My first bars...lard bars

[Catscankim]

The very first soap that i made was my 80/20 lard coconut bar On 5/30. Over the past maybe two weeks i have been using it at the sink. Feels really really nice and has bubbles. Yesterday i took that bar into the shower and its not so bubbly or showery feeling.

as it was my very first soap, it has no additives. Except hang on.... .7 oz lavender eo and .3 oz peppermint eo. The peppermint didnt stick.

its a terrible bar in the shower. Is it always gonna be like that or should i give it more cure time to make a decision on the recipe? i had planned on using lard bars as my go to recipe because its cheap, lol, but as it stands, i dont like it other than at the sink.

i have learned a few other things since then, so i can do some additives if necessary.

 

[AliOop]

I personally settled on 70-75% lard bc it wasn’t bubbly enough for me if I used more lard than that. The remainder is 20-25% CO and 5% castor. Sometimes I use 5% shea and take it out of the lard.

To increase and stabilize lather, I also add 1 T sugar PPO, and 2T powdered GM PPO.

Finally, I use either 100% white vinegar or AVJ for the lye liquid, and sodium lactate for hardening. I’ll use salt if I’m out of SL, but I like the SL better - hardens better and doesn’t seem to dampen the lather as much.

The combination of those oils with those additives make the difference for me between a soap that I like, and a soap that I love. YMMV.

ETA: high lard bars need a longer cure, IMO. They improve greatly after 6 weeks, and are ideal for me at 8 weeks.

 

[BattleGnome]

I cure my high lard bars for at least 12 weeks. They’re ok at 4 weeks but magic happens at 12 weeks.

 

[Obsidian]

I make that recipe and it just isn't a very lathery bar. I use it mainly on my face.
For a better balanced bar, I use 50% lard, 25% olive or sunflower or safflower, 20% coconut and 5% castor.

 

[Finnegan]

I make that recipe and it just isn't a very lathery bar. I use it mainly on my face.
For a better balanced bar, I use 50% lard, 25% olive or sunflower or safflower, 20% coconut and 5% castor.

I may try this, instead of lard I will use beef tallow, as I have a lot of it.

 

[Obsidian]

I may try this, instead of lard I will use beef tallow, as I have a lot of it.

If you use that much tallow, you'll want to reduce the coconut amount so the soap isn't too cleansing. Tallow has a higher cleansing number then lard.

 

[Finnegan]

If you use that much tallow, you'll want to reduce the coconut amount so the soap isn't too cleansing. Tallow has a higher cleansing number then lard.

Oh, thank you for that, I definitely do not want a soap that is too cleansing. I think I will run my recipe through Soapcalc. just to be sure.

 

[Obsidian]

Oh, thank you for that, I definitely do not want a soap that is too cleansing. I think I will run my recipe through Soapcalc. just to be sure.

Yes, always run every recipe through a calculator

 

[bookreader451]

when I use my “less bubbly“ soap in the shower I use a poof. Works miracles for some of my higher OO soaps.

 

[sarahmarah]

My early experiments with high shea/cocoa butter bars have a luxurious creamy lather at the sink but are rather disappointing in the shower after an 8 week cure. I do have one that knocked my socks off with how nice it was in the shower—the only difference was that I used AVJ for all of my liquid and had jojoba beads in there for scrub. I think the combo of the sugars in the AVJ and the exfoliants agitating the lather made it really nice.

 

[Dawni]

Personally I think all soaps have better lather at the sink coz there's more "rubbing" action going on in a smaller surface area.. Or maybe that depends on how you soap up in the shower lol

@sarahmarah I count cure time of my high shea/cocoa/mango soaps by months, not weeks - minimum 4mos. Even then, not many prefer that kind of creamy lather to other soaps higher in canola or sunflower oil for example.

@Catscankim The highest I've gone with lard is 60% and I quite like that one and it's one of my mom's favourites. Coconut is 15% and castor at usual 5%. The rest is either olive, RBO or sweet almond. My usual additives are salt, sugar and coconut milk powder. I'd say it doesn't take as long to cure as the high butter ones, but it's there at "longer than usual" hehehe

 

[Todd Ziegler]

I use a nylon mesh soap bag with all my soaps and it will help increase bubbles/lather IMO.

 

[BriannanSilva]

I personally settled on 70-75% lard bc it wasn’t bubbly enough for me if I used more lard than that. The remainder is 20-25% CO and 5% castor. Sometimes I use 5% shea and take it out of the lard.

To increase and stabilize lather, I also add 1 T sugar PPO, and 2T powdered GM PPO.

Finally, I use either 100% white vinegar or AVJ for the lye liquid, and sodium lactate for hardening. I’ll use salt if I’m out of SL, but I like the SL better - hardens better and doesn’t seem to dampen the lather as much.

The combination of those oils with those additives make the difference for me between a soap that I like, and a soap that I love. YMMV.

ETA: high lard bars need a longer cure, IMO. They improve greatly after 6 weeks, and are ideal for me at 8 weeks.

What is AVJ?

 

[dibbles]

What is AVJ?

Aloe Vera juice

 

[Catscankim]

LOL since we are revisiting this post, I guess I will tell you about the soap many months after the cure. I still have every single one of them because I can't even justify giving them away, although that little bit of lavender did stick and they smell phenomenal, so maybe I will grate them up and use them for sachets... I am not sure which kind of Lavender it was, I only know it wasn't 40/20, The lavender buds I put on top look like mouse poop. And you think that they might just fall off in the shower, but after they get wet, it leaves mouse poop skid marks on top of the soap that really doesn't wash away for a while LOL.

I love my lard bars...the recipe that I use now. It is my main recipe for mostly all of my soaps. The downfall is the lard label appeal. But I have found that people get over it after they love the soap.

 

[TashaBird]

I just weighed out a bunch of lard that we just did a triple wet rendering from our bacon grease. I’m going to use the same recipe that I did before which was %80 lard %20 CO, and it was one of my all time fave soaps. We used beer for the liquid, so maybe that helped. I keep saying “we” because it’s the one soap I make with my DH. Bacon, beer, coffee, and chocolate. We call it Four Pillars. I thought about mixing up the oils this time, but I just want to use up the lard. And, like i said, it was one of y favorite soaps! May be the wash cloth that helps with lather in the shower.

 

[linne1gi]

The very first soap that i made was my 80/20 lard coconut bar On 5/30. Over the past maybe two weeks i have been using it at the sink. Feels really really nice and has bubbles. Yesterday i took that bar into the shower and its not so bubbly or showery feeling.

as it was my very first soap, it has no additives. Except hang on.... .7 oz lavender eo and .3 oz peppermint eo. The peppermint didnt stick.

its a terrible bar in the shower. Is it always gonna be like that or should i give it more cure time to make a decision on the recipe? i had planned on using lard bars as my go to recipe because its cheap, lol, but as it stands, i dont like it other than at the sink.

i have learned a few other things since then, so i can do some additives if necessary.

I've been making soap for almost 8 years and I spent the first 3 years trying lots of different recipes - most of which I made up myself. The one thing I suggest for all new soapers is to make small batches (like 1 pound) of different recipes to see what you like and don't like - that way you don't use a ton of ingredients.