100% beef tallow soap

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@Vicki C Did you make the 100% tallow soap? I’ve been testing mine, which I made with 10% KOH. It’s okay, but it’s not what I would call lovely. The bar will make lather if I work at it, but even with dual lye it’s a very hard bar of soap. In use the bar is so slick that it’s hard to hold on to, which is not at all what I expected. It’s like hard shiny plastic coated with a film of soap. I wonder if my hard water is a contributing factor? Maybe I need to up the KOH for the next batch?

eta: I’ve been scouring the threads and have seen cautions about exceeding 10% KOH, but based on the firmness of the soap, I think I would have better results using 13-15%. The KOH I’m using has been fine in other soap recipes with the purity set at 90%. On the other hand, I just recently bought a new box of tallow and noticed right away that it’s a bit harder than the tallow I was using over the last year. Perhaps that’s a contributing factor and I’m ending up with less than the calculated SF, which was set at 3% for the initial batch. I could make two small test batches, one with 15% KOH and 3% SF and one with 10% KOH and 6% SF for comparison. If anyone has any other ideas or suggestions, please let me know. I will report back!
I have always had the problem that the tallow ones crack and look ugly soon. And don't lather much (not that this bothers me) -- but the cracks and splits bothered me. Just on a whim, I tried flaxseed gel instead of water, and 20% KOH. Citric acid as chelator. I used 90% tallow and 10% castor oil; No coconut oil because it dries out my skin. I think this gel acts like a kind of glue -- no more cracking! And lathers better too.
 
I have always had the problem that the tallow ones crack and look ugly soon. And don't lather much (not that this bothers me) -- but the cracks and splits bothered me. Just on a whim, I tried flaxseed gel instead of water, and 20% KOH. Citric acid as chelator. I used 90% tallow and 10% castor oil; No coconut oil because it dries out my skin. I think this gel acts like a kind of glue -- no more cracking! And lathers better too.
My dual lye tallow neem soap is fabulous. No issues at all and lather is amazing
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@contrinokathy Lots of bubbles! Do the bars bubble that well in use? What is your usage rates for the additives? I added sugar at 1% TFW which equates to a bit less than 1 tsp ppo.


Lather for this 85% evoo/15% neem oil dual lye soap is amazing even with cold water using our hard water. No slime Just an amazing workaround for a single ingredient soap.
 
Just made 100% tallow bar for grandson. Added a small bit of spun ivory colored alpaca wool to lye mix.
This soap has marvelous lather rich and compact. Very gentle on skin.
Could also try adding silk. I used alpaca as grandson is on a carnivore diet.
Does the alpaca wool dissolve? What's the purpose. Fascinating

I made a 85%/15% tallow/neem oil 95%/5% sodium/potassium and the soap is incredible. I live in hard water country and I don’t have any problems. I always add beer powder, honey powder or pine rosin powder to up the lather but it’s amazing. It made the same version in a lard/neem recipe, olive oil/neem, and Shea/neem. The olive oil and Shea are the ones I love the best. I use the olive oil/neem for my hair and it is amazing.
I love this so much I am including them in many of my soaps. It is a great technique for one or two ingredient recipes. I have attached the video of the lather immediately after taking the soap out of the crockpot.
When do you add the powders? And do oil or water/lye? Thanks.
 
Does the alpaca wool dissolve? What's the purpose. Fascinating


When do you add the powders? And do oil or water/lye? Thanks.
I can answer the question about the alpaca wool ~ yes, it dissolves when addedto the lye solution. Like adding silk fibers, you add a very small amount and snip or tear into very pieces so it does dissolve thoroughly. It adds a very silky texture to your soap.
 
I can answer the question about the alpaca wool ~ yes, it dissolves when addedto the lye solution. Like adding silk fibers, you add a very small amount and snip or tear into very pieces so it does dissolve thoroughly. It adds a very silky texture to your soap.
Thanks! That's fascinating. Maybe I'll try that. Must be all the collagen and silica
I can answer the question about the alpaca wool ~ yes, it dissolves when addedto the lye solution. Like adding silk fibers, you add a very small amount and snip or tear into very pieces so it does dissolve thoroughly. It adds a very silky texture to your soap.
fascinating! Thanks for the tip. Silky texture sounds good to me. I'm making a tallow soap for some carnivore diet folks. Really interesting idea thank you
 
Thanks! That's fascinating. Maybe I'll try that. Must be all the collagen and silica

fascinating! Thanks for the tip. Silky texture sounds good to me. I'm making a tallow soap for some carnivore diet folks. Really interesting idea thank you
I hadn't thought about the hows and whys of it, but now that you mention it, that would make sense 😀 As for measurements and more specific how-tos, you can search the forum. There are plenty of discussions (most likely with links to other resources) with everyone's advice on how to add fibers (even spider webs 😳) to soap recipes. Happy soaping!
 
I made a 85%/15% tallow/neem oil 95%/5% sodium/potassium and the soap is incredible. I live in hard water country and I don’t have any problems. I always add beer powder, honey powder or pine rosin powder to up the lather but it’s amazing. It made the same version in a lard/neem recipe, olive oil/neem, and Shea/neem. The olive oil and Shea are the ones I love the best. I use the olive oil/neem for my hair and it is amazing.
I love this so much I am including them in many of my soaps. It is a great technique for one or two ingredient recipes. I have attached the video of the lather immediately after taking the soap out of the crockpot.
This may seem like a silly question - but about what percentage of the soap do you find is the best for your powder additive? I'm messing around with a Lye/Tallow/Shampoo bar and want to add yucca root powder for lather and medical benefits, but I'm not sure where to start with quantity.
 
Just made 100% tallow bar for grandson. Added a small bit of spun ivory colored alpaca wool to lye mix.
This soap has marvelous lather rich and compact. Very gentle on skin.
Could also try adding silk. I used alpaca as grandson is on a carnivore diet.
can you explain more how you add alpaca fur to the mixture?
 
What a great opportunity, @Vicki C -you are building such a great client base! 😍

I agree that 100% tallow bars are lovely! TBH, they can be hard to the point of brittle, and they can take a little work to get the lather started.

If these customers won’t do sorbitol, I’d ask if they are OK with local honey or maple syrup instead. If that’s still a no-go, I’d do 90% NaOH, 10% KOH so they lather more freely.

Keep the SF low bc 100% tallow (or lard, for that matter) can produce a lot of soap scum. A chelator is nice if they’d be ok with that. 😊
I am 2 years into soap making and reading though some of the posts in this community, i have never mixed NaOH and KOH (never even tought to use KoH) can you explain this more or point me to a thread that is discussing?
 
I am 2 years into soap making and reading though some of the posts in this community, i have never mixed NaOH and KOH (never even tought to use KoH) can you explain this more or point me to a thread that is discussing?
Hi there! This is called dual-lye soaping and it is a common way to make solid bars lather more freely, to make a thicker liquid soap, or to make shave soap. If you put "dual lye" into the search bar, there are a fair number of threads on it.

The Soapmaking Friend calculator has a dual lye option built into it; I am not sure about other calculators.

This video demonstrates use of dual lye to make a shaving soap. If you are using it for CP bars, the principle is still the same, but the ratios would be different, more likely 95% NaOH and 5% KOH.
 

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