My first shaving soap is a success!

[vyadha]

I just tried my batch last night! It worked well, despite the softness & inconsistency I had after the cook. And loading it into lotion stick containers so far seems like it was a good idea for the way I use it!

Im going to put my next batch into sticks after reading this. Still, I love how the stuff has hardened up nicely, especially the lanolin and tallow ones.

Time to strop.

So after 5 weeks of shaving with this recipe along with a beef tallow addition and a lanolin addition in separate batches, Im in love with the lanolin.

I kept trying the glycerin and was wondering why I couldn't it wet enough and then I remembered that the glycerin I used was from my biodiesel making friend. So it must be behaving differently with whatever else in there with it.

We did heat it up and aerate it before using but it is still very different than store bought glycerin. Looks like Im making another batch this week.

Still, the lanolin is superb.

 

[cappykat]

I made this soap (8oz) but didn't get the lather you show. I used 38% water and 3% SF and added 1/4 tsp sodium lactate and 1 tsp glycerin after the cook. I used 3.04 oz water and 1.76 oz of KOH. Did I miss something? Thank you for your help.

 

[boyago]

So after 5 weeks of shaving with this recipe along with a beef tallow addition and a lanolin addition in separate batches, Im in love with the lanolin.

I kept trying the glycerin and was wondering why I couldn't it wet enough and then I remembered that the glycerin I used was from my biodiesel making friend. So it must be behaving differently with whatever else in there with it.

We did heat it up and aerate it before using but it is still very different than store bought glycerin. Looks like Im making another batch this week.

Still, the lanolin is superb.

In thinking about your glycerin coming from biodiesel, and I appologize my chemistry isn't what it should be when talking about these things, but if in smaller scale systems sometime there is water used at two stages of production. Before the diesel is made and in certain systems again after. Depending on when they pulled the glycerin it may already be saturated with H2O. If you have allot of it or it's a free source I'd maybe fill a pot with it and heat it to above 212F, if you get bubbling and boiling you have allot of water in your glycerin. You can just keep it going at that temp (maybe with a fan on it) to boil it off as well.
Again I'm no chem whiz but that might be what's giving the adverse effect with your glycerin. I figure at the very least it might throw off your weights.

 

[vyadha]

In thinking about your glycerin coming from biodiesel, and I appologize my chemistry isn't what it should be when talking about these things, but if in smaller scale systems sometime there is water used at two stages of production. Before the diesel is made and in certain systems again after. Depending on when they pulled the glycerin it may already be saturated with H2O. If you have allot of it or it's a free source I'd maybe fill a pot with it and heat it to above 212F, if you get bubbling and boiling you have allot of water in your glycerin. You can just keep it going at that temp (maybe with a fan on it) to boil it off as well.
Again I'm no chem whiz but that might be what's giving the adverse effect with your glycerin. I figure at the very least it might throw off your weights.

Thanks man! It bubbled like crazy when we heated it up. Ill give it another try.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

I made this soap (8oz) but didn't get the lather you show. I used 38% water and 3% SF and added 1/4 tsp sodium lactate and 1 tsp glycerin after the cook. I used 3.04 oz water and 1.76 oz of KOH. Did I miss something? Thank you for your help.

I would have used more glycerine I think - I can't work in those funny units ( ) but I add in glycerine at 15% of the oil weight. So in a 1kg batch I would add 150g glycerine. Not sure how much 1tsp is to 8oz.

Also, how are you at lathering soaps in general? It can be a very thirsty soap, as well to bear in mind

 

[cappykat]

I think 1 tsp to 8oz is about 12.5% of total weight. I was going for 11% because that's what I had read, but I went ahead and used the full teaspoon. "Thirsty"?? Meaning, add water when working the lather? I get a pretty good lather just not "lofty".

 

[Possum_Magic]

I've made this recipe twice and love it!

 

[MrsSpaceship]

This is my second soap (ok third, but we don't mention my first attempt). I made it to the original post specifications and wow, this is amazing, how do you even try to improve upon something this great?
Since I'm just making it for my husband, I only made a 1 lb. batch, and it went amazingly well. I got full melt of the stearic at 130F, because I was doing HP I added my lye hot (160). I got instant mashed potatoes.
I cooked to the vaseline stage and got a delayed zap and litmus showed at about 8.5-9 and phenothaline came up clear, but I cooked longer just in case before molding (my tongue was sore so I didn't trust zap and planned on letting it age a few weeks).
I added glycerin and tangerine FO at the end of the cook but think I flashed most of the scent off by accident, the soap carries a faint whiff, but very little carries over to the face.
We figured out that this soap needs more water to work up a lather, but even a lazy attempt built up enough to provide a better shave than had been previously achieved with purchased soaps. (Whoohooo!!) This works awesome if you load the brush on the soap then whip it in a separate bowl.
This soap didn't leave the usual "emollient" trace/feel on the skin after shaving, but in my husbands case it left the skin feeling very normal, not dry and itch or slick or moisturized... just good.
I tried to use this on my legs, and the lather is so thick it kind of clogged my disposable 3 bladed razor (hubby uses a safety razor).
I want to try other recipes for shave soap, but this is certainly a tough act to follow. Thank you so much Songwind for sharing.
For those of you that are visual, here are some pics.

This is my husbands "lazy" lather (about 20 seconds worth of work to humor me)

This is what it looks like after you load the brush from the soap then work it in a separate bowl. It's so pretty!!

 

[LBussy]

I tried to use this on my legs, and the lather is so thick it kind of clogged my disposable 3 bladed razor (hubby uses a safety razor).

That's generally an indication that you need a little more water in the lather - it will hold quite a lot.

I shave with a straight and I judge the lather by how it runs off the blade when rinsed - you could probably do the same with a butter knife. If it flies right off when run under warm water then there's not enough soap. If it takes more than a few seconds to rinse off it likely needs more water. It should come off sort of like butter melting on a hot pan.

 

[MrsSpaceship]

That's generally an indication that you need a little more water in the lather - it will hold quite a lot.

I shave with a straight and I judge the lather by how it runs off the blade when rinsed - you could probably do the same with a butter knife. If it flies right off when run under warm water then there's not enough soap. If it takes more than a few seconds to rinse off it likely needs more water. It should come off sort of like butter melting on a hot pan.

Thanks LBussy, good to know, it was just a test shave on my part, I'll ask hubby how it works for him.

 

[hmlove1218]

Ok, I'm admitting that I haven't made it all the way through this thread yet, so the answer may be here, but could shave soap be made with NaOH only? I don't have any KOH, but would like to try it.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

It could - but it wouldn't be very good at all. KOH really makes it what it is, even if you only use 40% KOH and 60% NaOH

 

[hmlove1218]

Thanks! I'll try to get some KOH ordered then.

 

[IrishLass]

Ok, I'm admitting that I haven't made it all the way through this thread yet, so the answer may be here, but could shave soap be made with NaOH only? I don't have any KOH, but would like to try it.

I 'm afraid I'm going to have to differ with the Gent on this one (sorry Gent). I will let it slide, though, since he has never tried my NaOH-only soap.

If you ask my hubby and the 2 other wet-shaving dudes that have tested my NaOH-only shave soap to date, they will tell you that it is quite good and that if it was the only shave soap that they could ever shave with for the rest of their lives, they would all shave happy with it.

Is it the best shave soap in existence ever? No.

Is there better shave soap on the planet? Most definitely yes (such as my updated formula that contains 64% KOH and 36% NaOH). But since my NaOH-only formula performs quite nicely nevertheless, I say 'yes' to your question as to whether you can make a good shave soap with only NaOH. The trick is in the formulation (high stearic content/low myristic and lauric content, additives to enhance creaminess and sustained lather), and also in the way it is lathered (you want to make sure to use enough water when lathering it), but yes- if you ask me and my tester dudes, it can be done......and CP'd to boot, mind you!


IrishLass

 

[LBussy]

I've done it, I prefer KOH. Compared to canned goo it's pretty good though.

To me, soaps which contain any NaOH feels "grittier" although that's not quite the right term either. I've yet to hear a good reason for me to use NaOH so I use 100% KOH. It's definitely hard enough to make pucks.

 

[Saponomancer]

Just finished reading all the way through this thread, oosh thats a lot of information to take in, I'll be ordering some KOH soon to give make a shave soap go at 50/50 with Naoh 50% Coconut oil, 40% searic acid, 5% castor and 5% sf coco butter, with an addition of 7% glycerin. using the split method I'm being told guys around here like mentholated soaps so peppermint it is.

 

[LBussy]

Menthol is not peppermint - although peppermint can have some of the same properties.

You can pick up a pound of menthol crystals on eBay for next to nothing.

 

[Saponomancer]

Menthol is not peppermint - although peppermint can have some of the same properties.

You can pick up a pound of menthol crystals on eBay for next to nothing.

I did actually know they aren't the same although afaik, and I could be wrong, menthol is derived from peppermint, and I have the oil on hand. Is there any significant problem with choosing that as a scent to go along with their enjoyment of those properties?

 

[LBussy]

It can be derived from Peppermint among others - although I think most of the commercial crops now come from India from the Mentha arvensis.

No, no problem at all if you like the peppermint. I made a peppermint/vanilla soap that was pretty nice. Ended up adding menthol to it though as it didn't have the tingle I wanted.

 

[Saponomancer]

It can be derived from Peppermint among others - although I think most of the commercial crops now come from India from the Mentha arvensis.

No, no problem at all if you like the peppermint. I made a peppermint/vanilla soap that was pretty nice. Ended up adding menthol to it though as it didn't have the tingle I wanted.

Aha, I will take the lack of oomph under advisement
I'm actually considering peppermint/cedar or peppermint/lemongrass, the latter of which is my favorite scent personally