If you’ve been following us for some time, then you know we have been making pine tar soap since 2013. It is one of the staples in our tallow balm and soap collection. We often talk about it on our social media and thought it was time for our Pine Tar 20% soap to get the respect it deserves with an entire blog on its creation, benefits, and properties. Pine Tar has been around for thousands of years and can be found across a wide range of skincare products such as soap, lotions, and gels. It is also used in other industries such as woodworking, maritime, veterinary, and medicine.
How do we make our Pine Tar 20% Tallow Soap?
In order to make pine tar tallow soap, we begin by purchasing genuine pine tar. We source our pine tar from a Swedish company called Tjärfärg från Auson. They provide high-quality pine tar that we use for our soaps and balms. Pine tar is the end product of pine wood carbonization following distillation using extreme heat. The pine tar we use in our soaps is made the old-fashioned way. The old-fashioned way to create pine tar is by burning a pine tree stump in a kiln, and the result is known as “genuine peasant-made tar.” Kiln-burned pine tar is usually a dark golden color and contains a high resin content while maintaining a low pitch and high purity content. It is an extremely pure form of pine tar that we mix with other all-natural ingredients to make our soothing soaps.
The process of making our Pine Tar 20% tallow soap isn’t different from any of our other soaps. Once the tallow is almost formed and ready to be set, we mix in the pine tar with our tallow mixture then it is ready to be placed into the mold that shapes the soaps. After we pour our mixture into the mold, we allow the soap to set for one day. Then we cut the soaps into individual bars and let them cure for four weeks. Curing time for the tallow is four weeks is standard practice.
What are the benefits of pine tar oil in soaps?
Even though pine tar is not an essential oil, it still has a long and impressive list of benefits that should be recognized. The “genuine peasant-made tar” that we use in our soaps is high-quality pine tar that contains benefits such as antifungal, anti-inflammatory, antipruritic, and antibacterial properties.
It is excellent for relief from long and short-term skin conditions alike. In fact, pine tar has been an extremely valuable resource in the skincare and medicine industry as it can help soothe skin conditions such as dry skin, eczema, dermatitis, psoriasis, hives, and other dry, flaky, or itchy skin conditions.
How do pine tar soaps smell and feel?
While we can’t speak for all pine tar products, our Pine Tar 20% tallow soap has a strong and bold scent that is often referred to as a woodsy, campfire scent. It may be intense for some, especially if you are unfamiliar with pine tar soaps, but most people really enjoy the smell. We have some customers who may not favor the scent but choose to use the soap for its incredible benefits. It is a very personal decision based on personal preferences, but we know it is in the rotation for us.
Like all of our other soaps, minus the Coffee! and Pumice soaps which are exfoliators, this soap provides a silky-smooth lather. It is excellent for moisturizing your skin and locking in essential nutrients that help your skin stay moisturized and smooth all day. The pine tar mixed with the tallow is as soothing as a combination you can get. While the tallow is known for keeping your skin smooth, moisturized, and tight, pine tar is also known for similar uses, and both can help soothe common ailments that other soaps simply can’t.
If you haven’t tried our Pine Tar 20% tallow soap, we recommend picking up a bar today. It is a soap that will have your body’s largest organ, your skin, feeling and looking its best.
