MY Lardy!

[Dana89]

First of all I just want to tell any Vegans that I think all veggie oils make great soap!
However I have been low on cash so I redid my entire recipe with 50% lard, 20% OO, 20% CO, 5% S.Almond and 5 % shea. Plus 1 tablespoon of Kaolin clay ppo of oil.
I thought I would go back to Palm oil when our finances got better but now I just can't do it.
Lard makes the soap s00000000 much better to me. To me palm pales in comparision.
My question is does it hurt sales with it being the number 1 ingredient?
I am thinking about selling in a couple of months and I don't ant to hurt my sales before I am out of the gate but i am sure I don't want to go back to palm.
For those of you that sell both or have sold both does it hurt your sales?






























o

 

[cmzaha]

I have not had any problems selling my lard and tallow soaps. However I do make vegan soaps in which I use palm, since I cannot bring myself to sell a soap that will melt away quickly. If I had to make a choice I would stick with the lard and tallow over the veggie soaps but I just do not like to lose any corner of the market with all the competition. Lard is wonderful and a great money stretcher..

 

[Susie]

Welcome to the lardy side. We have cookies.:evil:

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

Welcome to the lardy side. We have cookies.:evil:

Lardy cakes!

 

[IrishLass]

Welcome to the lardy side. We have cookies.:evil:

Lardy cakes!

And pie! Oh my!

I don't sell, Dana, but for what it's worth, I make both all-veggie soaps and animal fat soaps, and none of my soap recipients among my family and friends has ever once batted a critical eye at my lard or tallow soaps. They've never even asked me about it out of curiosity. They just appreciate the fact that they are handmade and feel better on their skin than the commercial soaps they had been using previously.


IrishLass

 

[TeresaT]

I must be really weird. I don't like all veg soaps. I find them to be drying on my skin. However, toss in some animal fat, and I'm good to go. Even my Castile soap is only Castile-ish. It has tallow and castor in it. I guess tallow and lard are closer to the oils our bodies produce?

 

[Obsidian]

I don't like all veg soap either except for the one recipe I have with quite a bit of shea. Even then, it doesn't compare to my lard soaps. I don't much like high tallow soaps either, the lather has a odd feeling to me.

 

[Susie]

I am currently using a tallow soap. I have to agree about the odd lather. Not horrible, mind you, just very different from lard. Gives larger bubbles, but without the density and the creaminess of lard soaps. I am extremely tempted to grate some of this up to use in a really high lard soap to sort of balance the lather. But my plate is full right now with graduation of my youngest and the wedding just 3 weeks away.

 

[Dana89]

Thanks guys. I have yet to try tallow. It proves harder to find than lard.

 

[MorpheusPA]

I use both tallow and lard, but the soaps differ. The tallow soaps get more olive oil to balance them a bit, while the lard also gets olive, just a lot less of it. Both get small amounts of coconut and castor.

The lard is probably the nicest soap, but I'd say the tallow is certainly competitive. The tallow/olive combination has a slicker skin feel, which I like, but the lard seems to be slightly better conditioning than even the soap with more olive oil.

All things considered? If you made me choose, I'd go with the lard, hands down, over any other soap including pure vegetable soaps.

 

[TeresaT]

Dana89, Whole Foods has beef fat at a reasonable price that you can render yourself. I do the boiling method (3 times). I'll bet one pound of raw fat should give you enough tallow for a sample batch with the tallow at 50% or somewhere around there.

Yesterday, I made a batch of soap using lard from Walmart. It was partially hydrogenated. I wanted to stay away from things I wouldn't eat, hydrogenated oils, colorants and FOs. Then it dawned on me: I'm not eating the soap. (Duh!) As I've researched, I've found some of the colorants and FOs have stricter testing standards than some of the foods we eat have. So, the more I read about the products, I realize I'm actually rethinking the whole soap making process. Education is a dangerous thing!

 

[vmakkers]

I just tried my oatmeal, milk, honey soap with lard and my reaction was just like yours. It was sooo creamy and moisturizing. People are missing out on the animal fat soaps.

 

[Dana89]

Does anyone know where to buy Tallow, I may be too lazy to render it myself.

 

[dillsandwitch]

Does anyone know where to buy Tallow, I may be too lazy to render it myself.

I'm not sure what part of the world you are from but here in Australia I get my tallow from woolworths or coles. Its in the butter section and is labeled as solidified cooking oil. It comes in a red pack of 500grams.

 

[reinbeau]

Soaper's Choice has tallow for something like 40¢ a pound. I render suet, with no water involved - water just makes it softer, a dry render over low heat in a good cast iron enameled pot works a treat.

To the op, don't apologize to the vegan crowd, they just won't be buying your soap. Some have issues with palm oil used in soaps also. You can't please everyone. As far as using animal fats, people eat meat, why not use the 'waste' to make a product rather than tossing it?

 

[RiverRose]

I agree! You really can't please everyone. It seems to me, most people don't care what's in it, as long as it smells nice and works! Some people will turn up their noses at lard soap, not realizing that every commercial soap contains lard/tallow. You can point out that it's sustainable,environmentally friendly, etc. Even conscientious vegetarians use lard in their soap--- http://www.humblebeeandme.com/why-i-use-lard-or-tallow-in-my-soap-and-why-you-should-too/

 

[LittleCrazyWolf]

I also get my tallow from Soaper's Choice, the price is good and so is the quality.

 

[riverousehouse]

Tallow and lard make the. best. soap. period. Nothing compares to the quality (and cost). I don't cater to vegans. Never have. never will.

 

[Kansas Farm Girl]

One friend told me once that she hadn't paid attention to what was in the soaps I give her, then realized there were certain ones she liked better than others. She checked the labels and the ones she liked all had animal fat in them, whereas the ones that she was not as fond of were 100% veggie oils. I have others who specifically ask for tallow soaps. Since I render my own, from meat butchered by my friends, I have both on hand. When I run out of that I get the lard from Walmart, but I can't find tallow that easily.

 

[Dana89]

My husband shocked me today. A while back I made him some soap (all veggie) with Teakwood & cardamom. That has been his favorite soap scent since he first smelled it. Today I caught him using my Sweet Pea soap. I asked him why and he said there is something about the way this soap feels, I love it. The Sweet pea was 45% lard.
Well at least now I can bribe him by threatening to tell his friends how much he loves Sweet Pea when I Want something.