# Basic Soap Recipe w/o Lard



## MF-Alpines (Mar 29, 2010)

Can someone post a basic soap recipe, like the Walmart recipe, but without the use of lard (or tallow)? Please include weights or percentages. This would be very helpful. Thank you.


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## Anita Martin (Dec 26, 2007)

Hi Cindy,
Most people don't want to give away their key recipes, myself included, but what I've done is taken the basic walmart recipe and cut the out the lard and just replaced most of it with coconut oil, then added some other hard oils like shea, palm, etc. For the soft oil, I use the same percentages, just about, in my recipe, but replaced the sunflower with cheaper oils, like vegetable, canola, add castor, walnut, etc. 

You can also replace the lard with vegetable shortening. Just check out the recipe on your lye calculator before soaping. 

Palm is probably the most commonly used lard replacement and works very well, and I've used it many times...I just decided to avoid it at the moment because you do have those folks who won't use anything with palm oil for environmental reasons....I'm not even sure what those reasons are!

You can sub out just about any oil for any oil as long as you check your lye calculator. But if you choose to use a soft oil to replace a hard oil, your soap will probably be softer and take longer to cure, at least the ones I made were.


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## MF-Alpines (Mar 29, 2010)

Thanks, Anita. That was exactly what I was looking for.


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## Caprine Beings (Sep 19, 2008)

Make sure that when using the SoapCalc and the Lye calc you put Vege is classified as soybean oil. Mine is the 27.??% hydrogenated. Safflower is also a hardener.
Tam


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## Lynn_Theesfeld (Feb 21, 2010)

you can always google handmade soap recipes and come up with a bunch-  
Happy hunting,
Lynn


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

How about just putting up the oils you want to use, or can find, and then we can help you formulate a recipe? Shortening is only hydrogenated soybean oil, so just buy walmarts cheapo veggy oil it is 100% soybean oil for much cheaper and no melting. Walmart also carries coconut oil and olive and saflower. But.....replacing butters like lard with oils is not going to be close to the quality of the Walmart recipe.

Someone share the url for the soap calculator site. Put in the Walmart recipe....write down the percentages of hardness, moisturising etc....and then start subbing out the lard for other oils, you will see quickly that all oils are not created equal. Vicki


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## Fly to the Moon (Sep 11, 2010)

Vicki McGaugh Tx Nubians said:


> Someone share the url for the soap calculator site. Put in the Walmart recipe....write down the percentages of hardness, moisturising etc....and then start subbing out the lard for other oils, you will see quickly that all oils are not created equal. Vicki


http://www.soapcalc.net/calc/SoapCalcWP.asp

This is pretty cool! don't know how they make that much work available for free.


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

Thanks Ann Marie!


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## Aja-Sammati (Oct 26, 2007)

The palm oil controversy is that rain forest habitat, specifically that of orangutans, is being cut down to plant palm plantations to produce the oil. In some countries, they are even cutting down protected forests because the governmentsaren't strong enough to stop them.

Shortening doesn't add the hardness to a bar that palm of butters will, it is still just soybean oil (or in some cases, soybean/cottonseed oil).

I buy organic palm from soaperschoice.com (Columbus Foods). It is sustainably sourced- meaning no habitat destruction. A lot of this kind of pal comes from SOuth America...so no orangutans were endangered  Oragnic palm oil is still MUCH cheaper than cocoa, mango, or shea butters.


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## MF-Alpines (Mar 29, 2010)

Thanks, everyone. I'll have to see what oils I bought. I know I bought the sustainable PO. I have Apricot Kernel Oil, CO, OO. I haven't looked at my large purchase in a while because I am STILL WAITING for my molds from Upland Soap Factory.

LOL. I've used the soapcalc, but that is too much work!  My thought was why reinvent the wheel when I'm sure you all make some soaps with no lard. I'll get working on it.

On another note, that soapcalc is hard to use for a beginner. I really like thesage calc, but that only works if you already know how much of each fat/oil you are putting in. Or am I missing something?

Thanks, everyone.


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## adillenal (Feb 6, 2009)

Too much work? That is the way we learn. I have worked on my soap formulas for years and still continue to tweak them. And I use soapcalc and find it very easy to use. Maybe not the very first time, but I don't remember thinking it was hard. 

And what is on paper may not be what you think the finished product should or willl be. That comes from making test batch after tet batch until you get what you want in a soap. 

happy formulating.


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## Tallabred (Jun 12, 2008)

I gave up on getting molds from kelsie or upland. I purchased the commercial 9x13 baking pan with straight sides from walmart for $10. I line them with freezer paper and they are good to go. I get 16 bars as thick as I want them to be. I ALWAYS use soap calc. What part of it do you think is hard?


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## Caprine Beings (Sep 19, 2008)

I use soapcalc AND the lyecalc. The lye calc will give me a different reading everytime, always lower, so I go by that one. I decided to try the soapcalc's lye %, to me its lye heavy. 
Tam


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## Kalne (Oct 25, 2007)

Where is the lyecalc that you use? You can set the superfat to just what you want on soapcalc and that lowers the lye amount. It's not that it's lye heavy, it's just superfatted differently and that's up to you to change or leave as is.


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## Tallabred (Jun 12, 2008)

The more goat milk that I use, per bar, the lower I have to set the superfat. I love that adjustment. At the default I have never had lye heavy soap - only oil heavy - lol.


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## MF-Alpines (Mar 29, 2010)

That's part of my problem. There are so many fields to enter data into, and being a beginner, I don't know what quantities should be used. I realize they differ depending upon oils used and I can play with that, but how much should I put in for superfat? 5%? Is that standard? And compared to thesage, is the "% excess fat" equal to superfat on soapcalc? If that is correct, then I think I can use soapcalc better.


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## Kalne (Oct 25, 2007)

Yes, percent excess fat is the same as superfat. I believe soapcalc defaults to 5%.


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## Faye Farms (Sep 14, 2009)

From what I have read and what I do myself. Most people superfat at 5%. The only soap where I change the superfat is my coconut oil soaps. If I'm going with 100% coconut oil I superfat at 20%. If I'm doing a coconut oil/shea butter (the major oil still being coconut at over 90%) soap then I superfat at 15%. Anyways, I'd start at 5% and then play around with your recipes from there. Everybody eventually finds the recipe that works best for them.


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## Anita Martin (Dec 26, 2007)

I'm a soapcalc dummy too. I had to stick with thesage.com because I got confused. But, it's a learning experience and I keep learning more all the time so one day I'm confident I'll be able to use soapcalc!


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## Sharpgoat (Feb 7, 2008)

I have learned a lot buy putting the same soap Recipe in to thesage.com and soapcalc and compare the two.
And just playing with soapcalc with the same recipe I leaned it's secrets. :lol
Fran


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