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High stearic acid gives that slippery sensation I've found, along with some superfat like shea butter or cocoa butter (and if you get non-deodorized cocoa butter, it briefly smells of chocolate, too). If you want pure stearic acid it's easier to get fully hydrogenated soy bean oil, aka soy wax...

No aluminum, even coated -- it will eventually react with the soap and make grey nasty yuck (and eat holes in the container). Plastic is fine, so is coated steel. 4 oz is a good size, and 6 oz is fine. My shaving soap is hard enough to cut into pucks and wrap, so you can do that too if you...

I made a soap with soy and canola oil with some soy wax added to harden it up. Stayed soft for months, but eventually became very nice soap. You will have to wait a while with that much olive oil, I think, for it to fully cure. I would only use full water for hot process soap, it's...

Maybe, maybe not. Depends on the buffering capacity of the two solutions and what they are.

You can make another identical batch with no scent and mix the old one in and melt them together, but that will just get you twice as much soap with a scent you don't care for. The scent will definitely mellow in a couple months with the soap unwrapped, but it may still be too strong...

0.3 oz of FO per pound is on the light side for scents that "pop" -- and way too heavy for me. But then I want to barely smell shaving soap, strong scents are way too much to put on my face. Is this soap intended for face shaving, or legs?

The "magic number" for shaving soap is 50% or more stearic plus palmitic acid. Less than that and the lather will collapse too fast and the soap will not usually be slick enough for shaving, especially face shaving (legs are somewhat more tolerant of less slick lather). Consider adding some...

You should get great lather with that recipe, so something is wrong. Not the glycerin unless you used a huge amount, in which case you will get mush and not semi-hard soap. Castor will act very much like coconut oil in shaving soap. I don't think it improves the soap much, but am still in...

My balanced bars, a little on the small side, last me a month or so each, one shower per day. I think they last as long a commercial "soap" does, at least for me. As noted, high amounts of coconut oil will result in less "life" while high stearic/palmitic acid will result in slower...

High stearic acid % (or palmitic, they are the same for this purpose) makes the shaving soap lather properly, along with at least 60% KOH in the lye. You won't need clay to make it "slippery" if you have enough stearic acid. My current recipes are running 60% Stearic +palmitic aicd, and I've...

Shaving soap is pretty easy: 50+ % stearic acid, low oleic/linoleic acid, at least 60% KOH in the lye. How you get there doesn't matter much, the high stearic/palmitic and low unsaturated fatty acid ratio makes it work. Shaving CREAM will need to have similar fatty acid profiles, but DeeAnna...

Yup. It will shave as well as it lathers, too. I've not made the high coconut oil version, mine is tallow, SA, 10% CO and a few other things, but it lathers the same way. A few swirls on the soap with a wet brush and you get more than enough slick lather for a three pass shave. Only drawback...

I believe that's correct, but I'm sure Lee will chime in. I don't worry about it excessively, since I plan 5% superfat anyway. You can also use fully hydrogenated soybean oil (soy wax 415 I think) which is easier to calculate. Soap will be somewhat harder with the soy wax but shaves just...

Melt the lard and stir in a reasonable amount of water, allow it to stand until the water settles out, chill, and remove the lard. This should remove nearly all the salt in the lard. Salt won't hurt the soap though.

It may be a little less bubbly without the castor, but I'm betting you would never notice. Just substitute something else and run it through a lye calculator with the change. Sugar will help with the bubbly -- just remember it will also increase heating if that is an issue with this soap.

Doesn't matter if it's KOH or NaOH, the disodium salt will dissolve and that's what you need. In any case, the potassium ions will displace the sodium when it's dissolved. Far easier than attempting to make tetrasodium EDTA just to dissolve it in a strong lye solution. The amount of lye...

Just dissolve the disodium EDTA in your lye (it's not very soluble in plain water). EDTA in the acid form can be used exactly the same way, just remember it will consume a little bit of lye.

You can re-batch with added KOH, but it's going to be very soft.

Soft bars of home-made soap are pretty much par for the course -- there is more glycerine and water in them to start with, so they absorb more water and end up softer. I don't see that as a problem, it just means they lather up faster to me. My soap seems to last as long as commercial soap...

I don't think dairy or sugar has much impact on shelf life of soap. HP still needs a six week cure, it's just saponified completely a couple days faster than CP, the rest of the "cure" process is the same.