Oleo Duck Fat - share your experience

......If you've been wanting to try a duck tallow soap....

another vendor who uses duck tallow is mershaving (https://www.etsy.com/shop/MERshaving).  i can attest to its goodness, he made a custom coconut-almond scented duck tallow soap for me that’s good enough to eat. lathers easily, great slickness.  (i am not affiliated with the vendor, but a customer.)

those are fantastic prices as well! Does it cost more for a custom scent?

“quote those are fantastic prices as well!  Does it cost more for a custom scent?”

very reasonable,  i paid $15.

Don’t intend to hi-jack the thread but quick question about MER....

ymmv, I tried to send you a PM but noticed you don’t have the post requirements yet.  how does MER duck fat base compare to other top performing soaps you’ve used? For the price point, it looks to be a great deal.

Regarding Oleo’s shipping times, I recall recently seeing an announcement about them shipping only twice a week, but now that I tried to find it, I couldn’t. (I’m sure some customers wouldn’t like that idea, but I can see how it could help consolidate the operations of a small business.)

The other announcement, from today, is that all their scents are now available in the Canard (duck fat) formula.

When I placed my order last Saturday, I received an email stating items ship on Tues and Fri.  But mine was put in the mail on Mon and I received it on Wed.  They may have the policy in place in case things get too busy????

Yes but, if you order from Top of the Chain he ships immediately. To the US and RoW too.

“quote those are fantastic prices as well!  Does it cost more for a custom scent?”

very reasonable,  i paid $15.

Yeah well, US$20 shipping to Canada is a little bit steeper than the free shipping I can get from Top of the Chain for the Oleo duck soap. That would make it a CDN$43 soap to my door vs $21 for Oleo or $28 including shipping if I don't buy up to the free shipping threshold. True the Oleo is 4oz and the other one is 5oz so thats 25% more product but still, $20 shipping is more than the price of a soap.

Regarding Oleo’s shipping times, I recall recently seeing an announcement about them shipping only twice a week, but now that I tried to find it, I couldn’t. (I’m sure some customers wouldn’t like that idea, but I can see how it could help consolidate the operations of a small business.)

The other announcement, from today, is that all their scents are now available in the Canard (duck fat) formula.

Where are all these ducks coming from? Seriously, I'm wondering whether North American duck production can sustain this. I'm guessing the duck tallow is imported likely from China. Apart from that point I think its a great move by Oleo. I tried their standard soap base and it wasn't where it needed to be to compete with the top tier tallow soaps.

Marko, I have to say that I too have wondered about how all this duck fat will be sourced, now that it has become quite popular in soap production.

Don’t intend to hi-jack the thread but quick question about MER....

ymmv, I tried to send you a PM but noticed you don’t have the post requirements yet.  how does MER duck fat base compare to other top performing soaps you’ve used? For the price point, it looks to be a great deal.

right up there, and i’ve used them all except bufflehead-grooming dept, declaration, wk (samples), barrister & mann, etc.  however i will tell you i’m not a lather snob, and i get very good shaves, perhaps not quite as good, with for example, honeybee soaps.  i’m a lot about scent.

“Where are all these ducks coming from?  Seriously, I'm wondering whether North American duck production can sustain this.  I'm guessing the duck tallow is imported likely from China.  Apart from that point I think its a great move by Oleo.  I tried their standard soap base and it wasn't where it needed to be to compete with the top tier tallow soaps.”

mershaving’s supplier is a duck farm in stockton, california.

“Where are all these ducks coming from?  Seriously, I'm wondering whether North American duck production can sustain this.  I'm guessing the duck tallow is imported likely from China.  Apart from that point I think its a great move by Oleo.  I tried their standard soap base and it wasn't where it needed to be to compete with the top tier tallow soaps.”

mershaving’s supplier is a duck farm in stockton, california.

I guess I don't understand the logistics. I assume that a batch of 50 tubs of duck tallow soap uses 12-15 lbs of tallow (guessing) and that the tallow is a by product of producing ducks for food. I'm also assuming that duck farmers only raise as many ducks as they can sell and that they haven't been throwing away any tallow - the duck fat would also have been sold into the food/restaurant sector. So now we have a few artisans using duck tallow that were't before so the demand for the product increases - but only for the tallow not for the meat. So I would expect that duck meat prices should drop but tallow prices increase. I have no idea the size of the duck industry and whether the incremental demand for tallow from artisans is even material. But I have to think that Chinese ducks are involved in some way. Just like Chinese badgers.