Lard Versus Tallow Shortening

[Dahila]

Lard is creamy and very gentle on skin, I like tallow too, which comes cheaper than lard so I mix the two together 30% lard, 30% tallow

 

[jules92207]

Can't go wrong with a little of both!

 

[cmzaha]

How's the smell? As in, do they smell like they are made from animal fat?
I was thinking of switching from lard to tallow (commercial so not 100% pure).
I make facial bars from lard, but while they are gentle and lovely, DOS is starting to drive me nuts.
I have batch made around the New Years, 0% SF, HP as they wouldn't set as CP and they are developing DOS grrr.

I pick up more smell with the lard versus the tallow, but my fragrance always covers it up. I am in the same boat with the lard even though I love it I am so tired of dos. Our humidity is not unusually high, all year but our summers are becoming similiar to Arizona monsoon weather, just without the rain. A while back I went through all my notes to find the common factor in some soaps that were getting spotty, they all had lard in common

 

[fuzz-juzz]

Thanks cmzaha!
I'm so tempted to give it a go now. I don't pick up lard smell at all so I think I won't mind tallow then.
Is there much difference in mildness when they are used. I plugged in 100% lard vs 100% tallow in the Soapcalc and there's 7 points difference in cleansing value. Shouldn't make to much difference should it?
As for the humid weather, Melbourne cansbe humid, but only few days at the time during summer, nothing too bad. I had bars with heaps of SF, high % of oils that will easily DOS, but I ony ever had issues with lard. And I tried both, home rendered and shop bought.

 

[cmzaha]

Thanks cmzaha!
I'm so tempted to give it a go now. I don't pick up lard smell at all so I think I won't mind tallow then.
Is there much difference in mildness when they are used. I plugged in 100% lard vs 100% tallow in the Soapcalc and there's 7 points difference in cleansing value. Shouldn't make to much difference should it?
As for the humid weather, Melbourne cansbe humid, but only few days at the time during summer, nothing too bad. I had bars with heaps of SF, high % of oils that will easily DOS, but I ony ever had issues with lard. And I tried both, home rendered and shop bought.

It took more effort to build up the lather with the tallow and it was not as silky feeling, but did not feel bad. The lard had a very thick lotion type lather that was very silky. I know most store purchased lard has preservatives and I wonder if the amount varies. My very first bar of soap is still around after 6 yrs and was high lard, but a different brand that I now use. It has never come down with spots

 

[jblaney]

Cmzaha - So the lard you used for your test soaps was not the Smart & Final one, right? I use that one and have had no problems with it, but now you have me worried.

 

[fuzz-juzz]

I just brought home some tallow hehe.
I really like how lard soap feels, shame about annoying DOS. I use it mostly on face as anything else will cause eczema to flare up.
I might do 50/50 at first to see how it turns out. I might add some castor for bubbles.

 

[Susie]

Those lard soaps should not have been developing DOS. Something else is going on. I live in a very high humidity area, and my very first soap was 100% Lard. I still have a bar(my precioussssss) that has been in the bathroom cabinet in the super high humidity, and low air flow with no DOS.

 

[LBussy]

I can say I notice a huge difference between the lather and feel of tallow and lard. Lard gets the A for both lather and feel. I am pretty amazed at the difference.

I agree I can definitely feel a difference. I prefer the tallow for my shave soaps though - lard gets the nod for bars.

 

[cmzaha]

Those lard soaps should not have been developing DOS. Something else is going on. I live in a very high humidity area, and my very first soap was 100% Lard. I still have a bar(my precioussssss) that has been in the bathroom cabinet in the super high humidity, and low air flow with no DOS.

Yes I do agree, and the smell is not off at all. But it is interesting that one is quite orange and the others are starting to change. They were all made with distilled water no color, other than one that is marked fragranced and colored with mica, or additives. The color of one reminds me of burnt gm. All the boxes went out. If you want one Susie let me know and I will get together another box. When we did the superfat swap all my soap samples turned orange, not sure if anyone else experienced the same and they were not lard

Blaney, these were not made with S&F Lard, but I have had the same thing happen with it. Just not this bad. These were made with Farmer John Lard in the red box and rendered lard from the hispanic meat market it had no piggy smell like the Farmer John Lard. Maybe you should do some soapie samples with the S&F lard. I am out of it at the moment

 

[Obsidian]

Carolyn, have you ever used amour brand lard? Thats what I use with no DOS. The only times I got DOS was a early batch high in crisco and my first castile that went rancid after 2 months.

 

[jules92207]

I've actually never had dos and I've used both farmer john and armour. Maybe I am just lucky?

 

[cmzaha]

Carolyn, have you ever used amour brand lard? Thats what I use with no DOS. The only times I got DOS was a early batch high in crisco and my first castile that went rancid after 2 months.

No, but I have used Snow Cap without any problems. When I first started soaping I picked up several 4lb buckets of Snow Cap Lard from Walmart for a $1.50 per bucket. Bought them all and it lasted a long time without ever going rancid or have dos in soaps. I am going to do some more testing with other brands

 

[jules92207]

I got my box today! Can't wait to try them.

 

[cmzaha]

I got my box today! Can't wait to try them.

LOL, you probably won't be to excited when you see the color of them. roblem:

 

[zolveria]

Darn me too. I was looking for beef tallow here in the valley. you be surprise as the looks and questions. Im like um I make soap.
then i got WHY WOULD YOU WASH YOURSELF WITH GREASE. I HAD TO LAUGH HARD AT THAT ONE. smh. The only ones that understand are the farmers around here. Never tried rendering my own tallow.but i got a butche with six pound of suet for me. I wounder if it will turn out to be 1 pound after i boil it ?

 

[newbie]

Watching with interest.

As a tangent, I still have all my pieces from the SF swap and only one got DOS, #7. I'm amazed because one of them is a 27 or 28% SF. Also of interest is that I cut pieces off each soap and shipped the rest on to someone else. They reported most has DOS but my pieces, which are from the same soaps, have not developed any, except for the one. Odd.

 

[lenarenee]

I got my box today too! Thank you Carolyn - you've gone to a lot of thorough work having each sample packaged and labeled just so. A special thank you for the fo sample - I take it there's an interesting story behind that?

My day was full of unexpected things so I only got to try one soap: the 100% lard that turned orange. We have soft water and the lather was thick and lotiony. The best thing is this 3% sf soap left my hands noticeable less dry than my own bar of 5% sf. The weather has been very dry here, and despite using lotion, my hands are still dry. After one washing with Carolyn's soap, then one application of lotion my hands are finally !

Can't wait to try the others....hopefully tomorrow is a calmer day so I can try out all of the others.

 

[cmzaha]

I got my box today too! Thank you Carolyn - you've gone to a lot of thorough work having each sample packaged and labeled just so. A special thank you for the fo sample - I take it there's an interesting story behind that?

My day was full of unexpected things so I only got to try one soap: the 100% lard that turned orange. We have soft water and the lather was thick and lotiony. The best thing is this 3% sf soap left my hands noticeable less dry than my own bar of 5% sf. The weather has been very dry here, and despite using lotion, my hands are still dry. After one washing with Carolyn's soap, then one application of lotion my hands are finally !

Can't wait to try the others....hopefully tomorrow is a calmer day so I can try out all of the others.

The fragrance is one of my very best sellers and is a great mixer with floral fo's. The original supplier of it closed due to illness so I ended up having it duped. It actually turned out even nicer than the original. Unfortunately even with the purchase of 10 lbs it is an expensive fragrance. Hope you enjoy it

 

[jules92207]

The fo you had duped smells amazing, I am certainly trying that one this weekend in a soap. And who's dragons blood is this? I think I've only tried BB and couldn't understand all the hoopla over the fragrance but this little baby is delicious!