Tallow Soap Recommendations

[bookworm42]

I'm planning on making some soap with tallow and I need some advice on how much to use. I've never used tallow so I'm not sure how it feels in soap. I know it's supposed to be more "cleansing" than lard but that's about it. I'm happy to play around but figured I'd ask all you lovely people what your recommendations are.

My current fav recipe is
15% SAO/OO/AO
5% Castor oil
10% coconut oil
65% lard
5% soy wax (have a lot that I'm slowly trying to use up)

 

[MrsZ]

I made one with:
60% tallow
20% sweet almond oil
10% coconut oil
5% Shea butter
5% castor oil

It was very nice. I like my soaps to be pretty low in the "cleansing" value on Soapcalc. It was gentle, but bubblier than my normal lard based bars. Everyone who tried it liked it.

I have tallow coming in and a couple new formulations I can't wait to try. I hope you love your tallow soaps!

 

[dibbles]

I don't always have tallow, but I like it in soap. I do think it speeds trace a little so I use it in combination with lard - up to 20% - lard and tallow in combination to equal 40-60%.

 

[Mobjack Bay]

With a well-behaved fragrance, this tallow recipe is very slow to trace for me. The tallow I use is from Soapers Choice:

43% tallow
21% high oleic sunflower oil
17% rice bran oil
14% coconut oil
5% castor oil

The base is almost white with a slight warm tint.

To avoid false trace, which seems to be common with tallow-based recipes, I aim to start with the batter at 105 F when I use this recipe.

This next recipe is also very slow for me and I would aim to start at 95 F:

26% tallow
25% lard
20% coconut oil
18% high oleic sunflower oil
8% rice bran oil
3% castor oil

ETA: the starting batter temps I mentioned are for my typical starting batch sizes of 1000 -1500 g of fats/oils.
ETA2: I make these recipes using 40% lye concentration.

 

[ackosel]

This summer, our butcher GAVE me 7 garbage bags full of beef leaf fat. I've rendered, purified and canned most of it. I saw someone in our area selling canned grass-fed beef tallow for $32 a quart! Anyway, I now have about 40 quarts worth of free, purified tallow, so formulated a recipe that's heavy on tallow.

40% tallow
25% lard
20% olive oil
15% coconut oil

2% superfat
30-33% lye concentration, depending on the design I'm attempting.
100% goat milk as water replacement.
I add 1 tsp of sugar syrup per pound of oil.

This recipe seems to come to trace at a reasonable speed, and to remain fluid for a decent amount of time. Once it starts to thicken though, it gets too thick to work with pretty quickly.

My tallow tends to want to start solidifying with cool temperatures, so I like to leave the oils rather warm, around 110°-120°. I first started with goat tallow, and that began solidifying at 125°, so I'm a little gun-shy of letting tallow get "too" cool.

I sent a box of soap to the butcher to thank him for all that tallow. He texted me yesterday to say that he really likes the soap, and that he has more tallow for me any time I want it! What a nice guy!

 

[bookworm42]

Thanks everyone! I really appreciate it!
I love having recipes to start with. The first soap I formulated was before I found this forum and while nice the next iteration was better due to advice from here. So I like to check here before running wild on my own.
You have given me a great place to start. Now to pick a recipe... Eeny, meenie, miney, moe... I need more soap it is so

 

[Encablossa]

I made a soap with 25% coconut oil, 5% castor, and 70% tallow. It also had citric acid and sugar.

I very much liked it, it had a nice lather and lasts for a very long time.

 

[Ladka]

I love tallow soap so much so that I even make pure tallow soap. As it seemed a bit too hard I replaced 10 % of NaOH with KOH, added sugar for some bubbles, sometimes a low percentage of castor oil, and some vinegar. It takes its time to come to trace and also gives me much time to play with colours and patterns. The batter is pure white and lends itself perfectly to any colouration a passionate soaper may fancy.
Everybody likes it: it is mild on the skin, lathers well, cleans fine, and lasts very long (very appropriate for families with small children too).