My first shaving soap is a success!

[Misschief]

For some reason, I can't access the articles. WP wants my login, even though I'm already logged in to my own WP account.

NM, there are more than one ways to skin a cat. I found your thread "Shaving Soap - Want to Make It?" and linked to the articles from there. Even though I've read the articles before, I'll be reading them a little differently now, now that I've already made one batch.

Thanks Lee and Craig! I already want to try making another batch.

 

[LBussy]

Um ... weird. Sec.

For some reason, I can't access the articles. WP wants my login, even though I'm already logged in to my own WP account.

Fixed ... The links on that page were to edit the pages for some strange reason. Thanks for letting me know.

 

[Misschief]

No worries. I remembered that I had read your articles once before. Just finished reading again and it all made so much more sense this time. Even though I should probably be making more beer soap today, I think I'll do up a small batch of shaving soap with your recipe, just so that my husband has something to compare.

Thank you, Lee and all of you who contributed to this thread. I'm constantly amazed at the knowledge that is so freely shared here and the ever so helpful fellow soapers who are free with their time, advice, and best of all, encouragement.

ETA: And, here's last night's soap...

 

[newbie]

I thought I would share my recent experience with this soap. I made a bunch up in dishes some time ago and had brought one up to the sink to try again. I turned the dish over so any extra water would run out, hoping it would dry the soap faster. And then forgot about it. Later, I loaded the dishwasher and as it started running, I saw gobs of bubbles coming out of the bottom crack. I opened the door to find the DW full of the most awesome, dense, foamy lather that I scooped out and scooped out and scooped out. I was amazed that the little bit of soap I left on my equipment could produce such abundance. I almost called the person I made soap with for Xmas presents to tell her the recipients were going to be very pleased! Having relieved the DW of most of its foam burden, I closed it and it started again. About ten minutes later there was foam coming out again. I opened it to find a world of bigger bubbled lather going up to the second rack- light huge bubbles. I scooped and scooped and scooped again, loading the new stuff on top of the first stuff which was still holding its shape in the sink. What had I done to my recipe that resulted in such spectacular results?

When I emptied the DW, I found bits of dried foam on the dishes and pulled out the formerly completely full dish of shaving soap, which was now at least 3/4 empty. Ah. Well, it surely is a fantastic recipe!! After removing the shaving soap, I ran the load again, hoping I hadn't ruined my DW but it worked just fine and my dishes were sparkling clean.

Thanks for the recipe, Songwind. I will refrain from trying it in my washing machine next.

 

[Misschief]

Oh dear.. I'm laughing so hard I have tears! I can just picture it! Thank you for the laughs, newbie! I needed that!

John (my husband) tried it today and called it a success. He really, really likes it!

 

[songwind]

Thanks for the recipe, Songwind. I will refrain from trying it in my washing machine next.

Maybe start small, like with a wash board and wringer?

 

[iorgu]

Hi all,

i just made this recipe. It is truly a great shaving soap. I shave with a straight razor. Now i want to add some bay rum scent in it. Any idea about what percentage of each bay leave, lime, clove and cinnamon essential oils should i add for a classic bay rum scent?

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

Welcome!

The bay in bay rum is not bay leaf - I can't look up the Latin at the moment. I would look at a good bay rum FO instead

 

[Misschief]

I used Bay Rum e.o. in mine, along with a bit of lime. In the first batch, I used 1/2 tsp. bay rum e.o. and 1/2 tsp lime e.o. I find the lime to be a bit overpowering so, in the second batch (Lee's recipe...awesome!!), I used 1/4 tsp. lime and 1/2 tsp. bay rum.

Both my husband and I like it... at that rate, it isn't overpowering, just.... there.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

What sort of blend is that eo? Do they list the amounts of each individual eo used to make the blend?

 

[Misschief]

All it says on the bottle is Bay Rum (Piment officinalis), West Indies

 

[traderbren]

I just did a quick search. It seems Bay Oil or Bay Rum Oil is from the Bay tree, Pimenta Racemosa. Our bay leaves here are usually from the Bay Laurel tree, laurus nobilis.

 

[iorgu]

I have Pimenta Racemosa essential oil, not Laurus Nobilis, but by itself it doesn't smell like the bay rum i am used with from the soaps like OSP Bay Rum and Mike's Soap Bay Rum, if you know them (i also heard that these two are smelling pretty close to the classic bay rum). I have clove also, and i know that it is used in bay rum. I also know that OSP (probably Mike's too) uses cinnamon and lime in conjunction with bay and clover. These two i don't have yet, i tryied bay, clove and orange and it doesn''t really smell like the real deal.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

All it says on the bottle is Bay Rum (Piment officinalis), West Indies

Then it is indeed mis-labeled - it is bay OIL. Bay RUM is that mixture which includes bay OIL, but is not alone the same. which is why......

I have Pimenta Racemosa essential oil, not Laurus Nobilis, but by itself it doesn't smell like the bay rum i am used with from the soaps like OSP Bay Rum and Mike's Soap Bay Rum, if you know them (i also heard that these two are smelling pretty close to the classic bay rum). I have clove also, and i know that it is used in bay rum. I also know that OSP (probably Mike's too) uses cinnamon and lime in conjunction with bay and clover. These two i don't have yet, i tryied bay, clove and orange and it doesn''t really smell like the real deal.

........the bay oil alone doesn't smell like bay rum - it does need the added scents to make it really bay rum instead of bay oil. Finding the exact mix can be tricky. I make a Bay Rum aftershave using Bay oil, cloves and cinnamon sticks, then I also have a bay rum FO which is totally different.

As the "original" bay rum was homemade by sailors, I imagine batches varied as much as the different EO combos/FOs end up smelling.

 

[Misschief]

Interesting, TEG. Perhaps that's one of the reasons why the company I got it from is no longer in business.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

Crikey! Might well be. But I can understand how it gets changed about, in the same way that some people don't know the difference between the two bays. A "Mommy Blogger" (not knocking them in general, I love reading their blogs) sees that you need bay oil to make a bay rum scent, but just assumes it's bay leaf and then SHE blogs her recipe for bay rum, using bay leaf. Next thing you know, a large number of people think it is so because Mommy Blogger got it wrong but they take it at face value.

 

[Misschief]

To be honest, I didn't realize until just a couple of years ago that there were different kinds of bay trees... and I'm in my 60's!

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

In large amounts, the Bay oil of bay rum is actually deadly (or at least not very good for you) so it isn't something that comes up in cooking or massage and so on. Unless you're looking to replicate the Bay Rum scent (or even make some actual rum type bay rum) then I don't imagine many people ever hear of it.

 

[IrishLass]

The good Gent is correct, the type of bay used in the genuine Bay Rum of old is Pimenta Racemosa, and you definitely do not want to ingest it.

Back in September I started researching Bay Rum and came across a handful of recipes from old pharmacological manuals dating from 1860 to the early 1900's. It seems that originally, Bay rum was simply made by distilling rum with pimento racemosa leaves, but then later on other things began to be added to the mix, such as orange peel and allspice, cloves, etc... , and then rum began to be replaced with ethanol, etc....

In case y'all are interested, here's a link to my Pimenta Racemosa EO experiments that I conducted back in September (I made a handful of different blends with the racemosa EO and let them steep): http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=56308

My favorite blends from those experiments are blends #3, #4 and #5 (each formula is recorded in the above-linked thread)

And here is one of the USP Bay Rum recipes I ran across (from 1883):

Oil of Myrcia (Pimenta Racemosa).................................. 1 fl oz
Oil of Orange Peel........................................................ 40 minims [which I found out is about .083 oz/2.5 mLs]
Oil of Allspice.............................................................. 25 minims [which I found out is about .052 oz/1.5 mLs]
Alcohol (containing 94% volume of absolute alcohol)...... 4 1/2 pints
Water........................................................................ 3 1/2 pints

Nowadays, different companies have their own proprietary blends, with some adding cimmamon and/or cloves, and/or lime, and/or orange, etc, etc., etc.

Although I mentioned this in my above-linked thread, I'll just mention it here, too. Oregon Trails has a FO called Montego Bay that smells just like the blend I made using Bay Racemosa EO, whole crushed allspice berries, and rum. So, if you're looking for a good Bay FO, I highly recommend that one.


IrishLass

 

[LBussy]

Just to have a little fun ... here's a great thread on Badger and Blade (shaving forum) where someone did a review f 20 bay rums:

http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/123922-Massive-Bay-Rum-review-20-sampled