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Serious shavers will only use soap made with 100% KOH.

Tea tree works for me.

Fats (and stearic) all in together at the start, add the KOH solution at the end. I always microwave cook my shaving soap. Superfat isn't about when you add fats, it's about the proportions of lye to fat in the mixture.

I use 50% coconut oil and superfat at 20%. All the fats are in at the start.

What country would that be? As far as I know palm and coconut are the cheapest oils in every country. Along with animal fats ...... DeeAnna's idea of using road kill is quite a good one. I'll name my new company "Dead Dog Soap Works" to honour her thoughts.

I have, essentially palm kernel, coconut oil and stearic acid. 50/50 koh/naoh microwave hot process. Works well. Next year I'll try it with 20gm stearic and no castor (to make it harder). Cost $3 for 1kg 50/50 Coconut/palm Kernel. $3 for 0.5Kg stearic acid, $3 for 450ml castor, $2 for 1kg lye...

I use this from my local baking supplies shop $3/Kg (50% coconut, 50% Palm Kernel), makes great soap (20% superfat), no other oil needed. Finished soap bars on the left. I'm not far from you, the supermarkets in Asia are the wrong place for you to look for the base oils, you need a...

I'm not convinced there is any real science in these 'fat' discussions. Saponification doesn't care what fat you started with. Buy what's cheap, Coconut & palm kernel ..... they make great soaps. Or free, if you have access to dead animals.

The coconut oil should be fine. But not the palm olien. Palm kernel oil is great for making soap, high in stearin. I use these two oils all the time soap.

Like everyone else says 5% Castor maximum. I'd also forget the Shea butter, it adds nothing to the soap and is expensive. (Try a batch without it, then do a blind test, nobody will be able to tell the difference.)

Often shortening has 10% to 20% water content. (It's in the small print on the label) Although this product does appear to be 100%.

I've never found anywhere local selling Palm Oil (and I've looked), It's all Palm Kernel Oil, maybe it's available in your country. Anyway, changed my post to 'Palm ko' to take in your concerns.

50% palm ko, 50% coconut with 20% superfat (gives a nice white cold process bar). $2.50/Kg at my local bakery store (not local to you though), no other fats required. Cheap to make (4x 250gm bars for under $3) but a little soft for the first 2-3 days after pouring, add more palm stearin if you...

Merkur Futur (aka Ming Shi S2000) safety razor 'clone' from aliexpress around $10, 100 blades another $10. Hardly expensive. I'm on my 3rd blade this year, still on the free box of 10 that came with the razor.

Doesn't really matter as far as I can see, you just cook longer if you have more water. I usually microwave my shaving soap until it's stiff enough. I just cook enough for me. 300gm lasts a year. Microwave until foam (30s) stir down, repeat until ready.

If you're making shaving soap, you need aftershave balm to complete the shave. 25gm Aloe, 25gm Thakkers Witch hazel, 5gm glycerin, whip it up with 3 drops of fragrance oil for an 'Arko' experience at a fraction of the price.

I cheat the HP in my microwave. Heat until foams stir it down, then repeat until cooked.

I'm in SEA, even less choice than NZ. Essentially I can use palm/coconut combinations and expensive imported olive oil. No point wasting money, 50/50 palm/coconut mix cooking oil is $2/kg. Olive oil is $10/kg and up, castor oil $14/kg. I make shaving soap to save money. Imported shaving soap...

I've added 35gm of bentonite to 500gm of fats. Just chucked it in the hot oil, before turning on the food mixer and mixed for a minute. Stopped, added the lye water, mixed with a spoon for a few seconds. Then started the mixer. I hold a newspaper over the bowl when the mixer is on to stop...

Complete rubbish, stirring in 1 direction makes no difference to any experiment. As for splashing, I use a foodmixer and hold a bit of paper or card over the top to stop splashing.