Friday, February 21, 2014

Breaking the Law, Breaking the Law...100% Coconut Oil Soap

     I love coconut oil. For everything. I make my deodorant with it, I make lotion bars with it, I cook with it, I oil pull with it...if I could procreate with it, I probably would consider it. However, when it comes to soaping, the "rule" is that using too much coconut oil will make your bar too drying.
    
     Whatever.

     One of my favorite recipes for soap comes from Sustain, Create, and Flow. I love Jerica's blog, and she's a rulebreaker, like myself. So, without further ado, here is how you make 100% coconut oil soap:

33 oz. coconut oil (76 degrees; I use LouAnn, which is non-GMO)
4.96 oz. lye
12.50 oz water
1/2 to 1 oz. essential oils or fragrance (optional)

(Always remember to double check your measurements with a reputable lye calculator.)

The secret to this recipe is superfatting.

Superfatting simply means that you're adding extra oil to the recipe that the lye can't convert. Each oil has what is called a "saponification value", or the amount of lye it takes to convert equal parts of oil to soap. This soap is superfatted at 18%, which means that you are going to end up with a bubbly, creamy coconutty (is that a word?) bar of pure awesomeness.

I made this recipe with the hot process (check out my tutorial here.)

If you make a batch, stop by and tell me how it turned out, and whether you love it or hate it.

Happy soaping!