What does tallow do exactly?

[gull]

Some people have posted how they wish certain soaps contained tallow. My question is, what does tallow do for a soap? Does it add more cushion or slickness? Does it do a better job of softening hair? Does it smell nice!?

[professorchaos]

It simply shaves better!

[mmack66]

Tallow isn't an ingredient added to soap, it is mixed with lye to create sodium tallowate, which is the main ingredient in a cake or bar of soap. A lot of folks like the quality of lather generated with a soap that is made in this manner.

[rickboone1]

Tallow simply kicks ass.

[guenron]

Some people have posted how they wish certain soaps contained tallow. My question is, what does tallow do for a soap? Does it add more cushion or slickness? Does it do a better job of softening hair? Does it smell nice!?

Great question.. The slavish loyalty expressed by some of the membership to tallow-based soaps is probably more indicative of the individuals proclivities than the qualities of the product. Having a bar of 100% tallow-based soap I can attest to the fact that the only thing it really brings to the table is the slickness (GREASINESS) of the soap while not stifling the latherability as is the common occurrence with shea butter enhanced soaps. As far as fragrance, get ready to kiss a can of Crisco! :tongue_sm

A well formulated cocoate, olivate, palmate or combination is every bit as good and efficacious.. BUT, that's what makes horse racing!:lol:

[ouch]

Great question.. The slavish loyalty expressed by some of the membership to tallow-based soaps is probably more indicative of the individuals proclivities than the qualities of the product. Having a bar of 100% tallow-based soap I can attest to the fact that the only thing it really brings to the table is the slickness (GREASINESS) of the soap while not stifling the latherability as is the common occurrence with shea butter enhanced soaps. As far as fragrance, get ready to kiss a can of Crisco! :tongue_sm

A well formulated cocoate, olivate, palmate or combination is every bit as good and efficacious.. BUT, that's what makes horse racing!:lol:

-1






Yes! :tongue_sm

[guenron]

-1






Yes! :tongue_sm

I can now unequivocally stand by my statement given the source of the comment.:001_rolle

[rickboone1]

Great question.. The slavish loyalty expressed by some of the membership to tallow-based soaps is probably more indicative of the individuals proclivities than the qualities of the product. Having a bar of 100% tallow-based soap I can attest to the fact that the only thing it really brings to the table is the slickness (GREASINESS) of the soap while not stifling the latherability as is the common occurrence with shea butter enhanced soaps. As far as fragrance, get ready to kiss a can of Crisco! :tongue_sm

A well formulated cocoate, olivate, palmate or combination is every bit as good and efficacious.. BUT, that's what makes horse racing!:lol:

What? I thought horses and tracks made racing. I have never had to look up so many words in a single sentence.

[guenron]

What? I thought horses and tracks made racing. I have never had to look up so many words in a single sentence.

Sorry, I misspelled palmitate.. (Salt of NAOH or KOH) when reacted with palm oil.. ):blushing:

[bythbook]

... The slavish loyalty expressed by some of the membership to tallow-based soaps is probably more indicative of the individuals proclivities than the qualities of the product. ...



that is absolutely true.



...and I loyally proclaim my slavish proclivities...!

[Crisp]

It is a well kept secret that Winston Churchhill added dashes of Tallow in his Gin Martini's as a substitute for Vermouth.

[rickboone1]

It is a well kept secret that Winston Churchhill added dashes of Tallow in his Gin Martini's as a substitute for Vermouth.

Never took Churchill to be a Martini guy. The secret is no longer well-kept. I'm telling the world.

[mretzloff]

Because tallow is high in stearic acid, it makes for a creamy lather. Also, tallow will make a bar rock-hard.

[Seraphim]

Tallow does for shave soap what bacon does for breakfast.


Palmate, etc, etc are like tofu and "eggbeaters", they keep telling you it tastes the same, but you and I know better.

Bacon, butter, tallow, lanolin.

Word to your mutha!


And as far as horseracing goes, TABAC is the Seabiscuit of the shaving world.

[Confilo]

Si tiene sebo tiene que ser bueno!

[kingfisher]

Whatevs.


Some good soaps are tallow soaps, and some good soaps are vegetable-based soaps. Some bad soaps are tallow soaps, and some bad soaps are vegetable-based soaps.

[vitaman]

si tiene sebo tiene que ser bueno!

+1

[Seraphim]

Whatevs.


Some good soaps are tallow soaps, and some good soaps are vegetable-based soaps. Some bad soaps are tallow soaps, and some bad soaps are vegetable-based soaps.

OBJECTION!

Your Honor, I move that statement be striken from the record. Reason and objectivity have no place here in the soaps forum.

[DFrancis]

Great question.. The slavish loyalty expressed by some of the membership to tallow-based soaps is probably more indicative of the individuals proclivities than the qualities of the product. Having a bar of 100% tallow-based soap I can attest to the fact that the only thing it really brings to the table is the slickness (GREASINESS) of the soap while not stifling the latherability as is the common occurrence with shea butter enhanced soaps. As far as fragrance, get ready to kiss a can of Crisco! :tongue_sm

A well formulated cocoate, olivate, palmate or combination is every bit as good and efficacious.. BUT, that's what makes horse racing!:lol:

HEY! Them's fightin' words a well thought-out statement of your opinion actually, though to be fair when talking about fregrence you should say a tub or lard as opposed to a can of Crisco as Crisco is veg.

:biggrin1:

There are good and bad soaps in every variety. Among my favorites are both tallow and veggie-fat soaps.

[BladeRunner001]

Tallow is animal fat. It (kind of like lanolin), is not one type of fat but a mix of different ones.

Is the question what does it do for soap or for you?

If the former, then; 1) it makes the soap hard, 2) it undergoes less oxidation than common suet

If the latter, well...the only and best way is to give it a try. As most have said, it has wonderful "greasiness" to it providing for amazing glide. Not all tallow soaps have the same amount...so, not all will be equally great.

[HoosierTrooper]

So tallow comes from horses, heh? Learn something new every day.

[kellicat]

tabac = tallow, right?

[Pkrankow]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tallow

Rendered animal fat, with other fats allowed by law.

Phil

[gull]

Thanks for the replies. I have a new tub of Cella, and I'll now be able to see what tallow does. "Greasiness" doesn't really sound appealing though :tongue_sm


Because tallow is high in stearic acid, it makes for a creamy lather. Also, tallow will make a bar rock-hard.

On my cella's bottom, it has tallow and stearic acid listed separately. Can a soap have stearic acid without tallow? If if it can, then would the tallow be unnecessary?

[rickboone1]

Thanks for the replies. I have a new tub of Cella, and I'll now be able to see what tallow does. "Greasiness" doesn't really sound appealing though :tongue_sm



On my cella's bottom, it has tallow and stearic acid listed separately. Can a soap have stearic acid without tallow? If if it can, then would the tallow be unnecessary?

I guess it'd be like adding sugar water and saying it has both sugar and water in it. I dunno.

[Go West Young Man]

All soaps need some kind of fat as their base. You can get it from animals (aka tallow), from olives, from the palm tree, and probably a dozen other sources.

The traditional 'old school' soaps tend to have a tallow base, while newer cheaper ones tend to be vegetable oil based, and as a huge oversimplification with plenty of exceptions, many feel that tallow soaps give a better shave than non-tallow soaps.

[Dewaine]

It is tallow that makes Williams the most loved soap in this forum.

[cymric]

On my cella's bottom, it has tallow and stearic acid listed separately. Can a soap have stearic acid without tallow? If if it can, then would the tallow be unnecessary?
Tallow is a not too-well defined mixture of various fatty acids of which stearic acid is but one (albeit a major) component. A producer can desire different characteristics in a soap and thus 'spike' tallow with other things. Tallow on its own is not sufficient for a shaving soap in any case.

[azmark]

It simply shaves better!
:thumbup1:

and rubbing dead animal fat on your face is pretty cool:001_cool:

[tchmango]

Great question.. The slavish loyalty expressed by some of the membership to tallow-based soaps is probably more indicative of the individuals proclivities than the qualities of the product. Having a bar of 100% tallow-based soap I can attest to the fact that the only thing it really brings to the table is the slickness (GREASINESS) of the soap while not stifling the latherability as is the common occurrence with shea butter enhanced soaps. As far as fragrance, get ready to kiss a can of Crisco! :tongue_sm

A well formulated cocoate, olivate, palmate or combination is every bit as good and efficacious.. BUT, that's what makes horse racing!:lol:

P.160 and Cella to many have a very nice fragrance and are tallow based soap/creme according to the ingredients on my jars.

[BladeRunner001]

Thanks for the replies. I have a new tub of Cella, and I'll now be able to see what tallow does. "Greasiness" doesn't really sound appealing though :tongue_sm

On my cella's bottom, it has tallow and stearic acid listed separately. Can a soap have stearic acid without tallow? If if it can, then would the tallow be unnecessary?


It does not feel like rubbing engine oil or olive oil on your face...Not at all. It's the kind of greasiness that provides glide...not oily as you are thinking (I think). See below.

You certainly can have Stearic acid without Tallow...Tallow is a complex mixture of fats. it's not one thing. According to the Wiki, tallow has the following:
[/URL]

Saturated fatty acids:

[URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmitic_acid"]Palmitic acid (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tallow#cite_note-5): 26 %
Stearic acid (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stearic_acid): 14 %
Myristic acid (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myristic_acid): 3 %


Monounsaturated fatty acids:

Oleic acid (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oleic_acid): 47 %
Palmitoleic acid (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmitoleic_acid): 3 %


Polyunsaturated fatty acids:

Linoleic acid (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linoleic_acid): 3 %
Linolenic acid (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linolenic_acid): 1 %




Of course, there are probably variations in tallow too, depending on source.

[mmack66]

To answer the thread title, in the time before the great reformulation of 1990, beef tallow was also used to cook McDonald's french fries.

[eyebright]

You certainly can have Stearic acid without Tallow...Tallow is a complex mixture of fats. it's not one thing. According to the Wiki, tallow has the following:
[/URL]

Saturated fatty acids:
[LIST]
[URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmitic_acid"]Palmitic acid (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tallow#cite_note-5): 26 %
Stearic acid (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stearic_acid): 14 %
Myristic acid (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myristic_acid): 3 %


Monounsaturated fatty acids:

Oleic acid (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oleic_acid): 47 %
Palmitoleic acid (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmitoleic_acid): 3 %


Polyunsaturated fatty acids:

Linoleic acid (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linoleic_acid): 3 %
Linolenic acid (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linolenic_acid): 1 %

Of course, there are probably variations in tallow too, depending on source.

It might less confusing to say that tallow is composed of many different fatty acids, since tallow is rendered from suet, which is one fat, not a mixture of fats. Suet is the harder solid fat from around the kidneys of the animal, and not the greasy fat that you trim off the meat. To render suet to make tallow, you grind or cut the fat up into small pieces and melt them, removing the liquid fat and then discarding the solids. After it's been cleaned, it has very little smell and is not really very greasy feeling at all, I'd describe it as brittle. It probably depends on a lot of factors though: beef, mutton, lamb, deer tallow; age and health of animal, diet, etc. The last lamb tallow I rendered was softer than the beef tallow I'm used to. You can buy stearic acid alone.

[Rusty Jackknife]

Tallow is to shaving soap... is what Chuck Norris is to Molecular nanotechnology.

[Drubbing]

Not all tallows are equal; it's not a magic ingredient.

I have slavish proclivities for Tabac and Cella, but Speick leaves my proclivities free to roam elsewhere...like back to Cella.

[wulfgar1976]

I have non-tallow soaps that are every bit as good as my favourite tallow-based soaps. Actually, one of them might even be a little bit better...

[inkcoffee]

It is a well kept secret that Winston Churchhill added dashes of Tallow in his Gin Martini's as a substitute for Vermouth.

I thought all he did was look in the direction of Italy and commence drinking the gin neat.

[gull]

Well, I tried out cella today, and it was good, but not amazing. Reading around here, I got the impression that tallow soaps would give some kind of legendary shave, but that was not the case.

Comparing it to my only other soap (CADE), I felt like Cella was slicker, and it lathered up easier. But I hated the smell, and I hate that small container!

I had a great shave, and Cella is worthy of its good reputation. I'm glad I tried out a tallow soap and hope to try out more soaps later on. I just wanted to say that tallow didn't make as much of a difference as I thought it would.

[Seraphim]

Well, I tried out cella today, and it was good, but not amazing. Reading around here, I got the impression that tallow soaps would give some kind of legendary shave, but that was not the case.

Comparing it to my only other soap (CADE), I felt like Cella was slicker, and it lathered up easier. But I hated the smell, and I hate that small container!

I had a great shave, and Cella is worthy of its good reputation. I'm glad I tried out a tallow soap and hope to try out more soaps later on. I just wanted to say that tallow didn't make as much of a difference as I thought it would.

First shave with a new soap, give it some time.

[mretzloff]

On my cella's bottom, it has tallow and stearic acid listed separately. Can a soap have stearic acid without tallow? If if it can, then would the tallow be unnecessary?

You can only use so much "pure" stearic acid in a hard soap. Because of this, you add fats with stearic acid too, so that you can get even more in there. This makes the lather very creamy. I hope that makes sense and answers your question.

[gull]

You can only use so much "pure" stearic acid in a hard soap. Because of this, you add fats with stearic acid too, so that you can get even more in there. This makes the lather very creamy. I hope that makes sense and answers your question.

Yep it does. Thank! :thumbup1:

[mmack66]

I don't know if it makes a difference, but isn't Cella a soft soap? Most of the tallow based soaps that get good reviews are hard soaps. Having never used a soft soap, I don't know how they perform.

[guitarslinger]

It doesn't mean anything.

After saponification, it's soap.

[Shavely Manden]

Some people have posted how they wish certain soaps contained tallow. My question is, what does tallow do for a soap? Does it add more cushion or slickness? Does it do a better job of softening hair? Does it smell nice!?

Any kind of traditionally made soap is going to contain some kind of saponified fat. In vegetable-based soaps, that's usually palm oil or olive oil, but coconut oil seems to be good for shaving soaps. Tallow is typically regarded as the best fat to base shaving soaps on, since tallow-based soap pretty consistently gets a thicker, slicker, more moisturizing lather.


I don't know if it makes a difference, but isn't Cella a soft soap? Most of the tallow based soaps that get good reviews are hard soaps. Having never used a soft soap, I don't know how they perform.

My Cella performs just as well as my MWF or Tabac!

[Shavely Manden]

But I hated the smell, and I hate that small container!


Not much you can do about the smell (I feel the same way about Arko), but you could always scoop the Cella out into a different container. It's not very hard, and very moldable.

[cymric]

... but coconut oil seems to be good for shaving soaps.
Unfortunately pure coconut oil is unsuitable for a shaving soap. Despite its appearance it is composed of fatty acids which are on average about a third shorter than those found in tallow, and well over a third than those found in shea butter. This decrease in length means that a pure coconut oil soap tends to yield bubbly lather. This is great for bath soaps, but not for shaving soaps. If coconut oil is used as an ingredient, you will always see other sources of fat listed.

[Seraphim]

Any truth to the rumor that Valobra, AOS, and C&S are going to reformulate using Olestra instead of tallow?

[mretzloff]

Any truth to the rumor that Valobra, AOS, and C&S are going to reformulate using Olestra instead of tallow?

Great, now we will be seeing like ten threads about this :lol:

[Altair]

FIGHT CLUB SOAP. that was human tallow:tongue_sm

[Shavely Manden]

Unfortunately pure coconut oil is unsuitable for a shaving soap. Despite its appearance it is composed of fatty acids which are on average about a third shorter than those found in tallow, and well over a third than those found in shea butter. This decrease in length means that a pure coconut oil soap tends to yield bubbly lather. This is great for bath soaps, but not for shaving soaps. If coconut oil is used as an ingredient, you will always see other sources of fat listed.

Huh...interesting. Learn something new every day! I'd been going off the fact that creams that list coconut oil (Trumper's Coconut Oil, AoS cream) seem to get high marks, but I guess that's the old correlation-doesn't-mean-causation thing biting me again! :thumbup:

[Pkrankow]

Huh...interesting. Learn something new every day! I'd been going off the fact that creams that list coconut oil (Trumper's Coconut Oil, AoS cream) seem to get high marks, but I guess that's the old correlation-doesn't-mean-causation thing biting me again! :thumbup:

It could be "fat rich" with added coconut oil...

Phil

[Drubbing]

I had a great shave, and Cella is worthy of its good reputation. I'm glad I tried out a tallow soap and hope to try out more soaps later on. I just wanted to say that tallow didn't make as much of a difference as I thought it would.

First impressions and all. Plus the added weight of expectation you put on it due the over enthusiastic posts about it.

I found Speick a big meh when I tried it; nice, but revealed the fan-love to be hyperbole. Just broke it out the other day and it works better then I remembered a few months ago. I don't think anything changed except using a boar brush instead of badger, and my expectations, which were pre-lowered and then exceeded.

[gull]

I can't stand this soap. I'm trading it.

Smell is the least important factor for me, but with Cella, the smell is just so overpowering and assaulting. I never thought I would care about the smell, but if I have to breath through my mouth to avoid smelling the soap, then there's something wrong. If any of you are interested in a one time used Cella, head over to the BST.

[Sydney Guy]

Any truth to the rumor that Valobra, AOS, and C&S are going to reformulate using Olestra instead of tallow?

Well, since you're the one starting the rumour why don't you tell us if it's true or not?

[Seraphim]

Well, since you're the one starting the rumour why don't you tell us if it's true or not?

I can neither confirm, nor deny any allegations that the above mentioned soap brands may have already begun replacing the animal fat tallow in their products with synthetic ( yet politically correct and vegan approved) Olestra.

I wasn't there.

Nobody saw me.

I shredded all pertinent documents.

The rest is pure hearsay!

[oscarbowman]

So tallow comes from horses, heh? Learn something new every day.

:lol::lol::lol::lol:

Thats funny. (He says climbing back onto his seat!) :laugh:

[steveclarkus]

By definition, tallow is the fat around kidneys. Practically speaking, so what?

I have no idea why I use only tallow soaps. I've used both and I've stuck with tallow. I also like tallow soaps that smell like soap under whatever scent has been added.