Reasonable COGs

[RoyalLadybug]

I am brand, brand, brand new at soap making. I love MP soaps but cannot find one that is coconut free and detergent free. Since I can't find what I am looking for, I've decided to make it myself. I've played around picking ingredients, including using Babassu oil to substitute for coconut oil.

Based on properties, I came up with a recipe to try. However, I am stuck. I've run it through the lye calculator and the results look great. However, while I am not currently making to sell, I still want to consider if it would be economically viable in the future. I am fairly okay with my math. Does the following look reasonable? It was formulatated for a small 16 oz batch with non-bulk pricing. I don't want to go overboard with my experimenting. Lye has been left out of the calcuation mainly because I am trying to decide if I will use Maksey's 50/50 lye solution or make my own.

Material	Cost	Cost Per oz	Oz needed
Babassu oil	14.99​	$0.94​	2.4​	$3.34​
Olive Oil	8.99​	$0.56​	3.2​	$3.76​
Castor oil	6.99​	$0.44​	0.8​	$1.24​
rice bran oil	6.99​	$0.44​	4​	$4.44​
Cocoa butter	12.99​	$0.81​	1.6​	$2.41​
Shae butter	7.99​	$0.50​	2.4​	$2.90​
Sweet Almond	8.99​	$0.56​	1.6​	$2.16​
				$20.25​

Is the above unreasonably high? I could tell a candle easy but for some reason these smaller but more numerous ingrediatnes are confusing my poor brain. This is without fragrance cost and colors, obviously.

 

[Yooper]

You’ve got some expensive ingredients! You can go cheaper on some of the (olive oil pomace is great for soap and cheaper than extra virgin), and in bulk the others are cheaper as well.
Simple is really great, and you could simplify that a lot with a simpler recipe without such expensive oils. Why are you opposed to coconut oil? I like it in many recipes, and would miss it if I had to lose it.

 

[RoyalLadybug]

You’ve got some expensive ingredients! You can go cheaper on some of the (olive oil pomace is great for soap and cheaper than extra virgin), and in bulk the others are cheaper as well.
Simple is really great, and you could simplify that a lot with a simpler recipe without such expensive oils. Why are you opposed to coconut oil? I like it in many recipes, and would miss it if I had to lose it.

For coconut oil, my mother is severely allergic. If I made a soap with it, I risk her having a reaction. She's tried other soaps with coconut and had allergic reactions. If she sees it on one of my soaps she wouldn't touch it.

Due to that, I want to keep my recipes free of coconut so I don't run that risk

 

[Yooper]

That makes sense. I have a few non-coconut oil soaps. I really like either lard/tallow or palm oil for a fairly inexpensive hard oil that makes a nice soap (depending on whether you want all-vegetable or if animal fats are ok), pomace olive oil or inexpensive olive oil, some castor oil (about 5% in a batch) and then maybe one other butter like cocoa butter. I’d use the expensive ingredients sparingly, and think about the qualities you want for your soap. I usually use sweet almond in only lotions and balms, since it’s a great skin oil that really doesn’t follow through in the final soap (a wash off product). For luxury oils, babassu is nice as is avocado oil but more for label appeal than use.