Care · All year
Lavender Tallow Soap
The same tallow bar, scented with lavender instead of frankincense or myrrh. The lye weight does not change.
This is how our household cooks, washes, and thinks. It is not medical advice, and it is not a substitute for a midwife or a doctor.
About 1 hour of work, then 4 to 6 weeks to cure · About 6 bars
“See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth and is patient with it.”
Ingredients
- 350 g rendered beef tallow
- 100 g olive oil
- 50 g coconut oil
- 68 g sodium hydroxide, pure lye, for this oil list only
- 140 g distilled water
- 10 g lavender essential oil
Method
- 1
Sodium hydroxide burns. Children and pets leave the room. Wear goggles, gloves, and long sleeves. Work by an open window. Keep vinegar nearby for a splash on skin, then rinse with plenty of water. If lye gets in an eye, rinse with water for a long time and get help. Do not put vinegar in an eye. Use stainless steel or heavy plastic, never aluminum. The lye goes into the water. Never pour water into the lye.
- 2
Weigh every line. The 68 grams of lye belong only to 350 grams of beef tallow, 100 grams of olive oil, and 50 grams of coconut oil. That is about a 5 percent superfat. If you change an oil, do not keep this lye number. Half and double are safe only when the lye and the water move with the oils. Use pure sodium hydroxide, not a drain opener.
- 3
Stir the lye into the distilled water and let it cool. Melt the tallow and coconut oil with the olive oil and let that cool too. Both should be warm, not steaming. Pour the lye water into the oils and blend to a thin-pudding trace.
- 4
Stir in the 10 grams of lavender essential oil at trace. Do not add more, and do not also add frankincense or myrrh to this batch. Pour it into a lined mold. If you want buds on top, sprinkle a pinch of dried lavender over the surface now. A thick layer will shed and can scratch. A pinch is enough.
- 5
Leave the mold for about a day. Unmold, cut, and cure the bars 4 to 6 weeks on a rack with air around them. Label them lavender so they are not used as the plain family soap.
From the kitchen
- These bars are for adult skin. Not for babies, not for the face, and not in pregnancy. The unscented tallow soap is the family bar.
- Do not grate a lavender bar into the laundry. The wash wants the plain soap.
- The buds on top are decoration. The scent in the bar comes from the essential oil, not from the flowers.
My note
Kept on this device, beside the recipe, for the next time you cook it.
Alongside this
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Plain Tallow
Rendered beef tallow, whipped and nothing else. This is the fat for faces and for children. No scent.
20 minutes, plus rendering if the tallow is not already clean
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Whipped Tallow Butter
The softer body butter. Tallow loosened with olive oil, still unscented, for arms, legs, and winter shins.
20 minutes
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Lavender Tallow Butter
The same whipped tallow and olive oil, with a small amount of lavender essential oil. An adult jar. Not the family one.
20 minutes