# What is the cheapest oil for making soap?



## wickedter (Apr 23, 2013)

Hello everyone.  I'm looking for oil to make some really cheap soap. I have been using coconut an oil and palm oil so far. Which saves us the cost most but I have heard using an oil from pork fat. Which will save us around 50%. What do people think?


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## terminatortoo (Apr 23, 2013)

I use Lard which is pork fat and it is very cheap, here it runs $1.28 per pound and it makes very nice soap.


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## mel z (Apr 23, 2013)

I love using lard, or any of the animal fats myself. 

As far as cheapest, it depends on what is cheapest to you locally.

If ordering online, bulk is cheaper and here is great site:

http://www.soaperschoice.com/cgi-so...eb_store.cgi?query_price_low_range=0&cart_id=


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## heatherglen (Apr 23, 2013)

Okay, this will probably sound like a very silly question, but I have never worked with lard before. Does lard have any smell? If it does, does it affect the soap any?


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## mel z (Apr 23, 2013)

heatherglen said:


> Okay, this will probably sound like a very silly question, but I have never worked with lard before. Does lard have any smell? If it does, does it affect the soap any?



Not the lard you buy in the grocery store now, it is deodorized. If you rendered your own it would have a smell, but in the soap it would *mostly* fade to a very faint aroma when used.


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## heatherglen (Apr 23, 2013)

mel z said:


> Not the lard you buy in the grocery store now, it is deodorized. If you rendered your own it would have a smell.



Okay, thanks!


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## soap_bubbles (Apr 23, 2013)

The only time I have had piggie smell was when I soaped too hot--pre melting the lard with the harder oils like cocoa butter and the like. Now that I soap at cooler temps no issues at all--I let the heat from the lye reaction melt the lard and no bacon-ie smell at all!


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## judymoody (Apr 23, 2013)

Yes, soaping cool is the trick with lard.

It is a good substitute for palm oil, with the disclaimer that if you switch one for the other that you run your recipe through a lye calculator.


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## wickedter (Apr 23, 2013)

What is your guys proportion of using animal oil and vegetable oil?


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## mel z (Apr 23, 2013)

wickedter said:


> What is your guys proportion of using animal oil and vegetable oil?



You can use 100% tallow or lard if you want, or any percentage. You can simply replace coconut oil or palm oil with it, but redo the calculations on a lye calculator.

Here is a thread with a few recipes:

http://www.soapmakingforum.com/f11/rendering-tallow-33777/


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## newbie (Apr 23, 2013)

Beef tallow can be even cheaper than lard and is great in soap. Every recipe is different. I have made an 80% tallow bar and a 20% tallow bar. Just depends on what properties you want in your soap.


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