First Shave Soap in Mug and Altoid Tin

SoapHappyNYC · Dec 9, 2013

I made shave soap for the first time to give as a gift this holiday season. I used songwind's recipe, substituting leather FO since the recipient likes the scent of leather and instead of crockpot I used the double boiler method. Here's what I learned: 1. KO is more reactive than Sodium Hydroxide and I had to pour it in very slowly 2. trace occurred very quickly 3. zap testing it, everything turned out fine but it wasn't very pleasant...like what tasting shaving cream would be like 4. my entire apartment now smells like brand new leather and i have the windows open to air it out! Not sure if HP is responsible for this since I used .25 oz of FO. It lathers nicely, even before the 24 hours needed for it to set and is slowly becoming a nice white color. I am using a ceramic mug and an Altoid tin, so far so good on both.

The Efficacious Gentleman · Dec 10, 2013

Looks good.

Personally, I wouldn't fill it right up to the brim if it's going to be lathered in the container so the lather keeps together a bit more

Lin · Dec 10, 2013

Yea, that surprised me that you filled the mug up all the way. I thought they were only filled about halfway because they used the mug to lather, instead of having shaving cream in one container and the separate bowl to lather?

SoapHappyNYC · Dec 10, 2013

You know, I was soa glad theI recipe worked it didn't occur to me to leave some space for lathering. Ha ha maybe I can scoop some out or redo if necessary.

shunt2011 · Dec 10, 2013

Also, you could end up with a chemical reaction in the tin as well as rusting. Congratulations on your shave soap. I've got everything to make it but now need to find the time.