My first shaving soap is a success!

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

It comes down to 'making-do' or using something great and made for purpose. You can use a knife as a screwdriver, but a screwdriver will be better at it. Doesn't make you a snob, just makes you sensible to use the right tool for the right job.

If you have access to a good shaving soap but carry on using a salt bar then there is something wrong somewhere

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

As promised



This is the palm recipe. It was very thirsty, but produced the goods. Came back after 20 minutes and it looked the same, lathered up the face a little bit and it looked good.

Next will come the shaving tests.

 

[boyago]

So here is the 1st generation of my shave soap. I wanted a bar for this one and did a 60/40 NaOH to KOH mix for the lye and also went way off the reservation from Songwinds recipe as I wanted to use whole fats (this was more of a gut feeling thing than based on much logic). I punched in Songwinds recipe in soapcalc and took the soap attribute values and tried to match them with whole fats. I know that those numbers are ball park and kind of arbitrarily assigned but I figured it was a good place to start. This was a 5% lye reduction for SF. I've been shaving with it every few days since I made it and it definitely got better over time in both lather speed and quality of lather. The second and third gen are all KOH and are aging in. The KOH already produce lather faster but I would like to see how they compare after some aging in.
Fresh:
20 Min in:
You could see a little bit of the lather dieing but the pics probably look most different because the clouds rolled in.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

Looks good!

So how far off of the reservation did you go?

 

[boyago]

So how far off of the reservation did you go?

I went a little Neil Armstong, I did have some CO in it. It was shea, castor, coaco, CO and palm. Pretty much in that order for the first gen. 2nd and 3rd had more more CO and the 3rd I took out the palm.
I plan on doing the Songwind recipe next when I make my next order.

 

[Obsidian]

I think you will find adding steric will help keep your lather more stable so it doesn't break down as quick. I also like a little coco butter for SF to keep the lather from drying.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

Well, I just went Baumgartner - but even after just 1 week + 1 day it's holding it's own -



A very enjoyable shave. This was the lard, a control batch in some ways as my old one was also lard.

Will try the others in the coming shaves

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

Last one - this is the recipe with palm:



Takes a lot of water, especially to get it wet enough for a straight razor shave. Other than that, no clear distinction between this and the lard. Looks like I have my go-to vegan recipe for shaving soap

 

[RhondaJ]

Today my shaving soap that I made on 11/30 is 3 weeks old, and I've been using it to shave for the last 1.5 weeks.

I'm in love and will never buy another commercial shaving cream again! I had come to believe that red, bumpy spots were a given when shaving bikini line, and just learned to live with it. How wrong I was! I've not had a bit of irritation when shaving since I switched over to the soap. DH is a convert as well....to the trash bin with all the store bought shaving cream!

I do think I'm going to tinker a bit with this and see if I can't make it even better, but for a first attempt I am THRILLED!

 

[RhondaJ]

So I tweaked and experimented a bit tonight and switched things up

I used the following in a small 10oz batch with a 3% lye discount

50% Stearic Acid
24% Tallow
20% Coconut
6% Castor

70% KOH, 30% NaOH - dissolved in 2oz water - remainder of liquid was split between Aloe Gel from my plants in the yard and coconut milk

1.5 oz glycerin added after cook.
2% superfat after cook using 1/2 cocoa butter / 1/2 shea butter

Plopped it into the mold and let it cool and setup, as soon as I could cut it I snatched the rough end piece and checked the lather. It lathered a lot faster and easier than the test batch I did the other day with all tallow and no coconut, but definitely feels slicker and creamier than the coconut only I did the first time.

Not drying at all for being so fresh, I'm definitely feeling this new recipe

Don't mind the bad photos, I'm not a great photographer and my phone hates me tonight!

First photo - pre loaded the brush for about 10 seconds then used my hand to build the lather, looks very dense and is sooooo creamy

Second photo - the brush 20 minutes later, it's staying firm.

 

[LBussy]

Looks like you have a winner! A shaving soap with tallow should not have a drying feeling at all - and HP is not going to change as it ages except for lowering the moisture content. I make mine with 5% SF and use a total of 10% shea and lanolin (expecting those to be in the SF since they sapponify much slower). I would suggest that as an experiment as you have time. There is a very large difference between the vegan CO/SA saps (as good as they are) and the tallow with some butters.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

.......and HP is not going to change as it ages except for lowering the moisture content. .......

I have to say that I find that to be different - hp soaps also benefit from a cure as there is more about curing than water loss. Now, how much of a benefit it is with a pure KOH soap, I think a liquid soap expert will have to chime in about that

 

[reinbeau]

I'm no liquid soap expert, but I'm reading that new Liquid Soapmaking book that just came out and she does mention letting things set for a few days - not weeks, though.

Disclaimer - linked for informational purposes only, not to sell the book

 

[LBussy]

I have to say that I find that to be different - hp soaps also benefit from a cure as there is more about curing than water loss. Now, how much of a benefit it is with a pure KOH soap, I think a liquid soap expert will have to chime in about that

Anything is possible. Like you said, NaOH vs KOH is a consideration. I also use a longer cook than most folks - 2 hrs. It's "done" at 30 mins. Heat accelerates most reactions so maybe I am force-aging.

I shave with my soaps the next day because most of the time I am working in the afternoon and I shave in the morning. So, it's rare that a soap ages more than 12 hours or so before use. I have not noticed any changes over time but I also have not specifically tested for that.

 

[boyago]

Though I am brand new to making and using shave soaps I've been experimenting with my own. My 1st generation was 60/40 NaOH to KOH and I definitely noticed it aged into betterness. Though like always I'm kicking myself for less than detailed notes the soap that was made on 11/22 has notes of "better lather" on 12/12. I remember it being a little faster to lather and the resulting lather was denser and felt like it was thicker/closer/hugging my face closer than it previously did while brushing on my face. My 100% KOH batches don't seem to be changing as much as the mixed ones, I do imagine they are changing a bit though. I think I read somewhere that the MDC brand mentions a five week cure so I think there is at least a belief that aging adds a little something.

Edit: I did go ahead and test the lather of my later 100% KOH soap again last night. This was made 12/11 and last night after getting back to town and the soap did indeed perform better. I got an explosion of lather. I had been missing the level of lather pr0n that other were achieving with Songwinds recipe and figured it was mostly the large amount of butters I was using to get the stearic up without using straight SA. I tested this soap pretty often the first week and then got distracted as well as leaving town for the holiday. I'm guessing the progress may be in part because the SA may be saponifying faster than the whole oils and the time is needed for the for the Lye to get around to all the fats and convert them to soap.

 

[LBussy]

I thought MdeC was a 5 month cure, but yes they definitely do make a point to mention it.

 

[rainycityjen]

Something I've always wondered ... MdeC lists stearic acid and coconut acid as its two fatty acid ingredients. Shaving soap enthusiasts substitute coconut oil for coconut acid. But INCI-wise, they are different, yes? What if you substituted straight lauric acid instead? I doubt you'd be able to get coconut acid itself, since it appears to be an ingredient only available in commercial bulk.

 

[rainycityjen]

To reply AGAIN, I want to add another testimonial about the basic process/recipe. I just cooked the following:

47% stearic acid
23% coconut oil
20% beef tallow
5% castor oil
5% avocado oil

Glycerin at 14% added after cook; aloe juice in place of water. FO blend of 60/40 locally purchased Eastern Sandalwood and BB Black Tea. (SO good.) Immediately after cook it had huge lather and I can't wait to test in a day or two.

 

[DeeAnna]

Coconut acid is just the fatty acids derived from coconut oil -- mostly myristic and lauric acids with a dash of the shorter-chain and longer-chain acids. The essential difference between using coconut oil vs. coconut acid would be the glycerin you get from saponifying the oil.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

And from what we know of shaving soaps, unless the acid alone is cheaper than the oil, I'll imagine it makes more sense to use the oil