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Robbie D

New Member
Joined
Nov 26, 2019
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Location
Oklahoma
Greetings! I am in OK and totally new to soap making. I have tons of rendered lard and want to use it to make soap. I have no idea what I am doing, and despite reading blogs, watching videos and listening to a seasoned goat soap maker, I still feel clueless! I am here for help.

I made one batch and it didn’t go so well. Luckily, I found this forum and someone advised me to rebatch the botched chemistry experiment of my first batch. It seemed to work.

I need a good recipe. I don’t know what oils to blend with the lard for a good bar. And, to be honest, the lye calculator confuses me.

My guy made soap before using a cold process and no lard.

Thanks for reading!
 
Greetings! I am in OK and totally new to soap making. I have tons of rendered lard and want to use it to make soap. I have no idea what I am doing, and despite reading blogs, watching videos and listening to a seasoned goat soap maker, I still feel clueless! I am here for help.

I made one batch and it didn’t go so well. Luckily, I found this forum and someone advised me to rebatch the botched chemistry experiment of my first batch. It seemed to work.

I need a good recipe. I don’t know what oils to blend with the lard for a good bar. And, to be honest, the lye calculator confuses me.

My guy made soap before using a cold process and no lard.

Thanks for reading!

Welcome. I have never used lard, but out of curiosity, I substituted lard for palm oil in my recipe and my numbers (fatty acids) were within a single digit so it seems that any recipe using palm oil would be okay. Just run it through a lye calculator.
 
Thank you. Now my question is percentages of fats. Is there any reason why certain oils are certain percentages? I know they do different things i.e. castor oil makes it lather. But is there any formula?
 
Welcome, Robbie!


Thank you. Now my question is percentages of fats. Is there any reason why certain oils are certain percentages? I know they do different things i.e. castor oil makes it lather. But is there any formula?

Yes, there is a reason why certain oils are certain percentages.....lots of reasons actually......but the tricky part is that they all differ from person to person based on their skin-type and/or personal likes/dislikes...... and for the same reasons there are lots and lots of formulas! :) lol The fun part of soaping- and the beauty of it- is that you can experiment and come up with a formula (or several different formulas) tailored to your own likes.

What you need to do is read up on some basics of what certain oils bring to a soap formula. Davis Fisher has some good info about that here: https://www.thesprucecrafts.com/qualities-of-soap-making-oils-517120

He also has some good basic info on creating your own basic formulas here: https://www.thesprucecrafts.com/create-a-basic-soap-recipe-516796

And our forum is loaded with lots of such info, too.....and experienced folks that are happy to share their wisdom, so don't be afraid to ask! :)



IrishLass :)
 
Robbie, here is a sample recipe. You can tweak it to fit the oils you have on hand. Just be sure to run it through SoapCalc or another good lye calculator.

8% Castor Oil
22% Coconut Oil
38% Lard
32% Olive Oil
 
Greetings! I am in OK and totally new to soap making. I have tons of rendered lard and want to use it to make soap. I have no idea what I am doing, and despite reading blogs, watching videos and listening to a seasoned goat soap maker, I still feel clueless! I am here for help.

I made one batch and it didn’t go so well. Luckily, I found this forum and someone advised me to rebatch the botched chemistry experiment of my first batch. It seemed to work.

I need a good recipe. I don’t know what oils to blend with the lard for a good bar. And, to be honest, the lye calculator confuses me.

My guy made soap before using a cold process and no lard.

Thanks for reading!


Robbie, Welcome to SMF! It's good to have you. I drive through OK fairly often as it's on the way from my house to Texas. (However I am currently staying in Texas for an extended period while my granddaughter finishes HS here, then I'll head back home after her graduation.)

Anyway, regarding soaping with lard, there are several threads here at SMF that address specifics of why so many soapers (I am not one of them, but there are many) love soap made with lard and the why's and wherefores, etc. Many include their favorite lard recipes. Some even like a 100% lard recipe (with no other oils in the soap.) So you really don't even have to add other oils in the mix if you don't want. In fact, I highly recommend experimenting at least once making a single oil soap and keeping it to compare to the other recipes you test out. It can be a fun learning tool.

Here are a few links about lard soap recipes:
https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/slow-tracing-recipe-with-lard-as-majority-oil.50524/
https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/lard-recipes.43677/
https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/wanted-favorite-lard-soap-recipe.26957/
https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/cold-process-soap-using-lard.63009/
https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/lard-tallow-soaps.71112/
https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/so-i-wanna-try-a-lard-recipe.50784/

Have fun, but also make sure you always use a soap/lye calculator to make sure the formula you want to try is accurate for the amount of lye you are going to use. Often errors are made while typing and it happens on the internet just as much as it does on the printed page.
 

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