A Lard Soap Recipe

 

 

Hello! Today I thought I would share one of my cold process soap recipes. I am not including details of the soap-making method as there are many books and websites out there that go through all the steps, and obviously the all-important safety requirements when working with sodium hydroxide/lye. This is just the recipe and assumes competency in cold process soap making!

 

Lard makes a beautiful, firm, white soap and by adding castor oil you can boost the bubbly lather level. My recipe has 4% castor oil added (it's generally used at 8% or below to avoid tackiness). This isn't a soap that you would want to leave completely unscented, so adding your choice of essential oils is a good idea. For the soap above, I added a combination of Cedarwood, Basil and Bergamot essential oils.

 

 

 

I have found that this is a useful recipe for working with detailed moulds or making embeds. The picture above is a 'Double Happiness' mould - a Chinese symbol of marriage with kissing mandarin ducks!

 

 

 

Here is the soap after the cut, with another mould and some Christmas tree embeds!

 

The recipe makes 750g of soap, but I have also included percentages if you wish to resize your batch. If you do, please do ensure that you re-check your quantities using a lye calculator! Please note that this soap is superfatted at 5%.

 

Lard (pig tallow) 250g (33.33%)

Rice Bran oil 200g (26.67%)

Coconut oil 160g (21.33%)

Olive oil 110g (14.67%)

Castor oil 30g (4%)

 

285g water (distilled or spring)

104g sodium hydroxide

 

5g each of Cedarwood, Basil and Bergamot essential oils, added at trace (2%).

 

 

 

I hope that you enjoy this recipe! It is intended for personal use and gift-giving only, as it is not safety-assessed for sale. If you do make this soap, I would be delighted to hear your comments on it!