Coconut Oil vs. Babassu Oil in Soap Making: What’s the Difference?

When you start making cold process soap, it doesn’t take long before coconut oil becomes a familiar ingredient. You’ll see it in countless recipes, and there’s a good reason for that. Coconut oil helps produce a firm bar with plenty of bubbly lather and strong cleansing properties.

But then you come across babassu oil. At first glance, babassu and coconut oil seem surprisingly similar. Both are typically solid at room temperature, both can contribute to a hard bar, and both are known for producing generous bubbles. So why would a soap maker choose one over the other?

Let’s talk about what each oil actually brings to a batch and why experimenting with both can be worthwhile.

Why Do Soap Makers Use Coconut Oil?

Coconut oil is one of those ingredients I think every cold process soap maker should get to know. It is rich in lauric and myristic fatty acids, which play an important role in creating hardness, cleansing power, and bubbly lather in finished soap.

You can often see its contribution pretty quickly when testing a bar. Coconut oil helps create those bigger, fluffier bubbles that make a soap feel satisfying to use. That doesn’t mean more coconut oil automatically makes a better soap.

Because it contributes significant cleansing properties, using too much can create a bar that may feel overly cleansing for some skin types. This is why you’ll often see coconut oil combined with ingredients such as olive oil, castor oil, shea butter, and other oils.

That balance is where soap formulation starts getting interesting.

What About Babassu Oil?

Babassu oil is an ingredient that deserves more attention from soap makers.

It comes from the kernels of the babassu palm and is generally white and solid at room temperature. Once you start looking at its fatty acid profile, you’ll understand why it is often compared with coconut oil.

Babassu oil is also rich in lauric and myristic fatty acids. In a cold process recipe, it can contribute many of the same qualities we look for when using coconut oil, including hardness, cleansing ability, and bubbly lather.

That makes babassu especially interesting if you enjoy experimenting with your recipes or are simply looking for another oil to work with.

Coconut Oil vs. Babassu Oil

Put the two side by side and they have quite a bit in common.

• Coconut oil is familiar, versatile, and widely used in soap making. It contributes hardness and cleansing properties while helping create those large bubbles many makers want in their bars.
• Babassu oil can provide similar qualities. It contributes hardness and bubbly lather and can be used as an alternative to coconut oil in many formulations.

So there really isn’t a simple answer that says one is always better. Your choice may come down to the recipe you’re creating, ingredient availability, cost, and your own preferences as a maker. And sometimes the best way to decide is simply to make soap with both.

Try a Side by Side Experiment

This is where soap making gets fun. Once you’ve made a few batches with coconut oil, try creating a small batch with babassu oil and compare the results. Take notes as you go. How did the batter behave? How firm was the soap after unmolding? What did the lather look like? Were the bubbles large and fluffy or smaller and creamier? How did the finished bar feel during use? You may notice only subtle differences, or you might discover that you prefer one formulation over the other.

Hands on experiments like this can teach you much more about your ingredients than simply following the same recipe every time.

Can I Substitute Babassu Oil for Coconut Oil?

Babassu oil is commonly used as an alternative to coconut oil in cold process soap because of their similar fatty acid profiles and soap making properties.

There is one important thing to remember, though.

Changing an oil means recalculating your recipe.

Every oil has its own saponification value, which determines how much sodium hydroxide is required for saponification. Even when two oils behave similarly in finished soap, you should never assume their lye requirements are identical.

If you decide to replace coconut oil with babassu oil, put the complete revised formula through a reliable lye calculator before making your batch.

It’s a small step, but an important one.

Don’t Forget the Rest of Your Recipe

It’s easy to focus on one ingredient when comparing oils, but no oil works completely on its own in a typical soap formula.

Think about coconut oil or babassu as one piece of the recipe.

You may use one of them for hardness and bubbles, then add other oils and butters to contribute different characteristics. Castor oil, for example, is often included in smaller amounts to support lather. Other oils and butters can bring their own qualities to the finished bar.

Learning what each ingredient contributes is one of my favorite parts of making soap.

Instead of thinking, “This recipe says I need coconut oil,” you eventually start thinking, “What do I want this oil to do in my soap?”

That change in thinking opens up a lot of room for creativity.

Which One Would I Choose?

If you’re just getting started with cold process soap making, coconut oil is a great ingredient to learn first. It appears in so many formulations that understanding how it behaves gives you a useful foundation. If you already have some experience and want to play around with your formulas, give babassu oil a try.

You don’t have to completely redesign your favorite recipe. Start small. Make a test batch, keep good notes, and compare it with a similar coconut oil soap after both bars have had time to cure. You might prefer coconut oil. You might fall in love with babassu. You might decide there’s room for both on your soap making shelf.

That’s the beauty of making your own soap.

Keep Experimenting

A good soap recipe isn’t only about following percentages on a page. The more batches you make, the more you begin to understand why each ingredient is there.

Coconut oil and babassu oil are a great pair to experiment with because they demonstrate how two similar ingredients can give a soap maker different formulation options.

If you’re curious about trying them for yourself, explore the soap making oils, butters, fragrance oils, molds, colorants, and other supplies available at Wixy Soap and start planning your next batch.

And if reading recipes has you thinking, “I’d rather have someone show me how to do this,” join a Wixy Soap Cold Process Method Soap Making Class. You’ll get hands on experience and have the opportunity to understand what is happening at each stage instead of simply following instructions.

The best way to learn soap making is to make soap, take notes, ask questions, and keep experimenting.

Your next batch might teach you something you weren’t expecting. 🧼