I love Lard Soap...

[honor435]

ok, so i made my first lard batch today, and i was kinda against it, not sure if i will sell this one, but i want to know what its like! It is hp, with honey butter fo, yum. I ask people if they are against using lard soap and they say "ew", then i tell them that their dove has "tallow" in it, and dial and almost all store bought brands.

 

[Egzandra]

I think it's great that some of the best oils for making soap, eg lard and tallow, coconut oil and olive oil are also the easiest to get! And, (perhaps with the exception of the oo,) also the cheapest. Now I just have to get the family to try them and my soaping happiness will be complete.

 

[Bunny]

Yep nick, rita is right, lard is a slow tracer, which is good because you can use that to your advantage.

I have always been a fan of lard/tallow soaps since I was a child. I used to help my Granny make "stove top" soap out of her meat drippings, and she never used coconut you know. Just meat drippings that we rendered by boiling a couple different times in a big pot of water. Sometimes, if she got some good raw fat, she would just bake it in the oven to cook-off the clean fat, and then we would make soap with it. Her soap was always sooooo creamy and nice. It felt so much nicer than store-bought soap.And when I first started making soap, I made it on top of the stove too. It turned out good, but I like the more modern methods better (CP and oven HP).

 

[IrishLass]

I love my piggie soaps. When I first started soaping I kinda looked on lard as a cheapie 'filler' fat. I didn't have anything against it conscious-wise, mind you, but I just looked down my nose at it like it was inferior to the other more luxurious fats. Then I tried a lard bar in a swap and absolutely loved it, and set out to create my own lard soap forthwith. I have 2 really good 'keeper' formulas with lard now that I would be so sad without (one with lard and one with a combo of lard/tallow). I've also compared lard to palm side by side in exact recipes subbing one for the other, and the lard bars win hands down each time.


IrishLass

 

[alwaysme07]

I love lard soaps! There is only one I really like without lard and that one is salt soap.

 

[honor435]

ok, i made some lard soap in the crock, holy moly. slippery, hardly had to wash the pot! It that normal???

 

[Milla]

I've made some lard soaps and they are very creamy. What superfat is everyone using? I was using 5%, but not sure if that's normal. Thanks!

 

[Egzandra]

I had been using 5% but I made a batch this week with 8% superfat. Someone else will come along to let you know how their soaps with a higher superfat behave further down the line. I hope mine don't go rancid with the extra fat, because I made lots.

 

[xraygrl]

Honor,

Did you use sugar or milk in the batch?

 

[Bubbles Galore]

I regularly make a 75% lard soap and it's a firm favourite. I handed a piece to a friend tonight to try on her dry hands and she said "ewww" when I told her it was lard. Boy, didn't her face change when she washed her hands with it. She loved how it felt after she dried her hands.

 

[kittywings]

(sigh)... why are you guys doing this to me?!! I've always been one of the "ewww" group being a somewhat laid-back veggie (meaning I don't freak out if I accidentally have something with beef stock in it and I wear leather shoes) mostly though, I picture it clogging pores.

I found myself standing in front of the lard at the store the other day, but I didn't do it. However... I somehow see myself doing it again sometime soon.

... plus, I found out the secret to my grandmother's AMAZING apple pie (and I'm hard to please)... lard.

Looks like I'm off to the Mexican grocery store!

 

[krissy]

it doesnt clog pours, i looked it up cuz it had me thinking that too.
also i think (in my case at least) people dont like the word LARD. like that word makes you think of inferior things or I remember someone being called a l*rd *ss when i was little and knowing that wasn't nice. lol, really, get a 1lb thing of it and try it, it makes a great soap!!

 

[Saltysteele]

i'm going to be doing a couple batches this weekend, my first attempts at making soap, and will be doing lard. will probably be using the recipe of someone here 50% lard, 23.5% olive, 23.5% co and 3% castor.

 

[honor435]

Xray
no sugar or milk.
I have to say i never wanted to use lard, but thought i would see what the stink(literally) is about! I do like it, but not convinced it is any better than po,co,oo recipe. It IS cheaper though.

 

[ohsoap]

I love my piggie soaps. When I first started soaping I kinda looked on lard as a cheapie 'filler' fat. I didn't have anything against it conscious-wise, mind you, but I just looked down my nose at it like it was inferior to the other more luxurious fats. Then I tried a lard bar in a swap and absolutely loved it, and set out to create my own lard soap forthwith. I have 2 really good 'keeper' formulas with lard now that I would be so sad without (one with lard and one with a combo of lard/tallow). I've also compared lard to palm side by side in exact recipes subbing one for the other, and the lard bars win hands down each time.


IrishLass

So glad to hear this, I made my first lard soap this afternoon and I am hoping to be able to say the same thing as you!

 

[Maria]

I am put off by the smell of lard while it cooks. Most of my vegetable oil recipes have cocoa butter it them and smell really nice while cooking. I only put lard in a couple times other than when making Grandma's Soap and they were not good sellers. Maybe there are more vegetarians down here.

 

[jadiebugs1]

I love lard soaps! There is only one I really like without lard and that one is salt soap.

I just recently tried making my salt soap using lard in place of the shea butter. Figured they lend similar qualities, would slow down trace (yep, I actually got to POUR the soap in the molds instead of glopping this time!) and definetely be cheaper.

So far the differences I've noticed include it required a little longer to unmold, didn't crumble as much as the shea type, had a bit of a piggy smell to it it's first few days of curing, and is not getting as hard as fast.

Now, about a week after cutting....I don't really smell the piggy anymore, it's getting a little harder and turning out rather nicely.

My daughter and I have recently been using nothing on our faces except the salt soap made with shea butter.....I'm thinking (and hoping) that this is actually going to work out nicely with the lard.

And as for the cheap price of lard??? I've noticed at Wal-Mart, it's not that much cheaper than other oils and shortenings. It's starting to get a bit pricey too. (I so wish I would have grabbed a bucket or two when it was on sale at Wal-Mart about a year ago....$18 for a 5 gal. bucket!!!)

 

[mandolyn]

I used to be an all veggy soaper, but once I tried lard, I was loving it!!

Here's the deal. Even if you SF at 8%, how much free oil is in a 4 oz bar of soap? Then, consider how much of that actually remains on your skin after rinsing. If you do the math, you can see what an eentsy bit of maybe lard (if you're using other oils, too) is going to remain behind on your skin. It makes me chuckle when I hear, "Ewwwwwwwww!!"

I love the creamy, silky lather that lard brings to my soap!

 

[ohsoap]

I'm hoping that if this recipe turns out as nice as I hope, then I will be switching from Palm to Lard. I had wanted to go sustainable Palm but with shipping costs I just can't afford to do that.
I was very strongly an all veggie soaper, but I'm not a vegetarian, and I think I've only met 2 vegans in my life. I want the Good soap, not just a good label.

 

[Absinthe]

I keep hearing veggie, and vegan issues, but does anyone sell, or swap with Jews or Muslims? I assume that at the very least Muslims would be opposed to knowingly use a product made from a pig, and Jews that kept kosher may or may not (might not matter if it is not food stuff) want a product made from a pig either.