rice bran oil instead

Argan Oil: use jojoba if available, or kukui, meadowfoam, avocado, sweet almond

Avocado Oil: use hemp oil, or sunflower, sweet almond, apricot kernel

Babassu Oil: replace with coconut oil, or palm kernel oil

Canola Oil: use olive oil or rice bran, or sunflower oil if it’s 25% of the recipe or less

Castor Oil: no oil is a direct substitute, but you can replace with any other liquid oil and add lather boosters such as honey, aloe, milk, sugar.

Cocoa Butter: replace with kokum butter, lard, or tallow, or as a second choice: shea or mango butter

Coconut Oil: Use babassu oil or palm kernel oil in equal amount. OR Add 5 to 10% castor oil to the recipe + 10% cocoa or kokum butter + the rest of the amount as sweet almond, rice bran, or olive oil.

Grapeseed Oil: use kukui, jojoba, argan, meadowfoam, or hemp

Hempseed Oil: replace with avocado, or sweet almond, apricot kernel, rice bran, sunflower

Jojoba Oil: replace with argan, or meadowfoam, kukui, tamanu, apricot kernel, or sunflower

Kokum Butter: replace with cocoa butter, lard, or tallow, or second choice: shea or mango butter

Kukui Nut Oil: replace with jojoba, argan, rosehip, meadowfoam, apricot kernel, sweet almond, sunflower

Lard/Tallow: Replace with cocoa or kokum butter up to 15 or 20% + 5% castor oil OR use a combination of 5% castor oil + 10 to 15% cocoa butter + 10 to 15% shea butter + 10 to 15% mango butter.

Mango Butter: Replace with shea butter, or lard, tallow, cocoa or kokum butter

Meadowfoam Oil: replace with argan, jojoba, kukui, sweet almond, apricot kernel, sunflower

Neem Oil: replace with tamanu oil, or sea buckthorn, rosehip, argan, jojoba, meadowfoam

Olive Oil: Use rice bran oil instead of olive oil, in equal amounts. OR Use canola oil to replace up to 35% of the olive oil + replace the rest of the olive oil amount with one or more liquid oils such as sunflower, sweet almond, rice bran, avocado, or apricot kernel. OR Use sunflower oil to replace 20 to 25% of the olive oil + replace the rest of the olive with up to 10 to 15% each of sweet almond, apricot kernel, rice bran, canola, hemp, or avocado oil.

Palm Kernel Oil: use coconut oil or babassu oil instead

Palm Oil: Use tallow or lard instead, in equal amounts. OR Use 15% cocoa or kokum butter + 5% castor oil + the rest of the amount as olive or rice bran oil. OR Use olive oil in its place + cure the soap for an additional month or two. (Lather will be reduced.)

Rice Bran Oil: use olive instead, or canola, sunflower, sweet almond, apricot kernel, avocado

Rosehip Seed Oil: replace with argan, jojoba, sea buckthorn, tamanu, kukui, hemp, avocado, sweet almond, apricot kernel oil

Sea Buckthorn Oil: use rosehip seed oil, tamanu, hemp, avocado, kukui instead

Shea Butter: replace with mango butter, or lard, tallow, cocoa or kokum butter

Sunflower Oil: replace with sweet almond, apricot kernel, avocado, hemp, rice bran, olive oil

Tamanu Oil: replace with rosehip seed, sea buckthorn, neem, or argan, jojoba, meadowfoam, kukui, hemp, avocado

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​Happy soapmaking & see you next Tuesday! 😊

Jan, The Nerdy Farm Wife

PS: If you haven’t seen them yet, you may also find these soapmaking articles helpful:

• ​Soap Making 101: How to Make Soap (+printable checklist)​

• ​​Why Do You Need Lye to Make Soap? (FAQ)​

• ​List of Equipment You Need to Make Soap at Home​​

• ​What’s Wrong With My Soap? {troubleshooting cold process soap problems}​​

• and ​my eBook & course shop has resources​ about making natural soap & skin care products.

Browse the Book Shop​