Making soap with lard

Obviously rendering pig fat is a fascinating subject judging by the number of comments on my last post :-) Well....here is what I did with some of the end product and I am reasonably happy with my first lard 'experiment' and learned something new during the process. 

As mentioned in previous posts I had read the new eBook Make Your Own Natural Soap by Farmer Liz from Eight Acres and was keen to use the lard in a batch of soap. I was also very naughty and purchased this gorgeous soap mould which I really didn't need but couldn't resist it and was busting to use it.

I didn't want to start off my lard soap experiments with 100% lard so added olive oil and coconut oil (copha) as well. I decided to try the new clays I have bought so once I had the lye added to the oils/lard and brought it to a light trace which I must say did take a lot longer than usual as normally my soap gets to trace within a minute or so when using the stick blender. 

Then I divided the mixture into two and had prepared some red clay and also yellow clay as I was thinking I might end up with a reddish colour in one batch and a light yellow in another. In the past I hadn't used enough clay to get much colour so prior to starting I used a heaped teaspoon of each in separate containers and added some of the 500g oils. I then used a little milk frother which I bought from the $2 shop and mixed it up well with the oils before becoming occupied with the rest of the process. 

However when it came time to add the red clay it was so gluggy that it was difficult to get it out of the container so in the end I left half of it behind which was just as well as it turned out to be a lot redder than I expected so then there was a bit of panic as I tried to incorporate it into the oil and lard mixture before going to a thick trace. 

Finally I was able to pour it into the moulds and then realised that I had to wash the red clay off the stick blender which was coated in the stuff and was hard to wash off. Then coming back to the yellow clay which fortunately hadn't turned out to be so gluggy I added it to the mixture and then remembered I had forgotten to add the essential oils before dividing it into two so all of the cream soaps ended up having all the scent. Oh well! I am not 21 anymore and can't remember everything I have to :-)

As I have a penchant for taking my soap out of the moulds before they are really hard enough to come out I was determined to wait for a couple of days to do that. However, I just had a little 'fiddle' the next day and took out the one in the photo with the two colours which was what was left over in the jugs and it came out of the mould perfectly. So there was no stopping me then and the rest of the red roses were unmoulded and unfortunately had a few air bubbles even though I had tried to avoid that but I left the white soap for another few hours then had a peek at one 'flower'. Well I was really chuffed that it came out perfectly too so then they were all unmoulded and I resisted the urge to touch them again as often my fingernails get caught on the soap and mark it. 

Obviously more yellow clay would be needed to achieve an actual yellow colour and I am not sure I will use the red clay again as I think it would be better used in a mask and hopefully one wouldn't end up with a red face. LOL! Knowing me I will probably try though and just use a small amount.

Not wanting the soap to discolour I didn't use fragrance oils but had some essential oils which really needed to be used up and these were rosemary and lemon which probably aren't a good combination but it does smell okay. I don't buy essential oils anymore as they are very expensive and a little bottle can cost up to $20 and even that isn't enough for a batch of soap. I did buy mine on special at a health food shop but they are cheaper to buy from a soap supplier like Aussie Soap Supplies although you also have to factor in the cost of postage.

Here is the recipe if anyone is interested. I always like to keep a record of what recipe I have used as you can't tell till you use a soap what it is going to feel like on the skin. Having a record is really helpful.  I used the SoapCalc calculator for working out how much water and lye to use. If I make this again I will try the Brambleberry lye calculator and see if there is any difference. 

Lard Soap with Olive Oil and Coconut Oil

500g Lard
250g Coconut Oil (I used copha)
250g Olive Oil
143g Caustic Soda
380g Water
30g   Rosemary and Lemon Essential Oils
1t      Red Clay (1 heaped teaspoon was much too much for 1/2 the batch)
1t      Yellow Clay (1 heaped teaspoon was much too little for 1/2 the batch)

Next time I will get the amount of clays right. Of course I will!!!!!