Cold Process Soap Using Lard

[beardguy]

Take some plastic baggies, a bottle of vinegar, a rubber band into your shower/kitchen/bathroom. Then fill a baggy with straight vinegar, place it over your faucets/shower head/whatever water spews out of, then rubber band it tightly, so it the faucet is totally submerged in the vinegar and the baggy remains tightly secured to the faucet. Leave it for a couple of hours to eat away at all those mineral deposits that occlude the faucet. When you remove it a couple to a few hours later, the water will flow more freely.

It works like a dream. If you don't have a water softener, you can do this periodically to remove deposits, keep your aerators clean and free-flowing as well as to make the faucets shiny again.

Thanks, I'll try that.

Now on to the regular non hijacked by me thread.

I'll be trying out a 100% lard soap tonight for fun since it traces so slowly and I want to do a multi-color swirl. I love the lard.

 

[wbocrafter]

This is what is so wonderful about this forum. You guys are a wealth of knowledge. I have learned so much just listening to you conversing back & forth.

 

[FragranceGuy]

Hubby's favorite LS is 50/50 lard & PKO. Really nice and holds scent well -- lard helps with that.

I use oakmoss absolute (10% solution in jojoba) at a rate of 0.7% (1/4-1/2 tsp) PPO to offset the odor of lard/tallow.

SHORT STORY
When I first started making soap (2004), I sent a bar of tallow soap to a high school classmate in Minneapolis. She loved the soap, but asked, "Why do I smell hamburger when I shower?" :mrgreen: Thus, the inclusion of oakmoss -- a tip from one of the early gurus of soapmaking, also a lardinator, BTW.

Hey Zany! When do you add your oakmoss? It seems common practice to add fragrance at light trace, but if the purpose is to neutralize the odor, rather than project a scent (3.5g PPO) would adding the oakmoss to the heated oils before lye possibly help integrate the odor canceling power to the pre-saponified oils?

@DeeAnna Once I decided to explore lard I spent way to many hours tweaking the soap calculator I was studying fatty acid profiles heavily and ready to experiment. After 3-4 hours spread over a couple days (I ALWAYS sleep on ideas) I settled on 14 % CO, 26% OO and 60% Lard. That was a month ago. Today I found this post on a google search and was SO FREAKING pleased how similar my recipe is to yours! Because you actually know what you’re doing!! The only reason I used 14% CO and 26% OO is because it didn’t greatly affect the soap, but it made the values end in zero As a newb, I figured that might minimize my odds of making mistakes while measuring. I relish in any opportunity to increase my odds of success. I’ve been testing this recipe in the shower after a 4 week cure over the last 2 days and I’m very pleased, but would prefer more (larger) bubbles/lather. How much white sugar PPO would you recommend for this recipe? What superfat? I’m guessing 2-3% superfat with 1Tbsp sugar PPO is a good starting point for increased bubbly lather. Or maybe a higher carb light beer? I don’t have castor oil right now, but that can change at my whim. Thanks!!

 

[Zany_in_CO]

Hey Zany! When do you add your oakmoss?

I add fragrance to my warmed oils and give it a good stir for one full minute (or SB) before adding the lye solution. I use oakmoss alone or most often to anchor a blend to be used in a non-lard soap.

 

[DeeAnna]

@FragranceGuy -- My latest favorite recipe --

Avocado Oil 5.0%
Tallow, Beef 10.0%
Coconut Oil 15.0%
Sunflower high oleic 20.0%
Lard 50.0%

But the lard is at 50% only because my friend Renae gave me some tallow. When I run out of tallow, I'll add the 10% back to the lard.

The HO sunflower and avocado are both high oleic oils. Olive, HO safflower, HO canola, or another high oleic fat can be subbed for any or all of the sun and avo.

I don't use castor anymore and haven't noticed any great difference in the lather. Maybe if I didn't have a home water softener, the castor might have more of an effect. Can't say for sure, though.

I don't use sugar in my soap, but your 1 TBL sugar per pound of oils (or per 500g of oils) sounds fine. I think a typical range for sugar is 1 tsp to 1 TBL ppo. When I use beer in soap, it's a regular type beer, not a lite beer.

I superfat at 2-3% depending on my whim. I also adjust for the lye purity (96% purity for the NaOH I'm using currently), so it's a "realer" 2-3% superfat compared to setting up the recipe with an online s_oap recipe calc where the NaOH purity isn't accounted for.

 

[Zany_in_CO]

I don't use sugar in my soap

FWIW, I don't use sugar either.

Here's my go-to tallow & lard bar. It is based on a recipe shared by Oak Tree (Violet). Here's what she had to say about it:

Think of that new Dove body wash commercial that shows the thick, rich.. almost sinful looking lather.. (which is the what the commercial soap market is targeting) that is what you get from this recipe. I have tailored my recipes to this and the results are tried and true... no one has ever complained that the lather was missing something.

I call it "Naked Dove" because it lathers like Dove without all the syndets.

I started with the default settings on SoapCalc and adjusted to my liking from there. My adds: vitamin E, ROE, fragrance

13 oz. water
4.5 oz. NaOH 8% SF
6.8 oz. tallow 20%
6.5 oz. lard 19%
6.12 oz. RBO 18%
5.75 oz. High Oleic Sunflower 17%
3.75 oz. PKO 11%
3 oz. Coconut 9%
2 oz. Castor 6%
34 oz. TOTAL OILS

Temps: 120°F - 135°F
Unmold: The next day
Cure: 4 - 6 weeks

 

[FragranceGuy]

Two delicious looking recipes! Thank you for all the advice!!

@DeeAnna I’m using a technical grade 100% NaOH. I’m not sure what impurities may be involved in terms of heavy metals, but I’m hoping using 100% might limit filler impurities. Honestly, the only thing I know at this point in my saponifying journey is the lye is working and isn’t zapping my tongue or irritating my skin I’m curious, is there a reason why you and @Zany_in_CO choose not to use sugar? Have you had bad experiences or maybe never felt like it was necessary? I do have hard well water and haven’t used my soap away from home. I’ve also considered adding citric acid. Looks like I have more experimenting ahead of me

 

[Zany_in_CO]

Re: Adding sugar: Just never felt like it was necessary. Ditto sodium lactate, EDTA, citric acid. Also, sugar is a heater -- heats up the batter as happens in making goat milk soap, beer soap, honey & oats soap. Best to avoid sugar in most cases and knowing what your doing when you do add it.

FWIW, When I first joined a forum in 2004, my sig line contained the Latin phrase, "Nequid nimis - The perfect measure". Using that as my soaping mantra over the years, I focused on finding the least amount of ingredients to develop the most perfect soap recipes. I also encouraged my wholesale customers to tweak their formulas. The result? Fewer ingredients, while maintaining the unique quality of the soap, produced a better profit margin and fewer supplies to store and keep track of.

 

[dibbles]

Re: Adding sugar: Just never felt like it was necessary. Ditto sodium lactate, EDTA, citric acid. Also, sugar is a heater -- heats up the batter as happens in making goat milk soap, beer soap, honey & oats soap. Best to avoid sugar in most cases and knowing what your doing when you do add it.

My experience with sugar (regular, granulated cane sugar) is different - I don't find it heats up my batter or accelerates trace. In fact, as far as heating goes, I almost always have to force gel. I agree that milk, beer and honey can do that though.

 

[Zany_in_CO]

@dibbles Hey there! My guess is, you generally soap cool when adding sugar to the batch, yes?
I generally soap using recommended temps for the batch. For example, for lard & tallow, temps are 120-135°F. I've never had a problem with getting my soaps to gel.

 

[dibbles]

@dibbles Hey there! My guess is, you generally soap cool when adding sugar to the batch, yes?
I generally soap using recommended temps for the batch. For example, for lard & tallow, temps are 120-135°F. I've never had a problem with getting my soaps to gel.

I do soap cool - usually. But do you notice sugar heating or accelerating your batch more than would be expected at the temps you mentioned?

 

[Zany_in_CO]

I don't use sugar in any of my batches. Just never felt any need for it. I do soap cool, though, when working with known heaters like GM, honey & beer.

 

[Susie]

I either use sugar, aloe vera juice, or honey to boost bubble. Mostly I use the last two to boost label appeal. Honey is a worse heater than sugar, for whatever reason. Aloe vera juice is the least heating. I mostly soap cool if I am doing designs, but then use a heating pad under the molds to force gel. If I am making solid colored soap, I soap warm and don't need to force gel.

I stick to 2-3% superfat, usually 2%. I don't have a home water softener, so I do use EDTA. I always use castor oil, because I CAN see the difference.

YMMV

 

[SPowers]

My fave is:
55% lard
20% coconut oil
15% palm
5% each shea butter & caster oil

I love, love, love, working with lard!

 

[cmzaha]

I personally would go with DeeAnna's recipe, it is similar to my go-to recipes.

When I did use sugar at the rate of 1% batch weight I never had problems with soaping cool or warmer. Even with my high tallow, lard, or palm recipes, I tend to soap cool now and work through the initial false trace.
For a few years now I quit using sugar and went with Sorbitol to get a thicker lather since I do no use high CO and my customers prefer the thick lather. Now that I no longer sell I may not use Sorbitol we will see because when I move I will have hard well water so may continue. I also soap low superfat, EDTA Sodium Gluconate, combination, and vinegar with no overheating issues.