To Tallow, Or Not To Tallow?

More and more of today's great soaps are being made with a variety of vegan bases. Many say that vegan formulas lather better in hard water. Some say that began formulas tend to be cheaper to produce. 

Some of my best post-shaves have come from tallow soaps, such as Stirling who's main ingredient is tallow, to XXX by RazoRock. On the other hand, Soap Commander delivers a fantastic post-shave experience with a vegan base. 

So, why does it seem that many artisans shy away from tallow? Is it the challenge of making a tallow soap, the low cost of making a vegan formula, or hard water concerns? Keep in mind very seldom do soaps such as XXX and Tabac have serious reports of wide-spread lather issues, and Stirlings latest generation seems to have resolved any lather issues with their formula.

There are many things to consider, mainly what your customer base is. When we were in Europe, everyone preferred vegan products, every manufacturer that was still doing tallow had to go through one hell of a ride with cosmetics commission.

Now, that we are here, we are very close to releasing our tallow base soap, because that's what the customer wants. It's not cheaper to produce, well maybe a little. Main expense is still the essential oils that go into scenting a product.

On the other hand, vegan soaps do lather better in hard water (that's what I hear anyway). There are many things to consider, like allergies, some even have a bad reaction to Lanolin.

You know that YMMV thing? Same applies here

Frankly, I'm past the point of worrying if a soap is tallow or vegetable based.  If it offers up a good smooth comfortable shave then I don't care which it is, vegan or tallow.  Two examples of quality shave soaps for me: Provence Santé (vegetable base) and Mickey Lee Soapworks La Belle du Sud (tallow base).

There's a fairly large gap in the market between basic vegans and vegans that mimic higher end tallows.

When people talk about the noted difference in feel between a tallow and a vegan soap, it's my belief that it comes down to Oleic and Linloleic acids. Both are considered to bring a moisturizing/conditioning quality to a lather and both are largely absent from most vegan soaps. Saponified shea butter can bring that back to the table, but it's missing the Palmitic acid of beef tallow, requiring additional ingredients, etc. At this point you're probably starting to realize how complicated a vegan soap that exhibits the qualities of a tallow soap is to create and that it's going to be more expensive in the end. And it's that realization that generally leads artisans towards tallow.

The most prominent crop of artisan vegan soaps are derivatives of Martin de Candre. It's a simple recipe and the step by step instructions and ingredients are readily available on the internet. In regards to tallow, there are some limited resources available out there, but creating a good tallow soap can be a crap shoot for someone that's just starting out. Not to mention that rendered tallow isn't always cheap (in limited quantity) or easy to acquire.

As it pertains to hard water, I don't feel there's too much of a difference.

TL;DR:

• A vegan that mimics a tallow costs more to make than a tallow
  
• The ingredients and recipe for cloning a highly regarded, simple/easy vegan are readily available
  
• Rendered tallow isn't as easy to acquire
  
• Tallow shave soap recipes are harder to develop/require trial and error 
  

Thanks for the clear explanation. I always assumed, wrongly, that vegan would be less expensive to make than tallow.

Thanks for the clear explanation.  I always assumed,  wrongly, that vegan would be less expensive to make than tallow.

I don't think you're wrong, per say. Fragrance aside, the most dominant vegans (MdC derivatives) are cheaper to produce than even a basic tallow.

Soaps are the sodium and potassium salts (esters) of fatty acids. Traditionally, one primary source of the fatty acids was either from animals: beef tallow from cattle and lard from pigs as well as other domestic animals. The other primary source was vegetable oils such as oil from olive, laurel. palm and coconut, etc. Both of these sources provide the basic fatty acids: oleic, stearic, palmitic, linoleic, etc. However, depending upon the source, the type and percentages of the fatty acids varies. Beef tallow and lard have often been used for the production of shaving soap because they are readily available and fairly inexpensive since they are byproducts of the meat-processing industry. Also, the ratio of fatty acids in tallow and lard make it relatively easy to make an acceptable shaving soap. That is why a large percentage of shaving soaps are tallow based.

A sufficiently talented soapmaker can make a soap using vegetable sourced ingredients that is every bit as good as a tallow soap. However, the issue is that not every soapmaker has the skills to do this. Many of the vegetable based soaps are good, but do not excel. As an example of this, Ruds Shaves has evaluated 125 soap formulations. He lists a total of 50 soaps that score 90 or higher by his criteria. Of these 50 soaps, only 10 (20%) are vegetable based. If you further narrow the list to those soaps scoring 95 and higher, there are 27 soaps of which only 4 (15%) are vegetable based. These four were produced by two artisans: Grooming Dept and Catte's Bubbles. Grooming Dept Nai received a score of 100 which places it among the top eight soaps on Rud's list. Nai is a superb vegan soap.

Grooming Dept is planning on releasing an olive oil based soap in the coming months called Verum. Most people believe olive oil is a lather killer, but Mohammad has figured out how to use olive oil and still get it to lather. Stay tuned.

Soaps are the sodium and potassium salts (esters) of fatty acids. Traditionally, one primary source of the fatty acids was either from animals: beef tallow from cattle and lard from pigs as well as other domestic animals. The other primary source was vegetable oils such as oil from olive, laurel. palm and coconut, etc. Both of these sources provide the basic fatty acids: oleic, stearic, palmitic, linoleic, etc. However, depending upon the source, the type and percentages of the fatty acids varies. Beef tallow and lard have often been used for the production of shaving soap because they are readily available and fairly inexpensive since they are byproducts of the meat-processing industry. Also, the ratio of fatty acids in tallow and lard make it relatively easy to make an acceptable shaving soap. That is why a large percentage of shaving soaps are tallow based.

A sufficiently talented soapmaker can make a soap using vegetable sourced ingredients that is every bit as good as a tallow soap. However, the issue is that not every soapmaker has the skills to do this. Many of the vegetable based soaps are good, but do not excel. As an example of this, Ruds Shaves has evaluated 125 soap formulations. He lists a total of 50 soaps that score 90 or higher by his criteria. Of these 50 soaps, only 10 (20%) are vegetable based. If you further narrow the list to those soaps scoring 95 and higher, there are 27 soaps of which only 4 (15%) are vegetable based. These four were produced by two artisans: Grooming Dept and Catte's Bubbles. Grooming Dept Nai received a score of 100 which places it among the top eight soaps on Rud's list. Nai is a superb vegan soap.

Grooming Dept is planning on releasing an olive oil based soap in the coming months called Verum. Most people believe olive oil is a lather killer, but Mohammad has figured out how to use olive oil and still get it to lather. Stay tuned.

I’ve tried almost everything and my top vegan soap maker is southern witchcrafts. It’s simply outstanding. If no one told me it was vegan, I would have thought it was a top tier tallow based soap. What I love most is not just the performance (pre and post) but the elmers glue sheen and consistency that you typically experience with a tallow based soap. I just love it.


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Note that non-tallow does not = vegan. Stearic acid may be from animal or plant sources so I have been told. That said, Sudsy Soapery's non- tallow shave soap is simply unmatched IMO.

Note that non-tallow does not = vegan. Stearic acid may be from animal or plant sources so I have been told. That said, Sudsy Soapery's non- tallow shave soap is simply unmatched IMO.

It has been a while since I have used products from The Sudsy Soapery. I had high hopes for them after reviewing the ingredients. I found that most of the samples I obtained caused severe irritation of my face due to high concentrations of lemon, lime, grapefruit, peppermint and pepper.  About the only scents my face could tolerate were cola, sandalwood & myrrh, and almond & vanilla.  Both the tallow and vegan triple butter formulations were easy to load, easy to lather, and had excellent primary slickness. However, I found the residual slickness, cushion, and post shave to be mediocre. That surprised me due to the various vegetable butters in the formula. I never purchased a full tub of any of the soaps. That has been a while ago; perhaps the formulations have been tweaked since that time. However, I have learned to avoid "simple scents" on a few scent notes; they just do not work for my skin.