Beef Tallow and Essential Oils

[Carla Pagan]

Hi everyone,

Since I started using beef tallow with olive oil and coconut oil, I noticed I could smell the essential oil on the soap but when I wash my hands, the essential oil smell disappears on the skin. I think I smell tallow though. Any suggestions?

 

[xavier244]

Hey! I think the tallow might be overpowering the essential oil scent. Try increasing the essential oil amount or using a different essential oil. You could also adjust your lye discount or add a scent fixative like orris root powder. If you're not a fan of the tallow scent, consider reducing its percentage in your recipe.

 

[AliOop]

When I render tallow at home and clean it well (multiple rounds at low heat), there is almost zero scent to it, and definitely none left after it's made into soap. When I clean it, and later melt it to make soap, I do make sure not to heat the tallow past 160ºF, which is the minimum temperature needed to avoid stearic spots. High heat can really increase the beefy smell.

Although it's very stable long-term at room temp, or in the fridge, I store my home-rendered tallow in smaller containers in the freezer until I'm ready to use it. That slows the oxidation that does still occur at room temp, and also reduces the exposure to air (i.e., more potential oxidation) from being in a larger, partially empty container.

Other folks have suggested using a very low percentage of oakmoss absolute to cover the animal fat smell in lard and tallow. Oakmoss has the advantage of being a fixative and base note, which will help your other EOs stick better. The disadvantage is that it can be a skin sensitizer, which is the reason for the very low usage rate. I haven't tried it yet, but it is on my Try List.

 

[Elise]

I never get EO scent to stick on my skin after washing. I thought that was quite normal since the soap has to be rinsed off and not stay on your skin after washing. But some people get to have the scent remain on their skin ?

 

[ewhitake]

I never get EO scent to stick on my skin after washing. I thought that was quite normal since the soap has to be rinsed off and not stay on your skin after washing. But some people get to have the scent remain on their skin ?

I've had the experience of herbal scents sticking to my skin but fruity smells (the ones I really like) I have to increase the usage rate to get the same effect. I actually would prefer not to have the smell stick. To many layers of unconnected scent makes for a bad smell in general. :-(