Ok, call me cheap, is there anything more reasonable in price to replace that coconut oil with, cuz around here, I pay though the nose for it, I will look around and see if I can find a more reasonable priced supplier on it.

Never mind, I just looked at where I get my lye currently, and I can get my coconut oil from them for about 30 percent of what i have been paying locally, so I will order it from them and go from there..

I will keep you posted on how that recipe turns out, thanks for your help

You could also eliminate the olive oil altogether and do:

38 oz lard
6 oz coconut oil
17 oz milk
6.1 oz lye

That's a lot of lard though, but that should work too.

Thanks, I'd love to hear how it works out:)

Hi Ladies!

I use recipes from a nifty little book called "The Soap Maker's Companion", by Susan Miller Catvich.

The main recipe I used consists of:

201 grams sodium hydroxide
538.7 grams distilled water
595.3 grams olive oil
454 grams coconut oil
396.9 grams palm oil
12 grams grapefruit see oil (optional preservative)
35 ml essential oils (optional)
fats and oils: 80-100 degrees F
Lye solution: 80-100 degrees F
Sodium Hydroxide discount: 10%

I don't know how to get lye from ash... I suspect it's take FOREVER! Would be cool to just have the know how though.