# Olive Oil Substitute



## GW Farms (May 1, 2006)

I am needing a suggestion;

We use Extra Light Olive Oil in our Cold Process Goat Milk Soap. However the cost for this oil has gotten almost obscene.

Can anybody offer a suggestion for a lower cost alternative oil to use ?

Thanks in advance for your help.


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## linn (Jul 19, 2005)

You can substitute rice bran oil for some of the olive oil; but I am not sure it would be any cheaper. Make sure to run the recipe through a lye calculator.


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## Jade1096 (Jan 2, 2008)

Check a list of SAP values. I believe there are several that are fairly close to olive.


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## Shazza (Nov 20, 2004)

I have no idea but I am interested if Corn oil would be a substitute, it is cheaper here than ELOO.? If it is I could try it in my GM soap too.


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## linn (Jul 19, 2005)

Lard, along with coconut oil should make a good bar. Soybean oil is fairly cheap, but you would need to run the recipe through a lye calculator to get the correct amount of lye and liquid to use. This is the one I use.
http://www.soapcalc.com/calc/soapcalcWP.asp

It is fun to plug in the different types of oils and fats to see the conditioning and sudsing qualities of soap made with the combinations.


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## MullersLaneFarm (Jul 23, 2004)

Do you want to substitute Olive with another oil with similar fatty acid qualities (mildness, hardness)?

It might be best to try other recipes subbing out other oils for the olive and see how you like the results.

Corn oil makes a wonderful soap, although it won't harden up like olive will. Corn also gives the soap an off white cast if used in too great quantity.


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## Mrs. Jo (Jun 5, 2007)

We've gotten some odd soap from corn oil. It was, to put it mildly -kind of gummy. Almost like a soft wax. I think it was wesson corn oil. 

Try sunflower oil, or soybean oil, or canola oil, add a little almond or avocado to add extra moisturizing properties to the soap. Always use a calculator when making substitutions.


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## Seagrape (Aug 4, 2008)

There are many other more experienced soapmakers here than I am but IMO there is no other oil that acts quite like OO in soap. OO gives a smoothness and silkiness to a bar of soap that no other oil I have found can confer. Instead of cutting it out altogether, I just cut it down to about 8-10% and used soy bean oil (mostly) for the rest of the soft oils. I pretty much follow the 60% hard oils to 40% soft oils, with coconut, cocoa butter and either beef tallow or lard for the hard oils. HTH


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