What is commercial steric? Mine comes from MMS https://www.thesage.com/catalog/products/Stearic-Acid.html
What is commercial steric? Mine comes from MMS https://www.thesage.com/catalog/products/Stearic-Acid.html
I would recommend using full water with this recipe, might help keep it softer. For those of you who have made songwinds original recipe, how does this soap leave your skin feeling? Is it drying or waxy at all? Has anyone tried adding a nice SF like coco butter or shea?
The soap being hard when put in tins is just what shaving soap does/is. I glop it in and smooth with he back of a large SS spoon and it's just fine.My shaving soap has not changed its appereance, it is as white and hard as in the beginning....I will try tomorrow to conduct the same recipe but with the commercial stearine in order to see if the results are more alike yours....will post results!!
I don't think you did anything wrong. I use 33% and by the time my HP is done (2 hrs) nearly all of the water has cooked out. If I don't get it in tins when hot it's a rough process.It might be also that the recipe needed more water...I added 100% KOH in a concentration of 30%
Just trying to figure it out what I did wrong...
Vero
I use a 5% SF of "special oils" and that helps in this respect (done after the cook). Yes, the "pure" clones are not conditioning at all, but an after-shave milk really does wonders in this area.I would recommend using full water with this recipe, might help keep it softer. For those of you who have made songwinds original recipe, how does this soap leave your skin feeling? Is it drying or waxy at all? Has anyone tried adding a nice SF like coco butter or shea?
If your razor is clogging it's more likely to be that you are not using enough water. The lather is there to hold moisture against your skin. While the "lather p0rn" (can you believe that word is censored out?!) photos are pretty, that's not the lather you should be putting on your face. Experiment with the soap, keep adding water till it completely falls apart, then back up a drop. After properly worked up the lather should be more yogurt than whipped cream. I shave with a straight and it's very easy to tell when rinsing if there's not enough water. You can probably try the same with the back of a spoon or a bread knife. It should rinse easily, and not require rubbing or a "stream" of water.Well, sf should inhibit lather. Since lather is what is sought in a shaving soap, i wouldn't add much. Also, if there is more oil in the lather, it will kore likely be harder to rince off the razor and could clogg the head.
I did my take on this receipe, and wouldn't change it.
CO has nice properties but I agree, it should not be a CO soap for shaving - ideally. Jabonman is a little on the heavy side with moisturizers I think but that is a personal choice. I like to finish about the same as I started, and if I need conditioning I'll add it after.I find it very drying. All of the MdC clones are not very conditioning. Catie's Bubbles and WSP come to mind. The soap makers that use some conditioning oils and/or butters are a little better in terms of face feel but not much.
Sure, they lather like a dream but so does a good tallow like Cold River Soap Works, Jabonman and MWF once you get it "dialed in". I like the lather of tallow better, so creamy!
Not everyone will have the same opinion or experience with the coconut oil soaps and that's fine. Some love them, some don't.
Not arguing ... just curious how melting stearic separately is easier than just lumping it all in together? I've measured and if my oils are at ~155 and my lye is at ~110 the mixture hits 170 after combining them. This is a great temp for me because the stearic is liquid of course and does not allow it to harden again when a cooler liquid is added. Dropping the lye down to 90 makes the subsequent mix ~150 which is still good - I get more consistent results when making sure the stearic is melted.
A comment on the jars though. You make it sound like those may be glass jars and I hope I'm wrong on that. Things get slippery and broken glass flying around with bare feet (and whatever else may be bare when a man shaves) is a bad thing ...
You would be AMAZED at how spry a half-asleep middle-aged man can be when properly motivated.
It's tough to tell with pics but the MdC looks as if it's not worked up enough. Also try just adding more water till it start to run a *tiny* bit. It is not a moisturizing soap but it's not a sub-par one either.
Interesting discussion about MdC. I had assumed the 50/50 soap we made here and at B and B was as good a copy as possible. Regardless, the 50/50 recipe is very easy to lather and with the 15% by oil weight in added glycerin, the soap leaves my face feeling pretty good.
That said, while the tallow Williams clone I make is slightly more work to make a lather, nothing beats the creamy slickness imparted by the tallow I am considering adding some lanolin to my recipe...might be a great combo.
"It" being tallow? Lanolin?Watch for the irritation some people feel with it. If it makes the soap a step-change better, awesomes. If not, it might not be worth having it in there.
"It" being tallow? Lanolin?
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