Lard soap help

[Nyknits]

Hello everyone. I thought I saw this recipe here on the forum. Now, I’m thinking I may have left out the coconut oil. I want to make a high conditioning soap for my Mother. Does it look familiar to anyone? Also, why would the Lauric value be 0? I thought lard made a hard bar. Thanks for any help.

 

[Zany_in_CO]

2 thumbs down for that recipe -- IME and IMO.

It's best to start with a Tried & True formula. With so many dedicated lardinators at SMF, I highly recommend you use the magnifying glass in the upper right corner of this page to Search "Lard" for ideas and advice.

I make lard 85%, coconut 10%, castor 5% at 5% SF and 38% water as % of oils (SoapCalc Default Settings) for a geezer pal. He loves it! Says it reminds him of his childhood.

The Basic Trinity of Oils is also an excellent choice I think your mother might like. Sub lard for the palm in the recipe. I made it recently for my DIL's father because the soap (with identical ingredients) he bought on line for years was no longer available. I'm using it right now and I think it's the closest thing to "perfect" in terms of an all-around good cleansing experience for just about anyone.

NOTE: I soap lard formulas at 120°-135°F and use oakmoss 10% to neutralize the odor. Others are free to disagree. That's just what works for me.

 

[Nyknits]

2 thumbs down for that recipe -- IME and IMO.

It's best to start with a Tried & True formula. With so many dedicated lardinators at SMF, I highly recommend you use the magnifying glass in the upper right corner of this page to Search "Lard" for ideas and advice.

I make lard 85%, coconut 10%, castor 5% at 5% SF and 38% water as % of oils (SoapCalc Default Settings) for a geezer pal. He loves it! Says it reminds him of his childhood.

The Basic Trinity of Oils is also an excellent choice I think your mother might like. Sub lard for the palm in the recipe. I made it recently for my DIL's father because the soap (with identical ingredients) he bought on line for years was no longer available. I'm using it right now and I think it's the closest thing to "perfect" in terms of an all-around good cleansing experience for just about anyone.

NOTE: I soap lard formulas at 120°-135°F and use oakmoss 10% to neutralize the odor. Others are free to disagree. That's just what works for me.

Okay. Thank you for your help. I’ll give the trinity a go.

 

[DeeAnna]

The lauric acid content is zero because the fats in your recipe have little or no lauric acid in them. Lard does make a hard and long-lasting bar, but that's due to the stearic and palmitic acids in lard.

I also don't think this is a particularly good recipe. The first tweak I'd want to do is substitute a modest amount of coconut oil for some of the lard.

 

[Obsidian]

I make a 80% lard, 20% coconut that my mil loves. Its very hard, lasts forever and is gentle.
I do add some kind of chelator to this recipe as I find the high lard makes a bit more soap scum.

 

[TheGecko]

I agree with others that's it not a good recipe. What you want, regardless of the ingredients being used, is a BALANCED bar of soap. That high of a "condition" value with nothing to balance it out is going to make for a really greasy feeling.

 

[Nyknits]

The lauric acid content is zero because the fats in your recipe have little or no lauric acid in them. Lard does make a hard and long-lasting bar, but that's due to the stearic and palmitic acids in lard.

I also don't think this is a particularly good recipe. The first tweak I'd want to do is substitute a modest amount of coconut oil for some of the lard.

Thank you. Back to the drawing board.

 

[Nyknits]

I agree with others that's it not a good recipe. What you want, regardless of the ingredients being used, is a BALANCED bar of soap. That high of a "condition" value with nothing to balance it out is going to make for a really greasy feeling.

Thank you. I definitely jotted it down incorrectly.

 

[Nyknits]

I make a 80% lard, 20% coconut that my mil loves. Its very hard, lasts forever and is gentle.
I do add some kind of chelator to this recipe as I find the high lard makes a bit more soap scum.

I’ll give this a try too. Thank you

 

[cmzaha]

I used to make a 80/20 Lard / CO for a customer and he loved it in which I added in my EDTA/Sodium Gluconate combination as my normal chelator. It did make a lovely soap. He originally asked me for a 100% lard soap but I convinced him he would appreciate the addition of 20% CO added, which is the only time I use 20% CO, because the lard balances out the CO in my opinion.

 

[AliOop]

I am another vote for the 80% lard, 20% CO formula. It is one of my favorite simple recipes.

If you want to include some liquid oils, I’d sub in 5% castor oil and 15% rice bran oil, olive oil, HO safflower, or HO sunflower for 20% of the lard.

 

[Quilter99755]

The only time my grandson complimented my soaps...he is a kid of very few words...was a recipe with 80% lard and 20% CO. This last Christmas I gave him a whole batch of the soap and he was delighted.

 

[Ladka]

I am another vote for the 80% lard, 20% CO formula. It is one of my favorite simple recipes.

If you want to include some liquid oils, I’d sub in 5% castor oil and 15% rice bran oil, olive oil, HO safflower, or HO sunflower for 20% of the lard.

What is your superfat in the recipe?
Also, is 20 % coconut oil not drying for your skin? I find even 10 % drying for mine.

 

[Hope Ann]

Also, is 20 % coconut oil not drying for your skin? I find even 10 % drying for mine.

I have no problem with 15% coconut oil with 0% SF when it's a high lard or olive oil soap. I've used other maker soaps with that much coconut oil and and presumably a moderate SF and felt dry. I can't do 100% coconut oil, even with a 35% SF. So it depends on the overall formulation for me.

Hope

 

[DeeAnna]

As an new soap maker, I made a 10% coconut oil, 90% lard soap and substituted one 12-oz (340 mL) bottle of beer for about half the water. I used the beer, not because I knew what I was doing, but more because I had some beer too unpalatable to drink and it sounded like fun. This was also back in the day when I used a high superfat -- 12.5% in this batch -- which nowadays I would not do. The default 5% superfat would be a reasonable choice for most soap makers, but I'd probably go with my usual 2-3% superfat.

The soap lathered poorly after about 3 weeks of cure -- I remember being really disappointed in the soap at that point in its life. It lathered tolerably well about 7 weeks so I used some of the bars in the shower, but had others I liked a lot better, so most of this batch didn't get used. I was going to throw these bars out about 10 months after they were made, but washed my hands with one on a whim. It lathered beautifully, so I changed my mind and kept them for bathing. Wish now I'd kept testing the bars each month so I could have tracked how long it really took for the soap to start lathering so well.

In any case, I'm sharing this story to say a soap like this might need a few more months of curing than is typical for this soap to perform at its best.

 

[AliOop]

@Ladka i generally am ok with CO at 20% or less. My SF is typically 2-3%. I agree with @Hope Ann that the high lard somehow balances out the CO for me. But I think it would be just as nice even if you lowered the CO to 18%.

I typically add sorbitol at 2% of oil weight. I often add goat milk powder at about 4% of oil weight, in which case I lower the SF to 1%.

And I really agree with @DeeAnna that this recipe needs a longer cure. At eight weeks it is nice, and at 12 weeks, it is fantastic.

 

[Quilter99755]

@Ladka I don't usually make my soaps with 20% CO...it happened that the only compliment I ever got was from my grandson for a soap that was 80% lard and 20% CO. He also has very oily skin.

Usually my soaps range around 7-10% CO, 10-15% butter of some kind (whatever I have on hand) 5%Castor oil and the rest divided between lard and rice bran oil in some way or another. My old skin would turn to confetti with the higher CO in it. I keep saying I'm going to experiment and get rid of the CO and/or Castor oil, but right now I've got plenty of soap for my household. So will do that sometime in the future.