No Coconut Oil Soap

What’s a girl to do when she is allergic to one of the most common oils in soaping? My friend Cassie asked me if I could help her find a recipe for soap that does not use any coconut oil, as she is allergic to it. I was sure I could come up with something!

Using the 6-5-4-1 formula to create a fool-proof recipe (see this blog post), I came up with this recipe:

Finished soap embellished with USA grown Lavender Buds.

6 oz Hydrogenated Soy
5 oz Palm Kernel Oil
4 oz Olive Oil
1 oz Lanolin

I chose Lanolin as the luxury oil for several reasons. First, I wanted to avoid any nut oils in case there are related allergies. Second, Lanolin has some fabulous moisture retention ability. Finally, I haven’t soaped with Lanolin before, so I want to give it a try.

Since my friend loves floral scents, with lavender, lilac, and rose at the top of her list, I searched my stash of fragrance oils for something I think she would like. Bella Fragrance Oil is the one I think she will most enjoy. Check out this description from our catalog:

“Bella is described as very floral smell, like lavender or freesia…. To round out Bella we have notes of rose, iris, violet, and soft musk. Sexy, but also fresh and innocent.”

Let’s gather what we need to make some fabulous soap!

Please begin with this blog post if you have never made cold process soap before! Then join me to make this soap.

No Coconut Oil Soap:

After dissolving the lye in the distilled water, I weighed the Soybean Oil, Palm Kernel Oil, and Olive Oil into a soap bucket and microwaved in short bursts until all were liquid. At that point, I stirred in the Lanolin until it was melted. I checked the temperature of the lye water and oils to make sure they were within 10 degrees of each other. That is not strictly necessary, but it is one of the easy safeguards that can eliminate problems in the soap batter. It’s easy to cool a too-hot liquid by placing the bucket in cool water and stirring the liquid inside the bucket until it has come to the desired temperature.

Now it’s time to add the lye mixture carefully to the oils, making sure you don’t splash. I like to stir with my soap spoon for a minute or so before stick blending. Once I have used the stick blender to reach trace, I stir in my fragrance oil. Mmmm, this smells lovely!

Stirring lye water and oils with soap spoon before stick blending.

Soap in mold waiting to thicken enough to texture the top and add lavender buds.

I’m going to do a little texturing on top of the soap after pouring it into the mold, so I blended the batter a bit more to thicken it. Then I poured it into the mold. This time around I’m using my trusty Rubbermaid drawer organizer lined with plastic wrap. The bars that come out are a bit smaller than a typical bar of soap, but I find they are very easy to hold, and I love that the mold was not expensive! My texturing tool is a fork.

Once I was happy with the texture on the top of the soap, I sprinkled lavender buds down one side, purely for the sake of beauty and to say “Hey! I’m a floral soap!” I’ll walk away now and let the mixture do its magic and become soap.

Textured soap.

Adding lavender buds.

Lavender and a sinuous line.

Aren’t these the most beautiful colors?

Cutting the very soft soap.

This soap behaved beautifully. It’s always such a pleasure to work with a recipe that doesn’t come up with any crazy surprises. It took less than two minutes for the batter to become thick enough to texture.
I’m looking forward to seeing it out of the mold!

After the soap sat for about 18 hours, I took it out of the mold. It was still very soft and oily to the touch, but it was solid enough to cut and photograph. I probably could have left it another 24 hours without having any trouble cutting it, but I’m not the most patient person. The fragrance is light and lovely, and I am delighted with the fact that it did not discolor the soap at all!

What do you think? Have you made soaps without coconut oil or any other particular oil due to allergy issues?