What Is Tallow Soap? A Guide to Traditional Tallow Soap

If you've never heard of tallow soap, you might be wondering what it actually is, why people choose it, and what makes it different from the soaps found in most bathrooms today.

Tallow soap is a traditional type of soap made using tallow, a rendered animal fat, combined with oils, water and lye. When these ingredients undergo the process of saponification, they become soap.

At Coal & Tallow, we make traditional-style bars using bovine tallow, carefully selected plant oils and essential oils. Our aim is simple: to make a proper bar of soap that feels at home in the Welsh landscape.

What is tallow?

Tallow is a rendered form of animal fat, traditionally obtained from cattle. It has been used for centuries in soap making because its fatty acid profile makes it particularly suitable for producing a hard, long-lasting bar of soap.

Tallow isn't the finished soap itself. During soap making, the fats react with an alkali in a process called saponification. The result is soap and naturally occurring glycerin.

This is why tallow soap is quite different from simply putting animal fat onto your skin. Properly made tallow soap contains no unreacted lye when the formulation and manufacturing process are correct.

Why is tallow used in soap?

Tallow has a long history in traditional soap making because it can help produce a firm, durable bar of soap with a rich lather.

For people looking for an alternative to liquid body wash or heavily fragranced commercial soaps, a traditional tallow bar offers a much simpler approach.

A well-formulated tallow soap can be:

• Hard wearing

• Long lasting

• Suitable for everyday washing

• Rich in lather

• Made with a relatively simple collection of ingredients

• Convenient to use without a plastic bottle

The final characteristics of a bar depend on the complete formulation, not simply on whether it contains tallow.

Tallow soap vs ordinary soap

Walk into a supermarket and you'll find hundreds of different products labelled as soap, body wash, shower gel and cleansing bars.

Many modern body washes are liquid products packaged in plastic bottles and can contain long lists of ingredients, fragrances and other additives.

Traditional soap takes a different approach.

A traditional bar of soap is made through saponification and can be formulated using a relatively straightforward combination of fats, oils, water, fragrance or essential oils and other ingredients selected for the individual bar.

That doesn't automatically make traditional soap better for everyone. Different people have different preferences and skin types.

For some people, however, there is something appealing about going back to a simple bar of traditional soap.

What is natural tallow soap?

The term natural soap is used in many different ways, so it's worth looking beyond the marketing.

A natural tallow soap generally refers to a soap formulated around naturally derived fats and oils rather than a synthetic detergent-based cleanser.

At Coal & Tallow, our approach combines bovine tallow with plant oils and essential oils, depending on the particular bar.

Our soaps are designed around the idea of keeping things straightforward: a solid bar, purposeful ingredients and scents created using essential oils.

Tallow soap in the UK

Tallow soap has a long association with traditional soap making, but it has become less familiar as liquid soaps, shower gels and synthetic cleansing products have become more common.

There is now renewed interest in traditional soap, particularly from people looking for alternatives to plastic bottles and heavily fragranced body washes.

For customers looking for tallow soap in the UK, Coal & Tallow creates traditional-style bars here in Wales.

We're particularly interested in bringing together the things that make sense to us: traditional soap making, Welsh heritage, natural ingredients and proper hard-wearing bars of soap.

Why choose a bar of soap?

There is something very straightforward about a bar of soap.

You don't need a pump bottle. You don't need a large plastic container. You simply wet the bar, work up a lather and wash.

A good bar should also last.

Store your soap somewhere that allows it to dry between uses and it can last considerably longer than a bar that sits in a pool of water.

That's why we recommend using a soap dish or draining soap holder rather than leaving your bar sitting in water.

What does tallow soap smell like?

One of the common misconceptions about tallow soap is that it must smell strongly of animal fat.

A properly formulated and fragranced tallow soap does not have to smell like that at all.

At Coal & Tallow, we use essential oils to create distinctive scents.

Our Black Bar, for example, combines juniper, tea tree and black pepper for a dark, fresh and distinctive scent.

Other bars use combinations of woods, citrus, herbs, clays and other ingredients to create different experiences.

The result is a range of natural-style essential oil soaps designed to smell distinctive without relying on a generic shower-gel fragrance.

What is men's soap?

Soap doesn't technically need to be divided into "men's" and "women's" products. Soap is soap.

But there is certainly a market for people who want something that feels less floral, sweet or heavily perfumed.

Coal & Tallow was created with that in mind.

Our bars are rugged, understated and deliberately masculine, with scents such as cedarwood, juniper, black pepper, tea tree and citrus.

They're made for anyone who wants a proper bar of soap without the fuss.

Traditional soap made in Wales

Coal & Tallow is a Welsh soap brand built around an appreciation for traditional materials, the Welsh landscape and the idea of making everyday products a little less complicated.

Wales has a long history and a strong connection to its land, livestock, agriculture and natural resources.

Our approach isn't about pretending that everything was better in the past.

It's about taking something that works — a solid bar of properly made soap — and giving it a modern identity.

Is tallow soap worth trying?

If you're curious about traditional soap, tallow soap is certainly worth trying for yourself.

A good bar of soap should clean effectively, feel good to use and last well.

Whether you prefer tallow soap, natural soap, traditional soap, essential oil soap or simply a good old-fashioned bar of soap, the important thing is finding a formulation that works for you.

At Coal & Tallow, that's what we're trying to make.

Proper soap. No nonsense. Made with bovine tallow, plant oils and essential oils.

Explore the Coal & Tallow range of traditional-style Welsh soap bars and find the bar that suits you.

Visit our shop!