Grocery Store Soap

Do you want to try a batch of soap, but don't want to wait for oils to come from an online supplier? Then this recipe is just for you. I created it using only oils that I found in my local supermarket. The only ingredients that I didn't buy at the grocery store were the fragrance and the lye. Fragrance oils are available locally at a craft supply store or an online soap supply vendor. You are probably not likely to find the lye in your supermarket anymore either. But similarly, you can find it at a hardware store, or online lye supplier

The Recipe

• 30% Olive Oil
• 30% Lard
• 25% Coconut Oil
• 10% Sunflower Oil
• 5% Castor Oil

Converting Percentages to Measurements

I was only making a small, six-bar batch of this recipe, so I only used about 25 ounces of oils. My particular recipe was:

• 7.6 oz. Olive Oil
• 7.6 oz. Lard
• 6.3 oz. Coconut Oil
• 2.5 oz. Sunflower Oil
• 1.3 oz. Castor Oil
• 3.6 oz. lye
• 8 oz. water
• 1.1 oz. lavender essential oil

The Olive oil, Lard and Sunflower oil should all be in the regular cooking oil section of the store. Castor oil is sometimes found in the pharmacy section, sold as a laxative. Coconut oil is sometimes found in the ethnic food section, or in larger stores, with the rest of the food oils.

Once you've assembled all of your ingredients, tools, materials and such, make your lye using Basic Lye Instructions and mix the soap using Basic Cold Process Soap Making Instructions. I didn't use any color or additives in this batch, but you could add whatever you liked. There are many Natural Colorants that you can find at the grocery store too!

The lard was the only oil I had to melt on the stove, the rest were liquid at room temperature. Once the lye is added to the oils, the batch takes an average time to get to trace, and hardens in about 24 hours.

But what if I can't find one of these oils?
Any of these oils can be subbed out. The overall qualities of the soap will change, but you can still make great soap. If you can't find Coconut oil, you can increase the lard or olive to compensate, or use Crisco, Soybean or Canola oil. If you can't find Sunflower, Canola is a good substitute. If you can't find Castor, just leave it out. There's really no substitute for Castor oil...but you're only using a small amount. If you change the recipe, BE SURE to run the new recipe through a Lye Calculator!! Check out Creating a Basic Soap Recipe for more recipe creation tips.