I just wanted to update this as I’ve been playing around with recipes. I’m shaving down the QC tallow soap bar rejects – the bars that didn’t shape up well or have blemishes. They form the base of two products I’m making - a tallow cream soap, and a tallow butter balm.
Cured tallow soap is somewhat hard to melt down once it’s aged. And it’s tricky because adding water can make the end product go rancid in a few months. I’ve been trying crock pot and double boiler method.
The saddle soap cream is a mix of tallow soap, water, coconut oil, and a small amount of beeswax. I add peppermint oil to it. It does not suds up the way traditional bars do but leaves a streak free shine. You boil the water, add the tallow soap, melt down, add beeswax, melt down, add coconut oil and fully emulsify. For this step I may buy an immersion blender as my last several attempts still had bits of unmelted tallow. Strain into a mason jar or squeeze bottle, add peppermint oil once it’s not blistering hot, and allow to set.
The butter balm is way more fun to make. Shave down tallow soap (base) and a little castile soap (for shine), put in double boiler with a few tbs of water to prevent burning. Mix often. Add coconut oil (conditioner), vegetable oil(or a different oil of your choice) and beeswax (conditioner), melt on low heat, mix often. Take off heat and add oil/scent of your choice - I did cinnamon and orange because that’s what I had on hand. Transfer immediately to a jar because it sets fast. One thing I noticed with this is, it sets and cracks.
Here’s some photos of the end results - I should have taken before photos, both of these tack items were rescued from the trash bin and in poor shape:
Tallow cream soap:
Leather after using TCS & the butterbalm (spoon is the butterbalm):
All in, making the tallow soap itself is way more labor intensive than making the cream soap and balm.
