Hi all, just thought I’d share my experience of my latest batch of soap, and a few insights I had. Here’s the recipe:
Beef tallow- 226g 50%
Olive oil- 113g 25%
Coconut oil- 95g 21%
Castor oil- 18g 4%
Distilled water- 130g
Lye- NaOH- 64g
(Lye concentration 33%)
Took forever to trace- I wanted a thin trace because I wanted to try a drop swirl. A lot of hand stirring and I was 95% sure it traced but I was worried it hadn’t. Seems to have performed just fine in the mold, though (hardened up over 12 hours but still softer than I expected because I’ve heard beef tallow makes hard soap.) I was able to get my oil and lye close to the same temp by putting lye water in the fridge and wrapping a towel around the oil. I think an ice bath for each and insulation (a towel) could let me speed up/slow down the cooling of the two, respectively. Soap did not seem to gel. I’m not sure what kind of beef fat it was, the butcher just handed me a bag (it was my first time asking and they were really busy- can’t beat free though!) But I was happy with how the drop swirl came out, think it looks wispy like clouds or maybe fire. No fragrance because I’m still trying to get the basics down, but maybe a fragrance to speed up trace may have been helpful! There’s a black spot on my camera permanently just FYI. Cheers happy soaping.
Beef tallow- 226g 50%
Olive oil- 113g 25%
Coconut oil- 95g 21%
Castor oil- 18g 4%
Distilled water- 130g
Lye- NaOH- 64g
(Lye concentration 33%)
Took forever to trace- I wanted a thin trace because I wanted to try a drop swirl. A lot of hand stirring and I was 95% sure it traced but I was worried it hadn’t. Seems to have performed just fine in the mold, though (hardened up over 12 hours but still softer than I expected because I’ve heard beef tallow makes hard soap.) I was able to get my oil and lye close to the same temp by putting lye water in the fridge and wrapping a towel around the oil. I think an ice bath for each and insulation (a towel) could let me speed up/slow down the cooling of the two, respectively. Soap did not seem to gel. I’m not sure what kind of beef fat it was, the butcher just handed me a bag (it was my first time asking and they were really busy- can’t beat free though!) But I was happy with how the drop swirl came out, think it looks wispy like clouds or maybe fire. No fragrance because I’m still trying to get the basics down, but maybe a fragrance to speed up trace may have been helpful! There’s a black spot on my camera permanently just FYI. Cheers happy soaping.