Pine Tar Soap Tips and Technique

[Zany_in_CO]

PINE TAR SOAP TIPS & TECHNIQUE

BUY PINE TAR online or locally wherever they sell veterinary care products for horses and other farm animals.

CAUTION: Pine tar is flammable and good ventilation should be used when making pine tar soap to avoid respiratory irritation.

Treat Pine Tar as an additive as it has only a negligible SAP Value. Soapcalc.com lists Pine Tar but it does not factor into the final calculation.
FYI: NaOH SAP Value: .043 - .0603.

LYE SOLUTION: Mix and refrigerate lye solution overnight.
Use full water and/or aloe vera juice.
7% SF.

OILS: Mix the night before soaping.
80% Your favorite basic soap formula.
20% Pine Tar
Warm can of pine tar on a hot plate. Melt oils. Add warmed pine tar, fragrance, and ROE (optional). SB to mix well. Let set overnight at room temp. Get mold ready. Soap the next morning.

Soaping cool like this will slow down the seizing associated with Pine Tar. Work quickly. Stir with a spoon to combine the oils & lye solution, then stick blend on lowest speed or short bursts to blend thoroughly. If it seizes, wait about 2 minutes or so and try stirring again. Just be sure your batch is well mixed, then quickly turn it into the prepared mold and smooth the top.

Cure: 3 - 5 weeks. Makes a very hard bar, long-lasting, dark brown; creamy white lather; very soothing. Natural scent is harsh but mellows as it cures. (If you sub goat's milk, be prepared to banish the soap to an unused room while it cures. The scent of milk and pine tar curing together can bring tears to your eyes!).

EO BLENDS FOR PINE TAR SOAP

1 Juniper : 2 Cedarwood

1 Russian Fir : 2 Lavender or Lavandin

1:1:1 Lavender, Tea Tree, Oakmoss (10% in jojoba)

4 Lavandin, 2 Peru Balsam, 1 Russian Fir, 1 Sweet Birch (optional, historically sweet birch is helpful to problem skin, but must be used with extreme caution.)

 

[Paulie]

Thank you so much Zany in CO for your posts. I appreciate you so much. I will be following this recipe using Lard with no scent for my Mama who has Psoriasis.

 

[Zing]

Thank you so much Zany in CO for your posts. I appreciate you so much. I will be following this recipe using Lard with no scent for my Mama who has Psoriasis.

Just FYI, a couple of posts on my first. Now I have to wait for the cure so the rashy people in my family can start testing!.
https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/first-pine-tar-soap.87583/From another thread: I made pine tar soap today! I'm determined not to get angsty. It's just an experiment and if it works, great, if not, that's fine. I used my smallest loaf mold. That stuff is trippy, man! I refrigerated my lye solution overnight, and also let my oil mix cool down overnight. I stick blended my oils and essential oils (lavendar and cedarwood). Then I poured the lye and stuff was happening right away. I hand stirred for 14 minutes and could feel it changing minute by minute. The batter looked like delicious pudding.

I gotta kick out of Mrs. Zing. She said "wait, no pretty top? No color or swirl?" and grabbed some red glitter.

 

[Paulie]

Just FYI, a couple of posts on my first. Now I have to wait for the cure so the rashy people in my family can start testing!.
https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/first-pine-tar-soap.87583/From another thread: I made pine tar soap today! I'm determined not to get angsty. It's just an experiment and if it works, great, if not, that's fine. I used my smallest loaf mold. That stuff is trippy, man! I refrigerated my lye solution overnight, and also let my oil mix cool down overnight. I stick blended my oils and essential oils (lavendar and cedarwood). Then I poured the lye and stuff was happening right away. I hand stirred for 14 minutes and could feel it changing minute by minute. The batter looked like delicious pudding.

I gotta kick out of Mrs. Zing. She said "wait, no pretty top? No color or swirl?" and grabbed some red glitter.

Oh nice! I’m excited to make this for my Mama. Going to use Aloe Vera for my liquid and lard for my oil, no scent, thinking of adding 1T Salt to ensure it is a hard bar as I’ve read it the Pine Tar makes a soft bar. Only making 1# to start with.

 

[Zany_in_CO]

adding 1T Salt to ensure it is a hard bar

The first time I made PTS I was told it would trace in 27 seconds. It did! I timed it.

Adding salt may cause "soap on a stick" before your very eyes. If that does happen, leave the spoon in the batch, set the timer for 5 minutes and walk away. When you come back, it may be going into gel which makes it easier to stir quickly and mold up. NOTE: This works for regular soap. I never tried it with PTS.

Be prepared to move quickly. GOOD LUCK!

 

[Zing]

Oh nice! I’m excited to make this for my Mama. Going to use Aloe Vera for my liquid and lard for my oil, no scent, thinking of adding 1T Salt to ensure it is a hard bar as I’ve read it the Pine Tar makes a soft bar. Only making 1# to start with.

I routinely use salt -- sodium lactate at 3% per pound of oils. I was able to unmold after 24 hours.

 

[Paulie]

The first time I made PTS I was told it would trace in 27 seconds. It did! I timed it.

Adding salt may cause "soap on a stick" before your very eyes. If that does happen, leave the spoon in the batch, set the timer for 5 minutes and walk away. When you come back, it may be going into gel which makes it easier to stir quickly and mold up. NOTE: This works for regular soap. I never tried it with PTS.

Be prepared to move quickly. GOOD LUCK!

Perhaps I won’t add the salt LOL. It should be a hard bar using the Lard. Thank you

 

[Zany_in_CO]

For an excellent detailed review:

Pine Tar Soap - Soapy Stuff

Elly's Easy Pine Tar Soap - CP

 

[Kcryss]

Thanks for posting @Zany_in_CO ! I'm actually thinking about making Pine Tar soap but want to be sure I'm formulating correctly. So just to be clear, Pine Tar is formulated and added as an oil in a calculator and not as an additive. Is this correct?

Also, I found a post from last summer on doing Pine Tar as hot process and adding the Pine Tar after the cook. I've never really done CP, so thinking this might be a good way to go. Thoughts?

Edit - updated link

 

[Zany_in_CO]

So just to be clear, Pine Tar is formulated and added as an oil in a calculator and not as an additive. Is this correct?

Pine Tar contains no FAs so I think of it as an additive.

I found a post from last summer on doing Pine Tar as hot process and adding the Pine Tar after the cook.

That link doesn't work. Oopsie! LOL

Makes sense to me. I would probably nix the SB and try and stir with a spatula for 1 full minute to get the PT well incorporated before molding up -- but the PT may have a mind of its own about that! Use your best judgment. I say, go for it!

 

[Zany_in_CO]

@DeeAnna's TIPS on Pine Tar Soap

 

[Kcryss]

That link doesn't work. Oopsie! LOL

Hmm ... not sure what happened with the link, but it's fixed now.

I did read @DeeAnna 's article. As always, very informative!

@Zany_in_CO - and as always, thanks for the insight and clarification!

 

[pjj]

Pine Tar contains no FAs so I think of it as an additive.

View attachment 67090

That link doesn't work. Oopsie! LOL

Makes sense to me. I would probably nix the SB and try and stir with a spatula for 1 full minute to get the PT well incorporated before molding up -- but the PT may have a mind of its own about that! Use your best judgment. I say, go for it!

 

[pjj]

i learned to make soap from a grandma, using a scale and recipe on paper. the soap calculator looks like Greek, Latin, science and math all rolled together. what is the trick to using it ? am i forever going to be limited to same old olive oil soap ? i hate paying for someone else to make a simple pine tar soap. [why does pine tar soap require me to purchase [find] so many different oils ???

 

[linne1gi]

i learned to make soap from a grandma, using a scale and recipe on paper. the soap calculator looks like Greek, Latin, science and math all rolled together. what is the trick to using it ? am i forever going to be limited to same old olive oil soap ? i hate paying for someone else to make a simple pine tar soap. [why does pine tar soap require me to purchase [find] so many different oils ???

It’s really easy to learn SoapCalc. There are several videos on YouTube. My favorite is Teri’s from TreeMarie Soapworks.

 

[earlene]

i learned to make soap from a grandma, using a scale and recipe on paper. the soap calculator looks like Greek, Latin, science and math all rolled together. what is the trick to using it ? am i forever going to be limited to same old olive oil soap ? i hate paying for someone else to make a simple pine tar soap. [why does pine tar soap require me to purchase [find] so many different oils ???

Pine Tar soap does NOT require you to buy multiple oils.

You only need the oils you have on hand already, but you do have to get some pine tar to add to the recipe, of course.

I wonder why you think you need lots of different oils to make pine tar soap? You can certainly make pine tar soap with the recipe you already use by adding 5% or 10% pine tar (as percent of oils) to the current recipe. I have not made a Castile Pine Tar soap, but it is certainly possible. The lye calculations do change however, so you would end up with a slightly higher superfat if you don't calculate to determine the correct amount of lye to add.

You can make your recipe on paper like you learned, but obviously you do need to know the saponification numbers of the different oils in order to know the correct amount of lye to add. If the grandma taught you how to make an adjustment to the lye based on saponification numbers of the different oils, you can do it without using an online so@p calculator.

But I am a great-grandma & I prefer using a calculator to doing it all by hand. Some folks like doing it by hand and it's a valuable piece of knowledge to know how to do it that way, particularly if the internet ever goes off-line or you don't have access to it for an extended period of time (which can happen.) There are some stand-alone calculators out there (I have used a couple of them in the past) that do not rely on the internet. But if you don't want to learn to use one, you really don't have to do so.

If, however, your grandma only taught you how to make one particular soap based on a written recipe without any involvement of the math involved to change out oils and doing the calculations that different saponification values require (different oils can change the amount of lye needed to make safe soap), then it's just as easy to learn to use a so@p calculator as it is to learn to do it all by hand (easier, in my opinion).

If you do depend on written recipes without doing the calculations yourself, here is a simpler recipe using Olive oil, Coconut oil & Castor oil, plus pine tar. Castor oil is optional in soap, but it does support/enhance bubbles. I've made several soaps without it and it is still soap and it still bubbles & lathers enough to satisfy me, so you don't have to buy it if you don't want. If you want to try Castor oil, it is often available in the area where laxatives are sold. If your grocery store does not carry it, I used to buy it at Walmart, but any drugstore near yosemite should have some on the shelves and so do some grocery stores (in the Health & Beauty section). If you want to make this recipe without Castor Oil, then you should adjust for the lye calculation without the Castor. For that recipe, you would need 5 grams LESS of NaOH, if you made it without Castor Oil and made no other changes. But I would not take my word for it, if I were you; I'd use a lye calculator to verify the altered recipe and lye amounts needed.

 

[linne1gi]

Learn to use a soap calculator. It's life changing. You can try all sorts of recipes, all of which you make up yourself. Try them out in 1 pound batches of soap, see what you like, keep good notes, so you can replicate the recipes you like. Here's Teri's tutorial:

 

[Zany_in_CO]

It’s really easy to learn SoapCalc.

SoapCalc is the one I use.
When you first open it, you get the "Default Settings". Hover your mouse over each number to learn what it's there for:

Once you Load and CALCULATE your recipe you can save it:

It has built-in "Guidelines" that help to predict results. Compare your numbers to the numbers in the "Recommended Ranges"

TIP: INS value 160 = so-called "perfect soap".
In the above example, you would want to tweak to bring INS 133 up closer to 160 in most cases. I'm guessing this recipe is high in olive oil which has a very low INS value. No worries. It just takes longer to cure.

My advice is to spend time over 2 weeks or so playing with the calculator to learn as much as you can. Enter different recipes to see results and then what a difference subbing one oil for another makes in the result.

ETA: Haha @linne1gi beat me to it!

 

[Zany_in_CO]

Use the Recipe Feedback Forum to get input for each batch you try before you try it. You have lots to learn and that's a good place to pick up TIPS.

Making as many small batches as you can, as often as you can, will have you up and running with the best of us in about 4 months if you put the time and effort into it. It's best to avoid adding fragrance and color until you have a solid recipe ( or 2 or 3) that delivers every time you make it.

Finally, you will want to show off your soaps in the Photo Gallery. We LUV pictures -- even when a batch goes awry. Hopefully that won't happen, but if it does, see it as an opportunity to learn more.

You can also use the Photo Gallery as a log of every batch you make. Include the recipe as well as your comments about how you processed it for future reference. I only wish I had that available to me when I first started making soap in 2003. It's a great way to chronicle your progress in the Wonderful World of Soapmaking!!!

HAPPY SOAPING!!!

 

[LisaBoBisa]

For an excellent detailed review:

Pine Tar Soap - Soapy Stuff

Elly's Easy Pine Tar Soap - CP

Thanks for sharing that link. "Blokey blokes" is a really useful new phrase for this American.