First Tallow Soap

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SuzieOz

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Well we did it, my mum and I. My mother, determined as she is, has been tirelessly scouring shops, supermarkets and butchers for tallow for a couple of weeks now and thankfully some SMF Aussie soapers sent us in search of Supafry from Coles. Yay, we found it!

Mum, bless her, bought 3 kilos of it and announced she was making a "big batch" of soap and she wanted to make it just like she used to 40 years ago, (although she happily swapped the wooden stick for a blender).

"Where's your apron, Mum? And your goggles and gloves?" I asked as she hauled two buckets out to the back garden. "I know what I'm doing, I've made heaps of these!" she retorted. Thankfully I arrived just in time to save her from pouring a bucket of water straight into a bucket of lye :shock:

Anyway, we took turns stick blending and despite being a big batch it didn't take too long. We poured it straight into a Tupperwear container without lining it as Mum assured me that's how she used to do it and it would pop out easily. Which it did!

It went through a very hot gel and was ready to unmould less than 24 hours later - in fact we could have unmoulded sooner as it was very hard. We couldn't stop ooohing and aaahing over it - I can't express how excited I am about this soap!

We chopped it up and vegie-peeled the sides a bit and it looks ... rustically beautiful!

Our 100% Tallow, no fragrance or colour, soap:

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Beautiful! I too used to make it that way 35 years ago!!! I just made tallow soap on March 19, 2016 so it is now curing. I hope to post pictures of it tomorrow. tallow makes such a nice hard bar. I did color it & scent my recent batch. Thanks for sharing...
 
Well done on the soap and the lye save! It looks creamy and beautiful. You can't go wrong with lavender and/or lemongrass EO's as they both play nicely and are liked by most people. Peppermint or spearmint are also fan favorites. Unless of course you hate lavender or lemongrass or mint....:lol:
 
I love all those scents Krista - we were thinking either Lavender or Rose, Lavender is more unisex so maybe that.

It certainly was lovely to do something special like that with my mother, she's already excited to get onto the next project! :)
 
Beautiful! I am eager to try tallow soap! I need to render the fat so I haven't done it yet. I want to do it in the crock pot outside or in the garage so it doesn't smell up my house.
 
You are absolutely right---it looks "rustically beautiful!" 100% tallow was my first soap, and it too drew me into the wonderful world of soap-making. I now use tallow in place of palm oil in any recipe that calls for PO (always run it back thru the lye calculator, of course), and it has never let me down. I initially rendered over 50 pounds of it, and thought I would never find a use for all to it, but not so. You and your mom won't regret the large purchase.
 
Tallow is awesome and I use it in all my soaps (except vegan soaps) with the same or a bit higher percentage of lard;)) creamy and bubbly. I love your soaps. I make so many soaps with some colors, I love just white :))
 
Good to hear you found some and that you had fun making the soaps. If you're not opposed to FOs at all I get mine from either Aussie candle supplies or Natural candle supplies. They are well priced and smell awesome. :D
 
Good to hear you found some and that you had fun making the soaps. If you're not opposed to FOs at all I get mine from either Aussie candle supplies or Natural candle supplies. They are well priced and smell awesome. :D

Thanks Dills :)
Does it still have that beef smell? Love that smell. :)

I don't think so ... but I guess I'll know when I've washed with it. I've never used tallow soap to wash with before. Looking forward to it :D
 
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