100% beef tallow soap

[Nanditasr]

@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.

 

[contrinokathy]

@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.

Yes. They are amazing. 1 tsp ppo but honey I use up to 1 tbsp ppo

 

[contrinokathy]

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

 

[contrinokathy]

@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.

 

[Nanditasr]

View attachment 74412

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.

Doesn't it smell strongly of neem?

 

[contrinokathy]

Doesn't it smell strongly of neem?

Not at all. Even my unscented soap with neem is without the scent of neem. It’s a fallacy to believe neem oil makes neem smelling soap

 

[saintalchemist]

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.

 

[Shelley D]

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.

 

[saintalchemist]

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

 

[Shelley D]

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!

 

[Sadie Shannon]

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.

 

[HandmadeSoapByRachel]

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?

 

[HandmadeSoapByRachel]

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?

 

[AliOop]

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.