Using lard, oily soap result

[kevenaeakin]

Everyone is saying their piece and I am glad because thats what a forum is about.

However, props to the new soapers for having the courage to ask questions, even if they don't ask them the right way or inadvertently misread tone.

Its brave to put yourself out there and ask a question that might be dumb or seem dumb. It's super easy to become self conscious with so many experienced and knowledgeable soapers.

As a soaper who is starting to (perhaps wrongly) think that she should sit at the big kids table I really appreciate these questions. I NEVER use lard and had been sorta maybe considering trying it again since people rave about it and I've seen a few lards treated in order to make them unscented. I would have never known about some of the ins and outs of working with lard had the question not been asked.

So, long story short, thank you knowledgeable soapers.. for your knowledge and willingness to share and thank you super newbie soapers for having the stones to ask questions!

Now, let me cut my 5th failed clamshell swirl soap.

You're very Brave I haven't even tried it once

 

[rdc1978]

You're very Brave I haven't even tried it once

LOL, there is a fine line between bravery and insanity. I feel closer to that line every time I try to do this method!

 

[SoapHobbyJT]

Hi y'all! I have a question. I've made around 7 batches and I've been using tallow for around 60-90% of my soaps. Most of them were hard to very hard and everything was great. Then. Duh duh duh. I started using lard and I find that my soaps are really oily when I unmold and cut them. Is it normal? Should I have smaller lye discount? Does the oiliness worsen? I'd like to keep going with lard but I feel a bit sad right now. Thanks!

I have a question. What do you mean by a lye discount? Did you mean a water discount?

Did you use a soap calculator to make sure the amount of lye was correct? Were you using relatively pure lye or something else? Did you add any additives?

What lard did you use? Is it pure lard? Or does it have other ingredients in it?

Without these sorts of details, it's really hard to say what could be the cause of the oiliness. I've messed up a batch or two with a little too much olive oil and false trace causing my soap to be improperly emulsified, so it wound up being oily and seeping oil for a good week (And this soap recipe was the exact same one I'd used twice before minus the accidental issue with the excess olive oil when mixing colorants and false trace).

 

[lenarenee]

Hi y'all! I have a question. I've made around 7 batches and I've been using tallow for around 60-90% of my soaps. Most of them were hard to very hard and everything was great. Then. Duh duh duh. I started using lard and I find that my soaps are really oily when I unmold and cut them. Is it normal? Should I have smaller lye discount? Does the oiliness worsen? I'd like to keep going with lard but I feel a bit sad right now. Thanks!

Soaps high in lard stay fluid much longer than many other oils - tallow included. High lard soaps harden more slowly. Sometimes, depending on the fragrance I use, my 60% lard soaps take a week or more to unmold....and longer before they can be cut.

So, this makes me wonder if what you interpret as "oily" is actually just the naturally slower pace at which a high lard soap hardens up.

Also, a high tallow also does make a very "crisp" and hard bar of soap.

 

[cmzaha]

I have a question. What do you mean by a lye discount? Did you mean a water discount?

Did you use a soap calculator to make sure the amount of lye was correct? Were you using relatively pure lye or something else? Did you add any additives?

What lard did you use? Is it pure lard? Or does it have other ingredients in it?

Without these sorts of details, it's really hard to say what could be the cause of the oiliness. I've messed up a batch or two with a little too much olive oil and false trace causing my soap to be improperly emulsified, so it wound up being oily and seeping oil for a good week (And this soap recipe was the exact same one I'd used twice before minus the accidental issue with the excess olive oil when mixing colorants and false trace).

All store-bought lard will have additives such as BHT to preserve flavor and deter rancidity. Home rendered will not have additives and the additives do not make a difference in making soap. False trace really does not happen when using OO, it happens when using hard oils such as lard, tallow, palm, soy wax, and butters when soaping too cool. What happens to the hard oils, if the lye solution is room temp or cooler will cool down the oils too fast causing them to start to solidify or thicken sooner than normal. When this happens you just have to get a spoon and stir until your lye solution starts reacting and the oils heat up, you will notice a color change in the batter and it will start thinning out, then just proceed as normal.

Just an FYI, I asked many dumb questions, although no question is a "dumb" question, here and in The Dish forum when I started. I asked because I wanted to learn not to be babied. When the Dish was around some of the gals would tell you to put your "Big Girl Panties On". Actually, when I first started making soap I was not a member of any forum so I learned by the seat of my pants.

 

[Melysg25]

All store-bought lard will have additives such as BHT to preserve flavor and deter rancidity. Home rendered will not have additives and the additives do not make a difference in making soap. False trace really does not happen when using OO, it happens when using hard oils such as lard, tallow, palm, soy wax, and butters when soaping too cool. What happens to the hard oils, if the lye solution is room temp or cooler will cool down the oils too fast causing them to start to solidify or thicken sooner than normal. When this happens you just have to get a spoon and stir until your lye solution starts reacting and the oils heat up, you will notice a color change in the batter and it will start thinning out, then just proceed as normal.

Just an FYI, I asked many dumb questions, although no question is a "dumb" question, here and in The Dish forum when I started. I asked because I wanted to learn not to be babied. When the Dish was around some of the gals would tell you to put your "Big Girl Panties On". Actually, when I first started making soap I was not a member of any forum so I learned by the seat of my pants.

Is the dish forum over? I actually remember them I briefly looked it over over 6-7 yrs ago I think.

 

[SoapHobbyJT]

All store-bought lard will have additives such as BHT to preserve flavor and deter rancidity. Home rendered will not have additives and the additives do not make a difference in making soap. False trace really does not happen when using OO, it happens when using hard oils such as lard, tallow, palm, soy wax, and butters when soaping too cool. What happens to the hard oils, if the lye solution is room temp or cooler will cool down the oils too fast causing them to start to solidify or thicken sooner than normal. When this happens you just have to get a spoon and stir until your lye solution starts reacting and the oils heat up, you will notice a color change in the batter and it will start thinning out, then just proceed as normal.

Oh sorry, it looks like I was unclear. I did not mean the OO caused the issue with false trace. I meant that it was a combination of 2 issues that caused me to have some issues with that batch. I used palm kernel oil, no-stir palm oil, and coconut oil as well making up about 58% of my oils and soaped in winter on a much colder day than my previous attempts.

Since I was unaware of false trace at that time, I did not continue mixing once it started to thicken up, and simply started mixing in micas and olive oil and pouring my soap batter into my mold. I figured out the false trace issue the day after I made that batch because I'd wondered about the extra oil and how quickly the batter had thickened up that day. If I recall correctly, the surface temperature of my batter had already dropped below 80F (26.67C) at that point in time.

I had not heard of false trace at that point but thought something was weird with how fast things were cooling and tracing and the slightly grainy texture of my soap. The room temperature was in the 60s (Fahrenheit this is roughly around 15-20C) and my usual attempts were made in a room that was about 10F or ~4C higher.

The olive oil issue, is because of things tracing faster than planned, I went for coloring as quick as possible (yet another mistake) and accidentally poured too much olive oil into my micas. At that point I was just trying to be as fast as possible, and hoping luck could save this batch. Then I oven processed it.

It came out okay, eventually. But I nearly wrote it off entirely and threw it out.

As for why I thought the lard's source might be part of it:

I've seen store-bought lards that have citric acid in them. Based upon what I've read, I figured that citric acid would typically react with NaOH and form sodium citrate which can use up some of the lye as well as potentially skew some other additives. Unfortunately, I also couldn't say how much citric acid is added to the lard and if there would be a significant enough amount to affect anything.

 

[lenarenee]

Is the dish forum over? I actually remember them I briefly looked it over over 6-7 yrs ago I think.

Yes, long gone and taken down. A shame; there was tons of excellent information, decades of experience on that site.

 

[SPowers]

My main soap has a high percentage of lard and Ive never had a problem with oiliness. Once you've posted more information I'm sure it will be fairly obvious what is wrong.