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My wife has fallen in love with a fragrance in a soap she tried. I know the oils and percentages used, but am not completely clear on how to make a perfume. Trying the Google leads me to a good number of "how to make homemade perfume" websites that are all different, and all questionable. I...

Has this chart gone missing since the upgrade?

I've used conditioner to shave when I've been travelling and did not have shave soap. It works fine however I find that it does not "float away" the whiskers and causes clogging. For me the secret was creating a soap which was conditioning as well as having a dense lather. My wife has used my...

I think soapers have various practices when it comes to when the glycerin is added. I actually add it to my lye water these days. In that way I am absolutely sure the glycerin is mixed in thoroughly. Because it's non-reactive, it really doesn't matter much when it goes in. Because it loves...

Abbahail, I'm not sure who you were asking. There's 55 pages of discussion in this thread and all of it excellent. If you want a step by step with the recipe, pictures and such, you can look here: http://www.silverfoxcrafts.com/shaving-soap/ If you look at the very first post on this thread...

Congratulations! It's a long and information-filled thread. Well, that depends. :) I have oil-soluble Titanium Dioxide and I add it at the end with the superfats and fragrance. This allows me to use it as a visual aid to see if I have everything well and truly blended. It also comes in a...

Testing is always good! :) I'm just going on my experience with my own recipes - I've not found any additive that substantially improved the shave experience (for me.) Maybe the next time I have to purchase supplies I'll get a little silk and give it a go. Might be a while since I buy in...

I'm not sure a well-crafted shaving soap would benefit by the addition of silk ... as a marketing item/differentiator for soap made for sale it might be interesting, but I'm betting a blind test (literally, so people could not see the soap) would not show a benefit to it.

It's early so my coffee has not fully sunk in yet. You may be saying the right thing but I'm reading it wrong. Do you mean you will add an additional 2.5% of each of those, or retain 2.5% of each of those to add after saponification The latter would be correct. The former would raise your...

I thought Great Britain used Imperial measures for a lot of things?

Didn't we also screw up some mission or other trying to convert between the two? I sure like math using metric measurements better, but I still don't know what to expect out of C ... like, what's comfortable? I know 70F is fine but remembering 21C is comfortable eludes me most times.

Absolutely. About 5% is what I use. As a consumer of shaving soaps, and having made my own for several years, I find I prefer soap made from KOH. It strikes me as a little on the heavy side. I use a little more CO to assist getting the lather whipped up. 25% is what I use. I use 11% of...

I found this process that looks as if it might work for the small amount you'd need: http://www.practicalprimitive.com/skillofthemonth/processingclay.html It still seems horribly labor intensive but people do stranger things for less. :)

Clay, by nature, is impermeable. It is used for instance to plug wells in order to prevent contamination of aquifers by groundwater, to fill dams, and to create barriers in landfills. Anything on the surface should be scraped off and discarded, but anything not exposed should be fine...

You start with a recipe that's carefully thought out and balanced. You then carefully weigh and measure everything. You end up with something that's not what you planned because it all reacted before you could completely combine the ingredients. Do you have a greasy lump of soap? A "hot"...

As a guy who was originally a geology major (what was I going to do with that?!) and worked in a soils engineering lab, I can tell you a little about clay. I would not expect that you could effectively "wash" clay. By it's nature it is finer than silts, meaning it will pass the most fine...

I'm happy to have played a small part! Tallow = goodness so it does not surprise me that you experimented with and enjoyed its contributions. It's all a balancing act and some folks like some qualities over others.

The pH of the finished soap is still quite high. I would expect it to corrode the aluminum. I use tinned steel containers for my soap with good results: http://www.specialtybottle.com/metal-tin-containers/deep-flat-slipcover/8oz-tnf8

Dragging up old threads is always acceptable, unless of course you ask a question that's already answered in it 100 times. :) This time, no, never heard that question before! I have never tried egg yolk, not sure why I would want to really. It would take some pretty good tempering (with the...

Shari answered you. It makes a somewhat pliable soap that can be formed into pucks, but is most generally sold in tins or tubs.