A 100% coconut oil soap recipe, when well formulated, makes a bubbly and hard bar of soap that is NOT drying to the skin contrary to popular belief. And here’s how!
When you start your journey as a soapmaker, you probably will hear 2 important rules when formulating.
DO NOT use more than 30% coconut oil in a soap recipe, as saponified coconut oil can strip moisture off the skin. Simply speaking, coconut oil soap is drying.
DO NOT superfat a soap recipe above 8-10% as the soap will turn out soft, will go rancid quickly or will not lather well.
I’m here today to talk about 100% coconut oil soap and why it is rebellious enough to break these 2 rules.
Properties of Coconut Oil that makes this exception possible in soap
Coconut oil in soap is cleansing in nature. This means that it cleans the skin really well and can strip it off of its inherent moisture. As a result, it can dry out the skin. This effect is reduced by increasing the superfat in the recipe to 20-25%. The free oils in the soap counteract the drying effect and in fact, yields a wonderful bar of soap.
A regular soap recipe has a mixture of soft oils with different shelf lives. In that case, we cannot be sure which oil is unsaponified and left free. If the free oil has a lower shelf life, Dreaded Orange Spots (DOS) can occur. Whereas in a 100% coconut oil soap recipe, we can be sure that it is coconut oil that is unsaponified. And coconut oil is stable and has a good shelf life of upto 2 years when kept in a cool dry place. Goodbye DOS!
A high superfat inhibits lather. But saponified coconut oil or sodium cocoate produces a large fluffy lather with big bubbles even with a high superfat.
So now that we’ve seen how rogue coconut oil can be let’s dive straight in and make some coconut oil soap.
100% Coconut Oil Cold Process Soap Recipe
YIELD – 4-6 BARS OF SOAP (1.3 LBS/588g)
Oils (14.11oz/400g)
16 oz (400 g) coconut oil (100%)
Lye + Liquid
4 oz (118 g) distilled water2 oz (59 g) sodium hydroxide (lye)
Additives
None
INSTRUCTIONS
If you are new to soapmaking, be sure to follow safety measures before you get started.
Wearing protective gloves and eyewear, carefully stir the lye into the distilled water.
Set the lye solution aside in a safe place to cool for about 30 to 40 minutes or until the temperature drops to around 100 to 110˚F (38 to 43˚C).
Melt the coconut oil if you have to. If you live in a tropical climate, you might not need to.
Add the cooled lye solution. Using a combination of hand stirring and an immersion blender, stir the soap until it reaches trace.
At trace, pour into a prepared mold. Coconut oil soap can become very hard quickly. If you pour into a loaf mold and wait too long to cut it, it might get difficult to cut into bars. So you may want to consider individual molds to avoid that.
Leave the soap covered on a kitchen counter or someplace similar (out of reach of kids and dogs).
Wait for 24-48 hours before popping it out.
Cure on coated cooling racks or sheets of wax paper about 4 weeks before using.
Additional Reading
– 100% coconut oil soaps can be left to cure for upto 8-10 weeks as well. Since coconut oil can be drying, an extended cure makes the soap more gentle. Read more about curing here.
– Since the recipe is an exception to superfat and because it plays a major role here, you can read all about superfat here.
Notes
Many sources state that coconut oil can trace very quickly. But in my opinion, it takes a long time to trace. So make sure you are prepared for both case scenarios. Alternate between hand stirring and stick blending to have a better control over the batter.
You can try out this recipe unscented first to get a feel for coconut smell first before adding any essential oils. For this recipe you can add 12-20g of essential oils if you choose to.
The soap bars turn white and hard upon unmolding.
If you want to change the quantity of oils in the recipe for a different batch size, make sure you run it through a lye calculator again.
Do you have any more questions about making coconut oil soap? If so let me know in the comments below! Always happy to help!