Popular YT soapers who use lard?

[lenarenee]

I'm teaching an 82 year old woman how to make soap. Don't freak out with concern - she's going to live another 82 years! She has more going for her than I do even being decades younger!

She travels back and forth between 2 houses, so it's hard to schedule time together and she fills her soaping needs by watching YT videos. We're using a lard recipe - for many reasons. But at our last meeting, she handed me a typed list, front and back, of YT videos she watched, including many successful sellers, and asked why we're using lard when none of the YTers do? (I should mention that she's extremely detail minded. Extremely. Irritatingly so!).

Other than explaining why I use lard, and the popularity of making vegan or vegetable based soaps, I couldn't explain why YT soapers don't use lard. Do you know of any YTers (not the homesteading type people) who use lard? She's going to keep asking me until I find someone, or can give her a good reason!

Btw, she thinks handmade soap is for decorating and freshening the bathroom. She's never used it. Still buying cheap store stuff. But one of these days when she has enough bars for all of her bathrooms and kitchens, and to give to friends, she'll finally try it in the shower. So I can't demonstrate the difference between a palm soap and a lard soap!

 

[AliOop]

I'd remind her that there are plenty of YTubers that don't share their recipes. Those who do share are no doubt very aware of the strong bias in certain circles against animal fats. Given that YT channels live and die on views, subscribes, and likes, they are probably making a very business-minded decision not to talk about use of animal fats on their channel - even if they DO use them.

For those YTubers who also sell, they may not like the fact that lard can increase the time until the bar performs at its best. Thus, it can also be a business decision that they want a faster-curing soap so they don't have as much money tied up on their curing racks.

 

[dibbles]

Holly at Kapia Mera and Teri at Tree Marie (recipes included in some of her older videos) use lard in some of their videos. I'm sure there are more, but those are two that come to mind ATM.

 

[AliOop]

Thanks for confirming that, Dibbles. I thought I remembered both of them using lard, but wasn't sure!

 

[lenarenee]

I'd remind her that there are plenty of YTubers that don't share their recipes. Those who do share are no doubt very aware of the strong bias in certain circles against animal fats. Given that YT channels live and die on views, subscribes, and likes, they are probably making a very business-minded decision not to talk about use of animal fats on their channel - even if they DO use them.

For those YTubers who also sell, they may not like the fact that lard can increase the time until the bar performs at its best. Thus, it can also be a business decision that they want a faster-curing soap so they don't have as much money tied up on their curing racks.

Great points - I'm going to approach her with that, thank you!

Although I'm why you (and any others) think that lard prolongs cure time? In my high lard soaps, I've found the opposite and am very happy with them at 4 weeks. In my palm soaps, I'll give them a minimum 2 months to give them away, but really try to wait until 3 months, and there's still marked improvement at 6 months. Btw, I judge by skin feel and tightness first, bubbles second.

 

[AliOop]

My typical high-lard recipe is 70% lard, 20% CO, 5% castor, and 5% of a liquid oil or a butter. Or sometimes the last 5% goes to more lard. Can you tell I love lard? These soaps don't have nice lather before eight weeks, and they feel kind of... slippery, or almost slimy? Not like oleic slimy lather; rather, the soap itself is too slippery. After eight weeks, the lather becomes soft, creamy, and silky, the bar isn't as slippery, and the lather is developed more easily, too.

Probably the tussah silk in my MB lye solution adds to the too-slippery feel before it is well-cured. Also, my soaps with only 40-60% lard don't need as much cure time, at least for the qualities I'm seeking in my soap. No doubt the more balanced FA profile has something do with that.

 

[Obsidian]

I've never noticed lard soaps taking longer to cure. I tend to cure all my soaps at least 8 weeks anyways. As t o why most YT soaps do not use lard, its simply that many of them are selling and veganism being more popular, a veggy based bars are going to sell much better.

I live in a hunting community and even the meat eaters prefer veggie bars. As far as I know there is only one other local soaper besides me who uses lard and I don't sell.

 

[DeeAnna]

The batches I've made with 80-85% lard 15-20% coconut do seem to take longer to be at their best than my usual 50-60% lard batches. But I'm chalking that up to the 80-85% batches being essentially "one trick pony" recipes. IMO, it's not just lard -- I've seen this with coconut-salt soap and olive oil (castile) soap. Any soap that's all or mostly one particular fat seems to need a longer cure time to be at its best -- mildest to the skin, best lather, longest lived.

 

[Cat&Oak]

I was thinking about doing a line of tallow soaps for my store actually. I prefer tallow/lard over palm oil any day of the week!
Your student is very astute and her question is valid. @AliOop has outlined really well the why's as she always does ❤

 

[earlene]

Here are some Lard Soap youtube videos by soapers who have soaping channels:

A&N's Suds-N-Such & BeScented's Lard Soap:

Hilary•Lynne's Lard Soap:

Holly's Soapmaking - Kapia Mera's 3- oils soap with Lard:

HowToMakeSoap's 14% Lard soap:

Tree Marie Soapworks's 30% Lard soap:

ETA: Safety caveat: Use of glass containers for mixing lye solution or lye soap batter can lead to broken glass and is not recommended by SMF as many soapmakers have had glass spontaneously break during or after use in soapmaking. LINK

 

[Johnez]

Here are some Lard Soap youtube videos by soapers who have soaping channels:

A&N's Suds-N-Such & BeScented's Lard Soap:

Hilary•Lynne's Lard Soap:

Holly's Soapmaking - Kapia Mera's 3- oils soap with Lard:

HowToMakeSoap's 14% Lard soap:

Tree Marie Soapworks's 30% Lard soap:

That last one is a stunner.

Lenarenee, that was an interesting qualifier (not homesteaders), I searched and I swear 75% of the results were various homesteaders lol! It's funny you mentioned them because Becky's Homestead was my very first exposure to making soap at home YEARS ago and my SO thought it'd be a cool idea. Well years later I finally took it up. Anyway, YouTube's search algorithms need work because a good amount of the results didn't even have lard, many were tallow.

 

[ShirleyHailstock]

I'd remind her that there are plenty of YTubers that don't share their recipes. Those who do share are no doubt very aware of the strong bias in certain circles against animal fats. Given that YT channels live and die on views, subscribes, and likes, they are probably making a very business-minded decision not to talk about use of animal fats on their channel - even if they DO use them.

For those YTubers who also sell, they may not like the fact that lard can increase the time until the bar performs at its best. Thus, it can also be a business decision that they want a faster-curing soap so they don't have as much money tied up on their curing racks.

I don't put things on Youtube, but I use lard a lot. I like it. My soap cures a long time because I do not sell it. I find my best soap is the Pumpkin Spice one I made two years ago. It has large as the major oil, lathers quickly, is very hard, and holds its fragrance. I'm not thrilled with the color (brownish and uneven), but that's minor to the way it feels and lathers.

 

[Gaisy59]

Wow! Suds n Such hardly melted her lard before stick blending.

 

[gww]

This is pretty much how I have made my only five batches.

I do not know how to embed the video like the previous poster did.
Cheers
gww

ps I guess the site embedded it for me, how nice.

 

[AliOop]

I don't put things on Youtube, but I use lard a lot. I like it. My soap cures a long time because I do not sell it. I find my best soap is the Pumpkin Spice one I made two years ago. It has large as the major oil, lathers quickly, is very hard, and holds its fragrance. I'm not thrilled with the color (brownish and uneven), but that's minor to the way it feels and lathers.

Ohhh I love using bars that are 2+ years old! The lather is awesome, isn’t it?

 

[earlene]

This is pretty much how I have made my only five batches.

I do not know how to embed the video like the previous poster did.
Cheers
gww

ps I guess the site embedded it for me, how nice.

That is the heat transfer method, which works with softer hard oils, not so much with the very hard oils like PKO or Cocoa Butter.

But there are some very concerning red flags in that video. No PPE used or even mentioned by the soapmaker (bare hands handling lye), mixing lye solution in glass (I know Soap Queen does it, too and even 2 of soaper's videos I linked, but really not that safe a practice as evidenced by many soapers who have reported broken glass lye containers over the years), analog dial scale used for weighing is not appropriate for use in making soap (not accurate enough), no explanation of how to weigh (mass measurement versus volume measurement of) ingredients. In a pinch volume measurement does work for water, but it is not a reliable method of measure for soap if other liquids are used to replace water, so not a good habit to get into with soapmaking. Just thought I'd point that out. I should try and remember to add a safety caveat to my own posts when I link a video wherein the soapmaker uses glass to mix lye solution or soap batter, so that's my bad.

 

[Quilter99755]

No videos here either, but love my lard soaps. I usually do lard and RBO, maybe a butter and a little CO. I usually soap at least once a month although this last year when my kids were living with us I only soaped twice in the whole 10 months. But it made it so that my oldest soap is now at least a year old, although I do start using them somewhere around 3-4 months....I'm always too impatient and need to at least try them out before a year.

I've tried olive oil (it makes my skin itchy), palm oil (I'd rate it a little over "meh"), coconut is way too drying even with a high superfat and I can't seem to find a difference between shea and cocoa butter, so buy whatever is cheapest when I am out. I learned about rice bran oil here from @Dawni and really love it's addition to my lard soaps.

I'm always asking my users for feedback and not a one of them ever have a problem with lard. In fact, the only time I ever got feedback from my 16 year old grandson was a recipe with 80% lard and 20% CO. I think he liked it because it had bigger bubbles than my other lard soaps. I made a batch for his Christmas present this year...it should be okay to use by then.

 

[ShirleyHailstock]

Ohhh I love using bars that are 2+ years old! The lather is awesome, isn’t it?

Yes. it is. I would make this recipe again, using something other than the pumpkin spice as a fragrance.

 

[AliOop]

...coconut is way too drying even with a high superfat ...

Have you tried PKO instead? It is a bit milder on my skin than CO, and I've heard others say the same.

The drawbacks are that it isn't as cheap or easily available in local stores as CO, and it is so hard that it can be a pain to work with unless you get it in the flakes instead of solid form.

If you haven't tried it and want to try some, PM me and we can work out a way for you to receive a free sample.

 

[Quilter99755]

Have you tried PKO instead? It is a bit milder on my skin than CO, and I've heard others say the same.

PKO was one of my first big mistakes in soaping...I thought it was just a more convenient way to use Palm oil and used it in a batch of soap. I was doing HP soap at the time so knew that the soap was not zappy, but none the less, I panicked and immediately went to the soap calc and recalculated the recipe from palm oil to PKO. It turned out that I had less of a superfat (if I remember correctly without going to my recipe archives). I did read up on it and later used it instead of CO. I didn't notice much of a difference but then I don't put much of either in my soaps now.

I used up all of my soaping supplies at the start of last summer when I had to move them to the garage...I was too worried about them going rancid out there in the heat of the summer. Thanks for reminding me about PKO flakes. I'm about ready to buy more supplies and might just do the PKO flakes rather than CO.

Yes. it is. I would make this recipe again, using something other than the pumpkin spice as a fragrance.

Was it the FO that made the soap dark? Most of the scents that I prefer all create a dark soap, so I have just embraced the dark. I have learned to keep my batches small as a lot of times the scent doesn't come through the way I expect...or matches the bottle scent. One batch was so bad I relegated it to the garage for the winter. It was the first time I aged my soaps over 3-4 months. The bad scent had gone away by the time I brought it back inside and I was amazed at the difference in the soaps feel. Now I try to age more like a minimum of 6 months and do have some over a year. Still haven't gotten up to the two year mark! Now you make me want to hide some of my soaps so I don't use them. LOL