I routinely see multiple posts inquiring about "wool fat" and and others trying to find out which product in a soap might be an irritant etc...
There are many products soap makers use to create our soaps. Tallow being the primary ingredient. Lanolin, usually a secondary ingredient. This post focuses largely on sheep or lamb tallow and lanolin. Beef tallow is another source of tallow as it is much much more common.
Tallow is fat. It resides under the skin of an animal. Below is a picture of my 1.5 yr old lamb. As you can she she is very well fed. Everything white is FAT (Tallow). The primary product is rendered like lard to remove any impurities for the next step. (meat trimmings, wool, dirt, etc.)
Lanolin is the waxy material that forms OUTSIDE of the skin. To my knowledge, sheep are the only source of lanolin. It builds up in the underbelly and the pits of sheep, as well as building up in the wool. It keeps the sheep warm and dry in incliment weather as it assists in repelling water. I took 3 shots of the lanolin. One of the underbelly and another in the wool itself. Keep in mind the wool should be snow white but due to the infusion of lanolin it has turned a yellowish color. Lanolin is separated from wool at a factory that specialises in this sort of thing. I am sure it is more of a chemical separation that a manual separation.
This post is meant to inform and educate those new and experienced. Some marketing names can be misleading such as "wool fat". Wool cant get fat no more than your own hair sweats. The combination of true sheep tallow and lanolin in a shave soap does make for a super slick shave, ie Scots Pine shave soap form Stirling, while other makers have perfected the art of using only sheep tallow as a primary ingerdient such as Haslinger's, and Stirling. (as well as a few others)
I hope this helps separate the misnomer that can come with trademark names and ingredients.
There are many products soap makers use to create our soaps. Tallow being the primary ingredient. Lanolin, usually a secondary ingredient. This post focuses largely on sheep or lamb tallow and lanolin. Beef tallow is another source of tallow as it is much much more common.
Tallow is fat. It resides under the skin of an animal. Below is a picture of my 1.5 yr old lamb. As you can she she is very well fed. Everything white is FAT (Tallow). The primary product is rendered like lard to remove any impurities for the next step. (meat trimmings, wool, dirt, etc.)
Lanolin is the waxy material that forms OUTSIDE of the skin. To my knowledge, sheep are the only source of lanolin. It builds up in the underbelly and the pits of sheep, as well as building up in the wool. It keeps the sheep warm and dry in incliment weather as it assists in repelling water. I took 3 shots of the lanolin. One of the underbelly and another in the wool itself. Keep in mind the wool should be snow white but due to the infusion of lanolin it has turned a yellowish color. Lanolin is separated from wool at a factory that specialises in this sort of thing. I am sure it is more of a chemical separation that a manual separation.
This post is meant to inform and educate those new and experienced. Some marketing names can be misleading such as "wool fat". Wool cant get fat no more than your own hair sweats. The combination of true sheep tallow and lanolin in a shave soap does make for a super slick shave, ie Scots Pine shave soap form Stirling, while other makers have perfected the art of using only sheep tallow as a primary ingerdient such as Haslinger's, and Stirling. (as well as a few others)
I hope this helps separate the misnomer that can come with trademark names and ingredients.
