As mentioned in my previous post, soap making requires oils. In reality, you can make soap with just 1 oil but that is kind of boring:)
There are many soap makers who specialize in making soap with only olive oil. This type of bar is called a Castile soap. The soap is very gentle on the skin and is made with 100% olive oil. In my experience, these soaps take FAR too long to cure and they produce very little bubbles. All honestly, many folks love these bars...I do not!
There is also a soap called Bastille which is made up of at least 70% olive oil and than other oils/butters are added to make up the 30% which will help make the bar more pleasing to most. Bubbles please!
Another popular 100% oil soap is coconut oil. Coconut oil is very cleansing and is not suitable for skin unless a large superfat is added to you recipe. More on that in a later blog! A soap made of coconut oil is perfect for removing stains on laundry or in some cases doing laundry or cleaning non-skin items.
A great basic soap recipe if you are new to this craft is olive oil, palm oil, coconut oil. Now I know some of you are thinking, palm oil? The palm I purchase has pretty strict guidelines on sustainability. These oils work together and are the most commonly used in soap making. Many will use them in equal parts however if I was to make a soap with only these oils they would have a ratio of 50/30/20. I would do this because my years of experience have taught me that too much coconut oil makes a harsh bar. Coconut oil is very cleansing, too cleansing if the recipe has too much of a good thing.
Even though the above options make a decent soap, many soap makers these days use a variety of oils and butters to make their bars unique to their business. The soap bars here on my website are made using oils and butters. Although I keep my own recipe to myself, I can say that adding shea butter and cocoa butter to a recipe makes a well rounded moisturizing bar of soap.