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Make a luxuriously smooth cold-process lard soap bar with this step-by-step tutorial! Lard is nourishing to the skin and gives soap a lovely texture. You’ll love moisturizing and cleansing with your very own homemade soap.
Have you ever thought that one day you’d be making your own soap bars? Making soap is just one of the exciting ways you can customize your skincare routine.
Soapmaking isn’t as hard as you might think and you don’t need much to do it. In just a few hours, a lot of which is waiting for ingredients to melt and cool, you can whip up several luxurious soap bars.
All from-scratch soap, (with the exception of hot process soap bars), must fully dry, then cure for several weeks. The wait is well worth it; there’s nothing like using your own beautiful, handmade soap bars!
Following this simple recipe using lard and olive oil, you can make a soap bar with a smooth lather for moisturizing and cleansing skin.
Why You’ll Love Lard Soap
- Nourishing ingredients: With lard and olive oil, your skin will be moisturized and soft after using this soap. Enjoy the silky smooth skin that comes with using natural and nourishing ingredients!
- Rewarding: Soap isn’t the quickest DIY you can make, but it is certainly rewarding! There’s nothing like using soap that you made from scratch.
- Beautiful gift: I love making homemade bath and beauty products for gifts, and soap is one of my favorites! Make this lovely flower-shaped soap for the holidays, birthday gifts, hostess gifts, and more.
- Unique: Hand-crafting soap allows you to make your bars all sorts of unique and special shapes. You can use the flower molds I used, add a string for soap on a rope bars, or find another unique mold shape!
What You’ll Need
Soap Ingredients
- Water
- Lye: Lye is an essential part of soapmaking. When mixed with the fats, lye causes a chemical reaction called saponification, which turns the fats and oils into soap. While lye is caustic, with careful handling and proper protection, soapmaking with lye is perfectly safe.
- Lard: Lard makes a beautiful soap bar that is moisturizing and nourishing to the skin. Lard can be found in most grocery stores, either in the cooking oil aisle or the meat section. The lard used for cooking or baking is no different than lard for making soap bars. You can also make your own by rendering pork fat.
- Olive oil: Olive oil is a wonderful skincare ingredient and makes a moisturizing soap bar with a wonderful lather. I love using olive oil in soap recipes, such as my simple olive oil soap bars.
- Essential oils: Adding essential oils to the soap bars gives them a lovely scent naturally. You can pick any of your favorite essential oils or keep it simple with lavender.
Find the exact measurements in the recipe card below!
Soap-Making Supplies
- Digital scale
- Heat-resistant container: This container must be capable of a rapid temperature increase. I use a mason jar.
- Immersion Blender
- Saucepan
- Safety goggles
- Rubber gloves
- Soap mold: I like to use silicone molds over any other molds since they do not require any prep work. If you do use a different type of mold, read the instructions on prepping them. Most require parchment paper.
How to Make Cold-Process Lard Soap
Step 1. Use a digital scale to measure out the water into a heat-resistant container. Measure out the lye and add it to the water slowly. Stir the lye into the water slowly until dissolved. The chemical reaction will cause it to heat up quickly. Set aside to cool to about 120-130°F.
Step 2. Measure out the lard and olive oil, then add to a small saucepan. Melt over medium-low heat. Remove from the heat and transfer to a metal mixing bowl. Allow the oils to cool to about 100°F.
Step 3. When the ingredients have cooled to the desired temperatures, add the lye water to the oils a little at a time. Mix with an immersion blender, add more, and continue mixing between each round.
Step 4. Continue mixing until the soap comes to trace. To check the “trace,” hold the immersion blender over the bowl; if the soap that drips from the blender to the soap in the bowl pools up on top, it’s at the correct trace.
Step 5. Once the soap comes to trace, add in essential oils and give it a quick stir with the blender.
Step 6. Pour the soap directly into the silicone soap molds. Allow the soap to harden in the molds for at least 24 hours or up to 3 days. Remove the soap from the molds and allow it to cure for 3-6 weeks before using.
Expert Tips & Safety
- Do not deviate even the slightest from the measurements or ingredients in this recipe! If you do want to alter the measurements or substitute ingredients, you must use a soap calculator.
- Wearing proper protection is essential for soapmaking, especially when you are mixing the lye. Be sure to wear safety goggles and rubber gloves.
- Work in a well-ventilated area away from children and pets.
- I recommend looking through the recipe and step-by-step photos a couple of times before getting started.
How to Cure Homemade Soap Bars
Curing soap bars is the process of allowing them to dry and harden completely. Letting the soap cure for weeks will enable all the water to evaporate, allowing the soap bar to last a lot longer and not melt in the shower.
You can purchase fancy curing racks, but I have found a 9 by 13 pan to work just as well. Be sure to let the soap bars fully harden before removing them from the molds.
Simply line the bars, sitting on their sides, inside of the 9 by 13 pan. Make sure they are not touching each other. Place the pan in a dry, cool place until fully cured, about 3-6 weeks.
Lard vs Tallow
Lard and tallow are both animal fats that are rendered from the meat of an animal. The most obvious difference is the animal from which the fat comes.
Lard is pork fat and tallow is beef fat. Both fats have similar benefits for the skin and can be used to make soap bars and lotion.
I have used tallow to make cold-process shampoo bars, cold-process tallow soap, and homemade tallow body butter in the past. Similar to lard, tallow makes a very mild and moisturizing product.
Recipe FAQs
Lard is the animal fat from pork. It is rendered, or melted from the fatty tissues, by melting the fat over low heat for several hours until the “crackle” rises to the top, and the liquid fat on the bottom is clear. For centuries, lard has been used as a cooking fat, but it is also a wonderful fat for bath and beauty products such as lotion or soap.
If rendered properly, your lard should be pure white and practically odorless. Believe it or not, lard has a very mild, pleasant scent. When making soap with lard, you can add in essential oils to give it whatever scent you prefer, or you can leave it unscented.
Lard alone doesn’t make a soap bar that lathers super well, but adding in another oil will help with that. Pairing lard with a little olive oil will make a perfectly firm soap bar that lathers well. If you want to make a bar of soap with just lard, you most certainly can; however, it may not lather like a traditional soap bar you are used to. (If you do make soap with just lard, be sure to use a soap calculator.)
Many new soapmakers are intimidated by lye because it is a caustic substance. Lye can be dangerous and must be handled responsibly, but it is essential in cold-process soapmaking. The reaction between lye and the oils in soap is called saponification and it turns the ingredients into soap. If you follow the instructions carefully and wear protection, you will be fine using lye! If you’d rather avoid it anyway, try a melt and pour soap such as my coconut oil melt and pour soap or homemade goat milk soap bars.
More Homemade Soap Recipes
- Beeswax Soap Recipe
- Easy Turmeric Soap Recipe
- Natural Glycerin Soap Bar Recipe
- Whipped Soap Recipe
- How to Rebatch Soap
If you tried this Cold-Process Lard Soap Bar or any other tutorial on my website, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the 📝 comments below. Thanks for visiting!
Cold-Process Lard Soap Bar
Equipment
- saucepan
- Heat resistant container
- Soap mold (I used these silicone molds)
- Safety goggles
- Rubber Gloves
Ingredients
- 6.08 oz Water
- 2.11 oz Lye
- 10 oz Lard
- 6 oz Olive Oil
- 20 drops lavender essential oil
Instructions
- Use a digital scale to measure out the water. Then, add it to the heat-resistant container.
- Slowly add the lye to the water. Stir the lye into the water until dissolved. Note, the chemical reaction will cause it to heat up quickly. Set aside to cool to about 120-130°F
- Melt the lard and olive oil in a small saucepan on the stove over medium heat.
- Once melted, set aside to cool.
- Add the melted fat and oil to a metal mixing bowl.
- Pour the lye in with the melted fat and oil a little at a time and mix with an immersion blender.
- Continue adding the lye and mixing between each round.
- Steps 6 and 7 will take a minute to get the soap to come to trace. To check the "trace," hold the immersion blender over the bowl; if the soap drips and pools up on the top, its come to the correct trace.
- Stir in lavender essential oil.
- Pour the soap into the silicone molds and let dry for 24 hours up to 3 days.
- Remove from molds and allow them to cure for 3-6 weeks before enjoying.
Video
Notes
- Always follow safety precautions when making cold-process soap. You must wear protective gear, including goggles, masks, and gloves, and work in a well-ventilated area away from kids and pets.
- Do not deviate even the slightest from the measurements or ingredients in this recipe! If you do want to alter the measurements or substitute ingredients, you must use a soap calculator.
How many ounces total is the recipe once made? Newbie here and I want to make sure one of my molds will work or if I will need to double the recipe.
I have never had any luck with individual molds. Is there a trick ?? I always have success with the silicone loaf mold. I love the individual ones I’ve bought several.
Thanks,
Cathy
I have never had any issues with that, are they sticking?
Can you give me a idea on how many average size bars of saop your receipe would make ?
Thank you
MarySue
It made around 12 with the molds I used.
I have the same recipe with the exception of lye, which is less in my case.I believe you used a 5% superfat,while mine is at 8% while using only lard.I don’t do well with olive oil and coconut oil.
I see some people saying that this soap doesn’t have enough cleaning properties,but works great for us,and it has been working for people back in the days.My grandma always made soap with just lard,homemade lye,water and lavender flowers.We used the same soap for laundry, and no detergent out there worked as good as her lard soap.My parents finished her last batch that she made before she passed away in 2019.
I would love to add some citrus oils (I heard they are tricky to work with),jasmine or other oils besides lavender. My 11 year old daughter made the soap with almond extract as part of her farm class.Smells divine.
If anyone has some ideas about what other oils can be used (no patchouli please),or mixture of oils,that would be great.
Thank you.
Plan on making this soon.I was wondering what is the superfat percentage used in this recipe?
I would like to make my soap with just lard,as my daughter made some for me in a class on the farm,and I love it.Makes the skin super soft unlike the ones with olive oil or coconut oil/shea butters.
I read that if the superfat percentage is too high,is actually not good for the skin.
Is there a lye calculator that includes lard and tallow with their ingredients?
Hi, I have the soapee soap calculator linked above under the “how to make lard soap” section.
I used this recipe as my first time making soap, I think I did something wrong. It came out really thick, but I think I know why. We’ll see if it turns out or not. How will I know if it is ok to use after it sits several weeks?
You probably blended it too long. It will still be fine! When I say medium trace, that is still a little runny, and you probably went a little past that.