How do I make soap without castor oil??

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MGM

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This is kind of a silly question, but...what is a good recipe that doesn't include castor oil? I've always used it at 5% (except in my 100% lard bars) but I've run out. SURELY a person can make soap without castor oil.....can anyone point me to a tried and true recipe?

thanks!
 
Dare you to try your favorite recipe without it! I'm only a sometimes/maybe fan of castor oil.... It is good in some recipes but I don't always like it.
 
Ok sounds good. I did go back through all my sheets and various recipes and all of them had 5% castor, 5% castor, 5% castor....I was starting to think perhaps it was as crucial as lye :p
 
My favourite recipe is 60% lard, 30% olive and 10% coconut, but I haven’t done much testing, to be honest;)
 
I still have some castor around here somewhere, but I haven't used it in my soap for a couple of years. I got curious about whether it really made a big difference, and I can't say I've missed it.

I use 5% KOH to make my soap slightly more soluble. I normally make soap that is high in lard, and I don't care to use a lot of coconut oil.

I also keep my superfat low -- around 2-3% -- and I know that boosts lather as well.
 
I hope you like the lather and skin feel too. Like I said, I haven't missed it, but many other people swear by it. To each, their own. YMMV. And all that. :)
 
I was out of castor oil once. I used 5% mango butter instead (I needed to use it up). I never noticed the difference. Once I get done playing with my vegan soaps, I'm going to start playing with % of castor oil to see if there really is a difference.
 
I made 2 bars a few weeks ago with no castor oil and the lather, at least to me did not seem as bubbly as it does when I do use castor oil so I ended up ordering a 1/2 gallon bottle.
 
One of the oldest “keeper” recipes I have has 60% soft oils, 25% CO and no castor. The FA profile shows 15% linoleic and 1% linolenic. It starts out on the soft side, but is very hard by the 3-4 month mark. It turns out to be best bubbler I have, which may not be surprising since most of my soaps are 15% CO (and also 5% castor). Compared with some early soaps I made that had 30% CO and 5% castor, but very low linoleic, the bubbles are as big and abundant. I think the linoleic combats the drying effect of CO and I read recently that linoleic and linolenic FAs also contribute to bubbling. To reduce the chance of DOS with those FAs, the recommendation I’ve mostly come across is to keep the combined percentages at 15% or lower, and the SF at 5% or lower.
 
I had to make soap without castor once because I ran out. As suggested on here I used a teaspoon on sugar PPO instead to help with lather. It was good - but i still love my castor. If I was going to sub anything for it now, I guess it would be aloe juice as water.
 

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