Substitutes for soap

Canola oil substitutes in soap

Canola oil is a cheap liquid oil used as a minor share. On the numbers, ordinary sunflower, sweet almond and soybean oil replace it most closely in the bar below, but sunflower and soybean carry more linoleic acid: 18.5 % linoleic and linolenic acid in the bar against 12.6 %, so the bar keeps less well. High-oleic sunflower oil moves the bar a little further and keeps better, at 8.1 %.

The bar they are tried in

Canola oil20 %
Olive oil35 %
Coconut oil25 %
Shea butter20 %

NaOH · 1000 g · Superfat 5 % 138.6 g

The bar: 20 % canola oil, at a 5 % superfat, for 1,000 g of oils. The rest: 35 % olive oil, 25 % coconut oil, and 20 % shea butter. As it is, it needs 138.6 g of sodium hydroxide.

Open the bar in the lye calculator

The substitutes, closest first

Substitute	Sodium hydroxide, g	With the lye left as it was
1Sunflower oil	139.1	5.3 %barely moves
2Sweet almond oil	139.7	5.7 %recalculate
3Soybean oil	139.3	5.4 %barely moves
4High-oleic sunflower oil	138.7	5.0 %barely moves
5Rice bran oil	138.9	5.2 %barely moves
6Nothing in its place: olive oil takes its share	139.0	5.2 %barely moves

With the lye left as it was: the superfat when the sodium hydroxide weighed for the bar as it is goes in with the substitute, planned at 5 %. Each lye figure opens that bar in the lye calculator, which works out the lye for it.

Side by side: Canola oil vs soybean oil

What each does to the bar

	Hardness	Cleansing	Conditioning	Bubbly lather	Creamy lather	Iodine value	INS	Linoleic and linolenic acid, %
As it is, with canola oil	36	17	60	17	19	65	139	12.6
Sunflower oil	37	17	59	17	20	68	137	18.5
Sweet almond oil	36	17	61	17	19	62	145	11.2
Soybean oil	38	17	59	17	21	68	137	18.4
High-oleic sunflower oil	36	17	60	17	19	59	146	8.1
Rice bran oil	39	17	57	17	22	63	142	12.8
Nothing in its place: olive oil takes its share	38	17	58	17	21	59	146	8.8
Usual range	29–54	12–22	44–69	14–46	16–48	41–70	136–165

Closest means the smallest total change across these figures, each counted against the width of its usual range, as the lye calculator’s swap suggestions count it. It is a convention, not a verdict on the bar: a butter that matches on paper can still melt lower, crack or smell, which the note above and the guides cover.

Guides

Substitutes for other oils

Where these numbers come from

Every figure here is worked out from the oil records, each with its sources on its own page: