severly limited ingrediants for soap

[svanhild-anita]

i have been making soap for 4 years now. for Family and friends and for me. since the begining i have been asked if its posible to make good soap with local ingredients. the problem is that i live in norway and local meens that im Limited to tallow and rapeseed oil, other animal fat might also be posible, i can also grow most one year Herbs and flowers in my garden, and i can use goatsmilk and yoghurt.

so can i make good soap With only this ingrediants? well i so need help if im to pull this of

 

[DeeAnna]

Here is an idea --

Try 70-80% tallow and 20-30% rapeseed.
Set the lye concentration to 33%.
Set the superfat to 3% to 5%. I would use 3% if I was making the soap.

To help increase the lather of this soap, use locally-made beer instead of water.
Or add 1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon of plain white sugar per 500 grams of fat.
I personally would not use both, but I think some soap makers do.

 

[svanhild-anita]

beer...hmmm

my hubby brews beer so i guess it cant get more local than made here on the farm. i will defenetly have a look at that idea

 

[MorpheusPA]

Even a near-100% tallow or 100% tallow soap is a great soap; I find tallow to be a well-balanced oil in and of itself! But anything up to thirty percent rapeseed certainly is also going to be a very nice soap--with higher conditioning than tallow alone!

As DeeAnna noted, sugar or honey at 1 tsp per pound oils will help enhance lather, or replace water with milk or beer, or part of the water with fruit puree or fruit juice. It can help give some scent to your soap as well, but regrettably, the color of puree tends to go kind of brown.

 

[Zany_in_CO]

... can i make good soap With only this ingrediants? well i so need help if im to pull this of

As you already know, since you've been making soap for the past 4 years, you can make soap using only the ingredients you listed. Good for you! DeeAnna suggested a recipe that also allows you to try various additives that are readily available. But you may want to do a little reading, here and on the net, to see if you can find affordable ingredients to add to what you already have.

This thread has some helpful links:
http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=16100

If you google "soapmaking oils available in Norway" you may be able to find sources to buy the oils you need. Here are a few links:

This site says all their oils are sourced locally.
http://andersnaturalsoap.com/product.php?i=40&t=32

https://yagerandmay.com/

https://neven-body-care.com/pages/about-us

 

[SherylG]

I have made 100% tallow soap before, a few times. It was wonderful and very hard, lasting a long time.

You can use the goats milk too! I replace 1/3 of the liquid with goats milk and also add 2 teaspoons sugar per pound for more lather in all my soaps. Dissolve the sugar in the hot lye water and add the goats milk just before trace instead of using it directly with the lye.

Don't add the herbs themselves as they will just shrivel up into hard little brown pieces, but you can infuse them into the warm rapeseed oil for a few days or weeks, then strain well through coffee filter. (Warm the oil for faster infusing.) It won't scent or colour the soap unfortunately, but the herbal properties will still be there.

 

[toxikon]

It won't scent or colour the soap unfortunately, but the herbal properties will still be there.

Unfortunately that's not true, the lye will destroy whatever herbal properties might have been in the infusion. With hot process, you COULD superfat with the infused oil to retain some of the qualities - although with such a small amount and soap being a wash-off product, it's not really going to provide anything beneficial (aside from label appeal).

Calendula petals are a nice addition to soap as they retain their vibrant yellow colour! They can be used for infusions or added directly to the batter.

 

[svanhild-anita]

thank you al

iwe been making soap alone, making ewery mistake, not having anyone to lean on for experience and help so im so happy to have joined this comunity.

i sertanly have a lot to think about now, and so many ideas, hubby is werry exited about beer soap. im exited about making soap With werry local ingredients so im of to ask my cattle raising neighbour about tallow and im defenetly saving the lard from Our pigs next time we butcher. a bit disapointed about Herbs though because i was thinking about making my own soap-herbgarden. anyway i have so mutch New inspiration now and i think it might be a soapy Winter here on the farm

about sugar, can i substitute it With honey?

about beer in soap, what is it about beer that makes the soap lather more?

about Herbs. if i infuse oil With the Herbs and ad it at trace it still will just disapeer?

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

Adding at trace in cold process doesn't protect things from the lye. The lye is still very active for about 48 times longer than the time that you saved that special ingredient for. What I mean is, you add your lye to your oils and (generally speaking) you reach trace within 30 minutes and add your preciousness. The saponification process takes around 24 hours, during which the lye is still very active.

 

[BrewerGeorge]

...
about beer in soap, what is it about beer that makes the soap lather more?
...?

Polysaccharides are too big for yeast to eat and are left over in beer, they are in between sugars (mono- and di-saccharides) and starches in size.

 

[DeeAnna]

Yes you can use honey rather than sugar, but the honey may make your soap darker. If you want a light colored soap, sugar will be better. If that is not important, then either one is fine.