Oils that make a hard soap

[SundownWaterfowl]

What are some oils that will make a hard soap, and are easy to find in the grocery store? I have coconut, crisco, canola, and olive oil, but I want some type of oil to make the bar harder.

 

[Haven]

Lard is nice. I do a lard and tallow soap that is hard as a rock.

 

[BubbleBitch]

It is my understanding that coconut oil is pretty hardening stuff, alas you mentioned using this already. :twisted:

 

[garland68]

Palm Kernal and Palm also make a harder bar.

 

[SundownWaterfowl]

Lard is nice. I do a lard and tallow soap that is hard as a rock.

Where can I get lard and tallow? Is that sold in grocery stores?


I do use coconut, but Ive read using too much can dry out skin.

 

[Healinya]

I don't know where to get tallow, but lard is definately at walmart. In either a green one pound cube or a green 4 pound bucket. If Walmart's set up plans are similar to each other, it will be on the very bottom shelf right under the coconut oil.

 

[Haven]

You can get lard at most grocery stores. Alas, tallow is not so easy to find. I get suet ground up from the butcher and render my own. It's easy and very rewarding and I love the soap it makes.

 

[Ilovesoap]

Coco butter also contributes to hardness, beeswax can also be added to harden up a bar. PKO and coconut are the best though.

 

[IrishLass]

Like everyone else, I get my lard at Walmart.

Tallow is much harder to find, but if you have a store near you called Smart & Final, they have beef tallow there in 50# cubes for about 20 some odd bucks. Smart & Final is a chain of restaurant supply stores that anyone can shop at with no membership fee. They have them here out west, but I don't know how common they are throughout the rest of the country.

Cocoa butter (and many, if not mostly all butters) lend hardness, too. They don't add much in the bubbly dept., but if you formulate your recipe with enough of the bubbly oils to balance it all out, you'll have a nice, hard, bubbly bar.


IrishLass

 

[zee]

You can also use olive oil. Soapcalc indicates that olive oil makes a soft bar but with a longer curing period I get bars that are like bricks.

 

[heartsong]

tallow

You can get lard at most grocery stores. Alas, tallow is not so easy to find. I get suet ground up from the butcher and render my own. It's easy and very rewarding and I love the soap it makes.

www.soaperschoice.com has refined tallow. i think $40/50 lbs.
they're fast and shipping is fair. they've got good prices.

steric acid also hardens soap.

 

[Deda]

If you can't find lard in your regular grocery (some in my area don't sell it) try a Hispanic Grocer, ask for Manteca - same exact thing and at the little Hispanic market its super cheap.

 

[Haven]

I live in California, so it costs about as much to ship the tallow as it does for the tallow itself. I can't justify it when I can get it for next to nothing from my butcher.

Besides, I'm getting a primal satisfaction from rendering.

 

[carebear]

olive too, with an adequate cure time and a highly concentrated lye sol'n helps too.

 

[Soapmaker Man]

Adding sodium lactate or steric acid hardens up a recipe too.

Paul :wink:

 

[ballininthamix]

Adding sodium lactate or steric acid hardens up a recipe too.

Paul :wink:

I added some steric acid to my last batch for this purpose, but it still came out a little on the soft side. I think I used it at 1 tbsp ppo. and I added it before I put the lye. Did I do something wrong or out of order? Do I need more steric acid ppo?

 

[Soapmaker Man]

I have a great conditioning recipe that is a bit soft, a 38 on the soapcalc.com chart, but a 60 on conditioning. I add 4% SA to the recipe and it raises it to a 41. You need to figure in SA in the recipe, and there is a spot for Stearic Acid on the left side along with all the other oils. That is the only recipe I need to use SA in. I like a recipe that is between a 40 to 42 hardness, plus I try to use a 35% to 40% lye solution.

Paul :wink:

 

[SundownWaterfowl]

Also, how much does lard cost? I cant imagine it would be that much.

Im going oil shopping tomorrow. Lol I want to get some lard, and some palm or palm kernal oil.

 

[Haven]

A 4 lb bucket will cost around 5-6 dollars.

Palm Oil isn't that easy to find, you can get organic veg shortening at Whole Foods, and that's palm oil. Or a middle eastern market might have it, vegetable ghee is palm oil.

You won't find palm kernal in a store, you'll have to get that online.

 

[SundownWaterfowl]

We have a health food store near where the grocery store is. Do you think they might have it?