Olive oil

[vnikolic]

I have been a hobbyist and have just used the same evoo as i cook with...that's becoming cost prohibitive now that word got out about my soap and i am selling it to more people.

Can anyone help me find a more cost effective supplier? I am currently paying 51 cents per fluid oz/54 cents per weight in oz. I am a prime member so no shipping costs.

Ditto for CO 76, i am paying 31 cents for fl oz.

 

[MelissaG]

I had to change to a different oil. Currently it's a bit of HO sunflower and Safflower. Still cheaper than OO.

 

[lsg]

I use rice bran oil instead of olive oil.

 

[vnikolic]

What about coconut oil? Where do you guys recommend buying?

 

[not_ally]

I get my CO from either Costco or a chain called Bargain Outlet (not sure if they are local/regional though).

I get my soaping OO from Walmart, it's this one for 10.54 for 51 ounces, about 20.6c/oz. Just bought some a few days ago, price has not gone up (yet).
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Great-Value-Classic-Olive-Oil-51-fl-oz/46651266

 

[lsg]

Soaper's Choice has 7 lbs of olvie oil for $39.41 The shipping may be prohibitive, though. Rice bran oil is a good substitute for olive oil in soap.

 

[LizzardBlizzard]

If there's a Big Lots near you, I'd check out their oil prices. I saw on a soap Facebook page that someone found coconut oil for a ridiculously good price there. I checked the one near me and while they didn't have Coconut Oil, they did have EV Olive Oil and I was delighted to find it for 19¢/oz. Normally I buy through Walmart at the 20¢/oz price, so not a huge difference, but it's fun to find good deals

 

[vnikolic]

If there's a Big Lots near you, I'd check out their oil prices. I saw on a soap Facebook page that someone found coconut oil for a ridiculously good price there. I checked the one near me and while they didn't have Coconut Oil, they did have EV Olive Oil and I was delighted to find it for 19¢/oz. Normally I buy through Walmart at the 20¢/oz price, so not a huge difference, but it's fun to find good deals

Thanks! Here i was thinking that all the soapers were buying from soap supply stores and that I was missing something. I followed the tip above and just ordered up coconut oil from bargain outlet.

I went searching last night and while I was finding better prices, I about fainted at shipping costs and times.

Thanks everyone!

 

[AliOop]

If there's a Big Lots near you, I'd check out their oil prices. I saw on a soap Facebook page that someone found coconut oil for a ridiculously good price there. I checked the one near me and while they didn't have Coconut Oil, they did have EV Olive Oil and I was delighted to find it for 19¢/oz. Normally I buy through Walmart at the 20¢/oz price, so not a huge difference, but it's fun to find good deals

I second the recommendation for buying CO at Big Lots. Mine usually has the big jars for around 12-15¢ per oz - significantly lower than Costco, Walmart, or the local restaurant supply store - not to mention the cost of paying for shipping if you order it from a soaping supplier.

 

[dibbles]

Here i was thinking that all the soapers were buying from soap supply stores and that I was missing something.

I buy whatever I can locally. Oils are heavy and shipping adds so much to the end cost. I get my OO at Costco, but have started increasing the amount of HO sunflower oil to offset the increase in OO price. I buy my HO sunflower oil at Trader Joe’s. Rice bran is expensive here, at least what I have been able to find. I do order from Soapers.Choice if I need a few different things. If you can order 4 of the 7 lb jugs, it helps with the shipping. Coconut in those narrow neck jugs is a huge pain to deal with though.

 

[Vicki C]

I buy whatever I can locally. Oils are heavy and shipping adds so much to the end cost. I get my OO at Costco, but have started increasing the amount of HO sunflower oil to offset the increase in OO price. I buy my HO sunflower oil at Trader Joe’s. Rice bran is expensive here, at least what I have been able to find. I do order from Soapers.Choice if I need a few different things. If you can order 4 of the 7 lb jugs, it helps with the shipping. Coconut in those narrow neck jugs is a huge pain to deal with though.

Yes the coconut oil containers from big lots used to bug me - here’s how I deal with them now - in the winter I have big pots of water on my woodstove and I tie a gear tie around the top of the container and then through the handle of the pot and it slowly melts. Then I can decant it into a wide mouth container. You could do the same on the stovetop on a low temp. In the summer, there are days when it is hot enough to just melt it outside - I have an attached greenhouse so I park it in there and it melts.
But now I am thinking you mean they sell coconut oil in jugs? Hmm that’s different.
I think I’m going to have to buy cocoa butter in a big block, Ug, what a pain, I had been buying pastilles.

 

[dibbles]

Yes the coconut oil containers from big lots used to bug me - here’s how I deal with them now - in the winter I have big pots of water on my woodstove and I tie a gear tie around the top of the container and then through the handle of the pot and it slowly melts. Then I can decant it into a wide mouth container. You could do the same on the stovetop on a low temp. In the summer, there are days when it is hot enough to just melt it outside - I have an attached greenhouse so I park it in there and it melts.
But now I am thinking you mean they sell coconut oil in jugs? Hmm that’s different.
I think I’m going to have to buy cocoa butter in a big block, Ug, what a pain, I had been buying pastilles.

In the summer the CO easily melts just sitting on the deck, and in the winter I can set it on a heat register which works well enough, but takes a long time. Soapers Choice even puts tallow in those jugs and it is a huge pain. I can get EV coconut oil from Costco for about the same price, so I don’t order from SC that often, and preferably only in the summer months. I don’t know why they do that. I would pay a little more to have those solid at room temp fats in a pail. I bought a block of cocoa butter once. It was so hard to break it up I swore never again. It’s worth it to me (and my poor hands) to buy the wafers. But I generally use 5% in my soaps and don’t sell, so I don’t have that consideration that those who have a business to worry about have.

 

[AliOop]

In the past, I've used a box cutter to remove the top part of the jug so I could scoop everything out into another container. I ended up with some gashes from the sharp plastic edges. I even get that from the Big Lots jars sometimes, too. So now I usually fill the sink with hot water, wait till everything is very soft, and I decant into large, wide-mouthed pails or buckets. When I get to the bottom of the bucket, I melt and decant the next batch into it.

 

[Vicki C]

Oh boy. Shopping around for cocoa butter - I see that NDA has gone from $363 for 55 pounds to $993 for the same size. I think the cheapest I can get is about $.44/ounce with shipping, for a 55 pound box from make your own. It looks like the wafers are sold out from a lot of vendors.
ETA holy cocoa butter! I just looked at JEdwards, where I buy a lot of supplies. Cocoa butter has gone up LITERALLY OVERNIGHT from $279 to $639 for an 18 kg block. There must be a run on the remaining supply everywhere.