Coconut milk (canned)
Replaces some or all of the water.
Opens the calculator’s starter recipe, 1000 g of oils, with this additive at the dose it fills in, ready to change.
What it is
Canned coconut milk, the food: mostly water, and rich in fat.
USDA FoodData Central primary source
How much
- 50 % of the water filled in Modern Soapmaking supplier or guide
- 100 % of the water Wuryandari & Pamella (2025) primary source
The calculator fills in 50 % of the water: 194 g for the 1000 g of oils in its starter recipe.
When and how
- Usually: as the lye liquid.
- Also used: into the oils, at light trace.
- Freeze it, and add the lye slowly.
Wuryandari & Pamella (2025) primary source, Modern Soapmaking supplier or guide
What it does to the recipe
- 72.88 % is water, taken off the recipe’s water.
- 21.33 % is fat, which stays in the bar as extra superfat.
USDA FoodData Central primary source
Worth knowing
- Caution: It heats the batch: work cool and do not insulate it, or it can crack or overflow the mould. Soap Queen supplier or guide
- Choose one with few additives: gums and thickeners can speed trace. Modern Soapmaking supplier or guide
- It spoils fast: keep it cold and use it within days. Too much in the bar can grow mould. Letcavage & Buck, Basic Soap Making primary source
Spoons and drops
- 1 tsp ≈ 5 g
- 1 tbsp ≈ 15 g
- 1 cup ≈ 226 g
USDA FoodData Central primary source
INCI name
CosIng has no single INCI name for it: label it by what it contains.
Recipes that use it
Guides that discuss it
Sources
USDA FoodData Central, food 170173: Nuts, coconut milk, canned.
Wuryandari and Pamella, coconut-milk soap, Pharmademica (2025): sodium hydroxide dissolved in fresh coconut milk in place of water.
Modern Soapmaking, lemongrass coconut milk soap: 5 ounces of water and 5 ounces of coconut milk; "the more additives in the coconut milk, the more likely you are to run into acceleration".
Soap Queen, coconut milk soap volcano: "The soap was super hot (over 200 degrees)".
Elizabeth Letcavage and Patsy Buck, Basic Soap Making (Stackpole Books, 2009), chapter 3: "canned coconut milk is usable for only a few days, and it must be refrigerated"; botanical colourants, "start by using ¼ teaspoon per basic soap recipe batch", and three bars coloured with "¼ teaspoon, ½ teaspoon, and 1 full teaspoon of turmeric to a basic soap recipe"; alkanet "produces shades of pink, blue, and purple, depending on the amount used, types of oil used, and the alkalinity of the soap". The Basic Four-Oil Soap Recipe (chapter 2) has 15 oz of oils.