Vegetarian friendly

[Crazylady]

I have started making soap but would like a palm free vegetarian recipe. I want something basic and not with loads of different oils in as that would increase my costs. I currently use
CO 30%
OO 36%
Lard 34%
I dont have a problem with this recipe but i do have friends who would appreciate a vegetarian soap

 

[Obsidian]

Here is one that I've used

 

[Crazylady]

That looks interesting. As a new soap maker can i ask , do you use the olive oil pomace because you prefer it to olive oil or does it bring something else to the soap and the steric acid ,is that just to make it a harder bar.

 

[Obsidian]

I was using pomace just because it was cheap, you can use whatever kind of olive you like.
Yes, the stearic is for hardness. You could probably use a harder butter instead of shea and do away with the stearic.
If your soap absolutely has to be vegan and palm free, make sure you check the stearic to see what its made from.

 

[Crazylady]

Thankyou. This may be my next soap to try

 

[Dawni]

I use both cocoa and shea in my vegan soaps, up to 30-50% combined.. And RBO instead of olive oil.

Note though that the soap I make with a lot of butters I cure minimum 3-4mos so that not may be something you like.

 

[DeeAnna]

It seemed to be the rage some months ago to use soy wax as an alternative to lard and palm, although a lot of the discussion has died down of late. I haven't tried it personally, but it came to mind when I was reading this thread today -- maybe look into soy wax as an alternative? There are a bunch of threads about it here.

 

[szaza]

I have a recipe that's very similar to the one @Obsidian shared, except I used beeswax instead of stearic acid. Beeswax is only an option if it has to be vegetarian, not vegan.
Another recipe that I've used and quite liked is 25% CO, 25% cocoa butter and 50% soft oils (I do feel I want to tweak it a bit still, but it's a good base to start from)
If you want your vegetarian recipe to be similar to your current recipe you could run your recipe through a calculator, note the fatty acid profile and try to recreate it with vegetarian alternatives that are available to you. There are some soft oils like avocado oil that are a bit higher in stearic/palmitic than olive oil, so you could play with those as well (if available to you)
Vegetarian sources of stearic and palmitic acid do seem to trace faster than lard (especially beeswax and stearic acid), so be prepared
Next to soy wax, there have also been some UK soapers who experimented with rapeseed wax. Just another idea you could play with.
Hope this helps!

 

[KiwiMoose]

I'm a palm-free soy wax aficionado.

I typically use 20% each of SW, CO, OO and RBO
Then smaller quantities of Shea Butter, Avocado ( or other specialty oil) and Castor.

I see you are in the UK and so you will need to get advice from our other UK soapers on which type of soy wax to use (most of the candle ones have additives). I think there's an ECO Soy one you can get over there that is suitable. You do need to soap at about 40 degrees or more to keep the soy wax melted.

 

[SeaSuds]

I used Naturewax C3 but my new best friend is Eurosoy 800

 

[Crazylady]

Well thankyou everyone for your replies. I think i need to look into some of the suggested options that are available that have been suggested.

 

[Todd Ziegler]

Here is one that I've used

Could you substitute liquid shea for the solid butter shea in the same amount.

 

[Obsidian]

Could you substitute liquid shea for the solid butter shea in the same amount.

I wouldn't, you need the shea to help harden the soap. You won't get that from the liquid version

 

[Todd Ziegler]

I wouldn't, you need the shea to help harden the soap. You won't get that from the liquid version

I love the liquid but I figured you might need it for hardness.

 

[KiwiMoose]

FYI: My earlier recipes were cocoa butter, shea butter for hardness, coupled with my soft oils. As I started making more soap, the cocoa butter became too expensive, and the shea butter was getting up there too for the quantities I was needing, so I switched to soy wax as a cost-effective alternative.

 

[Janewoc17]

I have started making soap but would like a palm free vegetarian recipe. I want something basic and not with loads of different oils in as that would increase my costs. I currently use
CO 30%
OO 36%
Lard 34%
I dont have a problem with this recipe but i do have friends who would appreciate a vegetarian soap

As an aside, Nutiva sells ethically sourced palm oil to support sustainable agriculture.