Pine tar recipe

[FrayGrants]

I was planning on making a soap with pine tar at 10% and was wondering what recipe you all prefer to tack it on to? I was thinking it would go nicely with a lard bar. Just let me know what general recipe you use for pine tar soap and any other additives that you like to use. Goat's milk, ground oats, clay? Finally what scent do you think would go well with it, I was thinking woodsy, but that is my default.

 

[AliOop]

Since pine tar makes the soap softer, I like to use tallow or butters (or both) to make a firmer bar. Here is one that has been popular with my soap users:

65% tallow
15% CO
15% pine tar
5% castor oil

I also add sorbitol and sodium citrate at 1% (each) of oil weight. For scents, woodsy is nice, but I think the pine tar scent also goes well with lavender, dragon's blood, and hardwood musk. Separately, not all mixed together.

 

[Zany_in_CO]

I use the optimum 20% PT in a lard-based recipe.

any other additives that you like to use. Goat's milk,

NB: If you sub goat's milk, be prepared to banish the soap to an unused room while it cures. The scent of milk and pine tar curing together can bring tears to your eyes!

There's good info in this thread:
https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/pine-tar-soap-tips-and-technique.86067/#post-920072

 

[FrayGrants]

Since pine tar makes the soap softer, I like to use tallow or butters (or both) to make a firmer bar. Here is one that has been popular with my soap users:

65% tallow
15% CO
15% pine tar
5% castor oil

I also add sorbitol and sodium citrate at 1% (each) of oil weight. For scents, woodsy is nice, but I think the pine tar scent also goes well with lavender, dragon's blood, and hardwood musk. Separately, not all mixed together.

This is all excellent advice. I will be sure to use sodium lactate and I was thinking about a blend of coconut oil and pko at 7.5% each.

 

[AliOop]

I love a 50-50 blend of CO + PKO - go for it!

With all the tallow, I haven't needed sodium lactate to make the bars any physically harder. I gel the freshly-poured loaf on a heating pad, and it is ready to unmold and cut in 18 hours max.

High-tallow and high-lard soaps do tend to have a bit more soap scum than other recipes; the sodium citrate helps with that. It is my chelator of choice due to ease of use and relatively low cost. As such, it also helps increase lather and prevent DOS. If you don't have any around, you can use citric acid instead; just be sure to adjust the lye for that.

 

[Zany_in_CO]

I love a 50-50 blend of CO + PKO - go for it!

Me too! Only I use a little more PKO than CO. Maybe 8 oz and 7 oz?

 

[FrayGrants]

Does this look about right @AliOop @Zany_in_CO
I was unsure what to put the superfat at so some insight on that would be helpful. I'm also curios as to if I added the pine tar into the recipe correctly. I tried to make a pine tar soap in the past at 20% and it came out incredibly soft, so I'm unsure if 15% is too high and I shouldn't go for 10%.

I saw a video where someone brought the oils and fragrance to emulsion first and then added melted pine tar at the end and this seemed like a good idea to ensure proper mixing and to make sure it doesn't come to trace to rapidly. One final thing is whether to insulate the soap or not as I recall reading somewhere that pine tar generates a lot of heat, so I'm thinking sorbitol is out of the question.

 

[Zing]

I used lavender and cedarwood essential oils for scent.
My default superfat is 3%.

Pine tar is tricky! I did a search on here and got some super helpful tips and my soaping session was successful. I used 15%.

Note, at the 6 week mark, I was disappointed in how soggy and slimy it was. I tried again after 8 months and really liked it, it was very hard.
Good luck to you and keep us posted.

 

[AliOop]

View attachment 74905

Does this look about right @AliOop @Zany_in_CO
I was unsure what to put the superfat at so some insight on that would be helpful. I'm also curios as to if I added the pine tar into the recipe correctly. I tried to make a pine tar soap in the past at 20% and it came out incredibly soft, so I'm unsure if 15% is too high and I shouldn't go for 10%.

I saw a video where someone brought the oils and fragrance to emulsion first and then added melted pine tar at the end and this seemed like a good idea to ensure proper mixing and to make sure it doesn't come to trace to rapidly. One final thing is whether to insulate the soap or not as I recall reading somewhere that pine tar generates a lot of heat, so I'm thinking sorbitol is out of the question.

Hi @FrayGrants, sure, that looks like it would work to me. Go for it!

Unlike honey, corn syrup, molasses, or maple syrup (all of which are heaters), neither sorbitol nor any form of granulated or powdered sugar heat up my soap batter at all. I add sorbitol to almost all of my soaps, including my pine tar soaps, without any issues at all. I've not heard of anyone else having issues with that, either. I think the confusion comes because of the other sugary ingredients mentioned, which can be problematic.

Here is my pine tar process, FWIW:

I melt all the oils together, including the pine tar, and also blend in the EO/FO at that time. Separately, I add my additional water (with dissolved sorbitol and citrate) to my MB lye solution. The water causes the MB lye solution to start heating up, so I pour that mix into the oils right away. From there, I hand-whisk only - no SB - until it is ready to pour, which is typically 3-5 minutes. Even one burst of the SB accelerates the batter too fast for my liking!

 

[Zing]

Yeah, that was weird to NOT use the stick blender! Fascinating to get a trace after hand stirring!

 

[FrayGrants]

Well it turned out fairly interesting. It began to trace quite rapidly, but mainly on the bottom of the container that I mixed it in as the lye solution settled to the bottom. I did my best to incorporate it as much as possible, but it turned out like a pouring plop where parts of it were fluid and others were more solid. It created a really cool looking pattern and a nice rustic look that I have always enjoyed and wanted to achieve, I just hope everything is evenly mixed.

I might try adding warmed pine tar to emulsified soap batter at the end next time, but that depends solely on the performance of this batch because I really do enjoy the appearance. The photo doesn’t quite do it justice to how interesting it looks, plus my last PT soap turned out very soft and never really hardened, but this one seems much better.

 

[Ford]

"I just hope everything is evenly mixed." you can tell from the pic it is not. Batter should be same trace, through out. Whether light, medium or heavy. This should be ok, but zap test for sure. To get a good rustic look. Use a heavy trace. Plop drop heavy.

The one that got away.