My first shaving soap is a success!

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

Do you mean EDTA, Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid. Its a ion chelator, i.e. Bind the salt in the water to have less free salt interacting with soap.

That's the one! Merci.

It's used in small amounts, I know, but I'd prefer to use sodium citrate if I will use anything

 

[verotxu]

"...suprinsingly the mixture became harder..."

Uh, hey, give some thought to what happens when a cool substance of any kind is added to a warm soap. Might that affect the consistency???

Hi!

I forgot to say that the water was warm, maybe not enough hot though....

Cheers

Vero

 

[verotxu]

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?

Hello!

My DH tried yesterday (SA/CO 52/48 SF 5% gliceryn 15%) and did not find it drying, he loved the bubbles!!! I will add some nice butter as SF and see if it benefits the recipe.

Cheers

Vero

 

[LBussy]

Hi!

I forgot to say that the water was warm, maybe not enough hot though....

Cheers

Vero

I find an infra-red thermometer to be invaluable. No more guessing and no cleaning it after.

 

[Sapoho]

Perhaps a silly question, but...
I use SoapMaker software, which allows me to enter cream soaps using a combo of K and NA.
I entered one of the combo recipes linked and set the NA/K ratio. SM calculated I needed a large amount of water, while the posted recipe only called for 6 oz.

By selecting a water discount of 60-63%, it gave me close to the amount the recipe used.
I saw another post mention using the "full water amount of 38%" - is this the same thing, just reversed terminology?

It seems if I used the amount SM recommended, it would have a ton of water to cook/cure out.

 

[DeeAnna]

As far as the issue of lanolin causing sensitivity or dermatitis, it's my understanding that this may be more common when lanolin is used on injured or broken skin, not so much on normal, undamaged skin.

Here's an interesting paper talking about the causes of allergic contact dermatitis (ACD) in moisturizers: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3016930/ The authors list fragrance, parabens, Vitamin E, and essential oils as being the top four ingredients in moisturizers that trigger ACD.

According to the paper, lanolin is the 9th most common trigger for ACD. The authors note, "...reactions to lanolin more frequently occur on compromised skin, yet lanolin is generally safe when added to cosmetics extensively used in the population on noncompromised skin...."

I think three of the top 4 ingredients -- fragrance, Vitamin E, and essential oils -- listed in the paper could be triggers for skin irritation when used in shave soaps. According to this article, "...facial skin has been found to be more sensitive to moisturizers than other parts of the body..."

Anyways ... might be worth a read.

 

[claudep]

A fresh shaved face enter the realm of xompromised skin to me. If it was simply a moisturizer maybe, but with DeeAnna good article, i would really think hard on using lanolin

 

[new12soap]

As far as the issue of lanolin causing sensitivity or dermatitis, it's my understanding that this may be more common when lanolin is used on injured or broken skin, not so much on normal, undamaged skin.

Here's an interesting paper talking about the causes of allergic contact dermatitis (ACD) in moisturizers: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3016930/ The authors list fragrance, parabens, Vitamin E, and essential oils as being the top four ingredients in moisturizers that trigger ACD.

According to the paper, lanolin is the 9th most common trigger for ACD. The authors note, "...reactions to lanolin more frequently occur on compromised skin, yet lanolin is generally safe when added to cosmetics extensively used in the population on noncompromised skin...."

I think three of the top 4 ingredients -- fragrance, Vitamin E, and essential oils -- listed in the paper could be triggers for skin irritation when used in shave soaps. According to this article, "...facial skin has been found to be more sensitive to moisturizers than other parts of the body..."

Anyways ... might be worth a read.

The way I read the article, the list of allergens from the North American Contact Dermatitis Group (NACDG) screening panel was compared to a myriad of moisturizers that can be purchased at walgreens. Lanolin was one such allergen, and was found in only 10% of moisurizers. Eight other allergens were found more commonly in walgreen's products making lanolin the ninth most commonly found in the products they studied. Vitamin e was found in 55% of products. Even though they are listed in this study as the third most common allergen, the way they word it is I think misleading. ACD resulting from vit e is very rare, it is just AN allergen, found third most commonly, not that it is the third most allergic or most reactive.

Incidentally, the study also sites that an allergic contact dermatitis reaction to lanolin can also cross react to other fatty alcohols such as stearyl and cetyl alcohols.

 

[claudep]

New12soap, i like the critic on the design if the study. Often much harder to find study flaw in interpretation of the results!

 

[LBussy]

A fresh shaved face enter the realm of xompromised skin to me. If it was simply a moisturizer maybe, but with DeeAnna good article, i would really think hard on using lanolin

I use Lanolin (and shea) because I like it and it works. A freshly shaved face need not be compromised skin if you don't irritate it to begin with. Lanolin helps avoid that. With the very small amount we use, the fact that nearly all of it rinses off, and it helps you avoid irritation to begin with, it's a good choice for a lot of people.

 

[DeeAnna]

I don't think the study I cited is flawed nor does the paper misrepresent the researchers' purpose. They intended to report the frequency of occurrence of ingredients that may be allergens or irritants in moisturizers. I do think the way I wrote about it in this thread was misleading because I did not choose my words as carefully as I should have. I went back and re-read the article and I think New12soap provided a better and more accurate explanation of the study's purpose than I did.

 

[new12soap]

I'm sorry, DeeAnna, I didn't mean to imply that either you or the study was misleading or incorrect, just that the way they worded the findings could easily be misunderstood. It was a very interesting study.

 

[DeeAnna]

Oh, no apology necessary, New12Soap, but thank you for your thoughtfulness and kindness. I was responding to Claude's assumption that the study was flawed. My response was that my post describing the study was the thing that was flawed. You did a nice job of restating the study results in a more accurate way. All is well.

 

[RhondaJ]

I'm doing a modified version of this recipe as I type and it's been very interesting so far!

My recipe is as follows:

55% SA
35% CO
5% Castor
5% Cocoa Butter
50% NaOH
50% KOH

Standard 5% lye discount
15% Glycerin

I melted all oils in the crock pot together, didn't bother with melting the stearic alone. I also decided to toss the glycerin in with the oils rather than add it after cook. What occurred when I added the lye was almost instant soap! IN less than 5 minutes of stirring it went translucent and by the time I had my additional liquid in the pot it was making bubbles and was soap!

Guess the glycerin works in this soap the same way it helps speed up liquid soap making. It's in the pot cooking a bit longer now, but I'm expecting that when I'm done typing this and do a zap test it's going to be good to go! This will be less than 15 minutes after adding lye solution and liquids!

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

It would be interesting to see. I don't know of any issues with adding the glycerine before the cook - I add mine after as a medium for mixing in the scent.

Looking forward to updates

 

[RhondaJ]

It would be interesting to see. I don't know of any issues with adding the glycerine before the cook - I add mine after as a medium for mixing in the scent.

Looking forward to updates

It's all ready zap tested negative, I'm letting it cook a hair longer though because it seems to be getting a bit smoother, which I hope will help in molding. I'm going to let it go another 10/15 minutes on warm in the crock pot then put into small 3oz individual cavity molds.

 

[IrishLass]

I always add my glycerin to the oils when making my shave soap, too. It just more convenient for me to do it that way. I've never had instant soap with it, though. It usually takes about an hour to an hour and a half for my shave soap to fully cook/saponify to zaplessness. I do mine in the oven set to 180F/82C.

IrishLass

 

[tiptongrange]

I make small 100g batches and cook them in teacups placed in a saucepan of simmering water. I use two teacups, fill one with stearic acid and the other with coconut oil and glycerin, and place them in the saucepan to melt and heat up.

I also use the two stage saponification method described earlier; I mix the KOH solution, pour it into the coconut oil cup that's been heated, and mix for about a minute. I then pour in the stearic acid and mix for about one or two minutes. It passes the zap test at that point and don't see any need to keep cooking. I tried the soap after a few days and it was great, I tried it again after a few weeks and it was even better.

Is there any reason to keep cooking after only a few minutes?

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

It only needs to be cooked until it doesn't zap anymore. If that is a few minutes or a few hours, it is ready when it is ready.

 

[RhondaJ]

Plopped it into individual cavity molds, small 3oz bars, it's firm yet still slightly pliable which I expected. Took the small, leftover piece and headed to the sink as soon as it was cool and started checking out the lather - It's quick to lather and nice and dense, the pic is just about 10 seconds at the sink with it. I expect it to get much nicer over the next few weeks!