Coconut Oil, 76°
Saponification values, fatty acid makeup, and what this oil does in a bar of soap.
Saponification values
Grams of lye needed to saponify one gram of coconut oil, 76°. Multiply by your oil weight, then apply your superfat.
- NaOH (bar soap)
- 0.183
- KOH (liquid soap)
- 0.257
- Iodine
- 10
- INS
- 258
INCI: Cocos Nucifera (Coconut) OilSaponified name (for labels): Sodium Cocoate
Fatty acid profile
These figures account for 89% of coconut oil, 76°. The remainder is made up of fatty acids this model does not track, so treat the derived qualities below as indicative rather than complete.
| Fatty acid | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Lauric | 48% |
| Myristic | 19% |
| Palmitic | 9% |
| Oleic | 8% |
| Stearic | 3% |
| Linoleic | 2% |
Soap qualities at 100%
What a bar made entirely of coconut oil, 76° would score. Almost nobody soaps a single oil at 100% — this is here so you can see what the oil contributes to a blend. The shaded band is the range most makers aim for in a finished recipe.
What that means in a recipe
Very high in the short-chain saturated acids (cleansing 67), so it lathers readily and strips oil aggressively. Used as most of a recipe it tends to feel drying, which is why it is usually paired with softer oils rather than used alone.
Contributes a lot of hardness (79), so it firms a bar up and helps it unmould cleanly and last in the dish.
Derived from the numbers above rather than written by hand, so it stays in step with the data. Tendencies, not guarantees — your oils, water, and technique all move the result.
Oils that behave similarly
Closest matches by fatty acid makeup — the usual starting point when you have run out of coconut oil, 76° and need a substitute. Check the lye maths again after swapping: SAP values differ even between oils that behave alike.
- Coconut Oil, 92 degSAP 0.183 NaOH
- Aloe ButterSAP 0.171 NaOH
- Babassu OilSAP 0.175 NaOH
- Palm Kernel OilSAP 0.176 NaOH
- Tucuma Seed ButterSAP 0.17 NaOH
Recipes using coconut oil, 76°
- Coconut Laundry Bar 100%All coconut at zero superfat for maximum cleaning power. Built for laundry, stain sticks, and workshop grime -- too stripping for skin.
- 100% Coconut, 20% Superfat 100%All coconut with a high superfat to offset its cleansing. Enormous bubbly lather and a rock-hard white bar.
- Salt Bar 70%A spa-style bar: rock hard, with a dense lotion-like lather instead of bubbles. Deliberately built around coconut.
- Kitchen Hand Bar 40%A hardworking bar for the sink: cuts grease and onion smell, but superfatted enough that hands don't pay for it.
- Classic Trinity 30%Olive, coconut, and palm in balance. The standard first recipe: hard bar, reliable lather, forgiving to make.
- Homestead Lard Bar 30%The old farmhouse bar. Lard makes a hard, creamy, long-lasting soap for very little money.
Sorted by how much of each recipe is coconut oil, 76°; 19 more recipes use it too. Open the calculator to load any of these from the recipe library.