Substitutes for soap

Sunflower oil substitutes in soap

Ordinary sunflower oil is 48.3–74 % linoleic acid by the Codex standard, and the oils closest to it on the numbers, soybean and grapeseed, share its short shelf life. The better swap is a more oleic oil: mid-oleic or high-oleic sunflower, or high-oleic safflower, which take linoleic and linolenic acid in the bar below from 18.5 % down to 12.6 %, 8.1 % and 9.2 %. None of them moves the lye enough to matter.

The bar they are tried in

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

NaOH · 1000 g · Superfat 5 % 139.1 g

The bar: 20 % sunflower 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 139.1 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
1Soybean oil	139.3	5.1 %barely moves
2Grapeseed oil	139.1	5.0 %barely moves
3Canola oil	138.6	4.7 %barely moves
4Mid-oleic sunflower oil	139.1	5.0 %barely moves
5High-oleic safflower oil	139.0	4.9 %barely moves
6High-oleic sunflower oil	138.7	4.7 %barely moves
7Nothing in its place: olive oil takes its share	139.0	4.9 %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: Sunflower oil vs high-oleic sunflower 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 sunflower oil	37	17	59	17	20	68	137	18.5
Soybean oil	38	17	59	17	21	68	137	18.4
Grapeseed oil	37	17	59	17	20	70	135	19.9
Canola oil	36	17	60	17	19	65	139	12.6
Mid-oleic sunflower oil	37	17	60	17	19	64	142	12.6
High-oleic safflower oil	36	17	60	17	19	60	145	9.2
High-oleic sunflower oil	36	17	60	17	19	59	146	8.1
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: