Teach Soap

Hi everyone. I live in a decent sized city that doesn't seem to have too much variety in shops. Most of them seem to stock all the essential oils, at very expensive prices, and then cheapish extra virgin, virgin and normal olive oil, and then 100% pure canola oil by the bucket load. I am having issues trying to find coconut and palm oil, certain in it's purest form for anything other than sheer extortion!

Can someone please stick up a post with what the native use of the oils is, other than soap making, so people like me, who are very new to the hobby, know where to start looking

Coconut oil, palm oil, where is the best place to get shortening, beeswax etc. I have been to several 'health' and 'organic' stored and not really had much luck. Thanks in advance!

Since you're in Africa, I don't know. I hope you find what you're looking for.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

But surely they would use the oils in the same thing anywhere in the world?

I am just looking for their normal every day use, so I know which stores to look at. For example, olive oil is used in cooking, hence it's available in the your normal grocery store. But I can't find olive and palm oil there, or haven't found where they keep it, as I presume it's not meant for cooking and eating!

I don't use palm at all. If you don't mind animal based fats, try lard or tallow.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

I am trying to stay away from animal products when it comes to soap. Not really a moral issue, but more of a marketability/usability issue. People don't seem to be keen to use it when they ask what's in it, and you tell them the truth

What other oils besides olive and canola do you have available? Any castor or any butters like shea butter?

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

I've seen castor oil, peanut oil, and sesame oil as well. Haven't seen any butters though, but suspect I was looking in the wrong place. A 2 year old in-tow can make it difficult to really scour the aisles

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Remember, it's not just that we weather the storm, but how we dance in the rain.

Tammy

I would think that you could find a local source for shea butter not too far from you, have you tried a phone book search? Maybe try a restaurant supply store for the oils if you cannot find them elsewhere.

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Remember, it's not just that we weather the storm, but how we dance in the rain.

Tammy

Thanks everyone for the input. I will also try some other stores rather than just my 4 local ones I normally go to. Our main ones that we find are Olive, Canola, Sunflower, Sesame and Peanut oil. I should be able to make something out of that?

Yes you can use those, but you will need at least one hard oil to get a good recipe. Either coconut, palm, cocoa butter, babbasu, or baobab oil will do the trick. If you use cocoa butter you will need something else too so you get a hard bar, but the other ones will do the trick for hardness. Here the babbasu and baobab oils are costly, but since they hail from your neck of the woods, I am thinking you may find them easily and for less than we would have to pay. Worth checking into anyway.
Much luck on your hunt!

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Remember, it's not just that we weather the storm, but how we dance in the rain.

Tammy

If you can find castor oil, try 95% olive to 5% castor. The olive oil will give you a hard bar and the castor will give you bubbles.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

Yep, SB is right, you can always do an all olive oil soap, or an almost all olive oil soap. Just remember that it it takes a while to trace though. Good luck and keep us posted!

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Remember, it's not just that we weather the storm, but how we dance in the rain.

Tammy

I first found coconut and red palm oil by going to a Caribbean/African supermarket near where I live. I know that it's more typical farther north than you are, but maybe you could try an "ethnic" place. The red palm oil is used for cooking and if from Ghana. Shea butter is also from about the same area.

I lived in Nairobi, Kenya for 5 years and was also initially stumped at finding palm oil. I finally called one of the manufacturers for shortening, and discovered that all of the shortening they produced was made from PALM OIL!! Well, that sure simplified things for me! I also discovered that I could get coconut oil that was produced locally and was marketed as a hair conditioner. Castor, sweet almond, sunflower and olive oils were also all available at the local grocery store. Don't be afraid to make a few phone calls--you'll be able to find all of your base oils!