My first shaving soap is a success!

[Johnez]

Has anyone else made a high butters shaving soap base?

The reason I ask is because after using it, I feel there are no other additives required in addition to the high butters because it's just so nourishing and moisturizing.

This is an interesting challenge. I'm playing with SMF right now with only 3 fats (SA, CO, Shea). Shea all the way up to 45% I've got decent numbers. Debating on how high I want my bubbly number right now.

 

[Nav]

You're lather really does look incredible! I've purchased several but not made my own, well, I've tried making shave soap once, I was completely unimpressed with mine. None I've purchased felt particularly good for my face either. I found the recipe online and followed directions to the letter. I've been making soap for some time, but not a trial and error kinda guy. I can follow a recipe like a boss, but creating has been challenging for me even with a soap calc. I'm always worried it is going to burn someone ;-) Thanks for the picture. You've encouraged me to keep looking for that perfect recipe.

Awesome!
I wish you the best with your shaving soap endeavor. Please do share your results as you go along.
Let's keep this shaving soap sub-forum alive!

This is an interesting challenge. I'm playing with SMF right now with only 3 fats (SA, CO, Shea). Shea all the way up to 45% I've got decent numbers. Debating on how high I want my bubbly number right now.

I keep my CO at 10% in all my recipes which I'm developing.
I find there's no drying of my skin and this is sufficient the add some volume to the lather, which without the CO is a little lotion-like.

Shea is around 40% SA, so if you're adding even 30% SA to the recipe, your total SA will be up around 50%.

My only concern with very high butters is whether the high 30's oleic acid will start breaking down the lather even if SA/PA are the 50's.

 

[MelissaG]

So I've been asked several times recently if I make shaving soap. The last time I made it, my husband hated every batch. But that was two years ago, so I thought I'd try again since it's being requested. I've read so much on this now that my brain feels like mush so I thought I'd come here and ask what you think of the recipe I've come up with. What do you think? And before you ask about how high the shea butter is, my standard recipe soap is 20%. People LOVE it. But I'm not sure how well it will work in this.

 

[psfred]

That looks pretty good.

What is the fatty acid profile? You need a minimum of 60% stearic acid (which I think you have) but you don't want so much the soap is difficult to lather.

I'd reverse the shea butter and tallow ratios, it will then match one of my favorite recipes. I use 5% shea and cocoa butter in mine.

I'd also leave the clay out, some people find it very irritating as the lather dries after the razor goes past.

And a note to your users -- the point of shaving soap is to make the skin very slippery to let the edge of the razor slide across skin without abrading it while cutting off the hair. It's very easy to get distracted by making piles of dense lather and ending up without enough water in the lather, making it sticky instead of slippery, and that makes for miserable shaving. Your skin should still be quite slippery after the razor goes past, if it's dry and gummy, shaving won't be much fun.

I get my best shaves when the lather is so wet it will drip off the razor while I'm shaving, I feel that if you need to repeatedly rinse the razor during a pass (on a face), your lather is too dry. Only a thin layer of slippery lather is needed, big piles of dense lather are wasted

A good sized lump of shaving soap (125 grams) will last me about a year - resist the temptation to make a couple pounds unless you have a good market for it.

 

[SonuvaMitch]

Hello!

I recently tried my hand at creating a shaving soap, and bit off way more than I could chew. I'm pretty skilled at making lotions and such, but this is a whole different beast! I have a ton of fun oils to play with, so I went a bit crazy formulating, haha! Tried my best to keep it as simple as possible while having the fatty acid profile I wanted. Here is the formula I used; I have potassium hydroxide now, and plan to use it in my next formulation.

Stearic Acid: 10.4 Oz (52%)
Ghee (Clarified Butter): 3.4 Oz. (17%)
Coconut Oil (Virgin): 2 Oz. (10%)
Olive Oil: 2 Oz. (10%)
Babassu Oil: 1.2 Oz. (6%)
Castor Oil: 1 Oz. (5%)

7.4 Oz. Beer (roughly 24.5%)
2.84 Oz. Lye (NaOH, roughly 9.4%)
1g Sodium Phytate

Turned into a crumbly mess immediately, I needed to add more water, and glycerin to work it at all, and combine when the phases were hotter, and closer together in temperature. I hot-processed it to react the lye, probably burned it a little, added jojoba oil, squalane, and chia seed oil for the superfat. I wanted to do it 5% exact, but in the heat of the moment, ended up just eyeballing and tossing stuff in to get it to cook better.

There's a lot I need to learn, but it actually is a pretty nice soap. The lather is difficult to work up, and it's not nearly as thick and robust as others have gotten. I hope it's improved some with curing, but I haven't tried it again.

The approximate fatty acid profile through soapcalc (which is wrong in this case) is as follows:

8 L
5 M
8 P
54 S
5 R
12 O
2 L
0 ALA

Adjusting the stearic acid to properly calculate the palmitic content, it comes to this:

8 L
5 M
42 P
20 S
5 R
12 O
2 L
0 ALA

I discovered my stearic acid is actually 32% stearic, 68% palmitic, which I think is not too far off from typical consumer-grade, and what others on this thread have used as "stearic acid" in the past. I think I can still make a nice shave soap with it. I still kind of like it as a hand soap, although it smells like bread.

I have read a good amount of this thread, but not all of it yet. Please be merciful if I repeated something, I will read all of it eventually. I will also post pictures later if desired.

 

[AliOop]

@SonuvaMitch that's quite a recipe! Did you boil off the alcohol from the beer? If not, that would definitely contribute to the seizing, although the stearic on its own moves super fast, of course.

I'm also wondering about the choice to use ghee. Butter and ghee typically produce a fairly nasty smell in the finished soap. Even if you don't smell it when the soap is dry, it typically comes out strongly when the soap is wet. You mentioned a "bread" smell, so perhaps it is a yeasty note for you? Since we all experience smell so differently, you might ask what others smell in the soap, and whether they find it offensive. If so, consider switching to milk or cream instead of ghee or butter.

With all that, I'd love to see the finished product if you get a chance to post some pics!

 

[SonuvaMitch]

@SonuvaMitch that's quite a recipe! Did you boil off the alcohol from the beer? If not, that would definitely contribute to the seizing, although the stearic on its own moves super fast, of course.

I'm also wondering about the choice to use ghee. Butter and ghee typically produce a fairly nasty smell in the finished soap. Even if you don't smell it when the soap is dry, it typically comes out strongly when the soap is wet. You mentioned a "bread" smell, so perhaps it is a yeasty note for you? Since we all experience smell so differently, you might ask what others smell in the soap, and whether they find it offensive. If so, consider switching to milk or cream instead of ghee or butter.

With all that, I'd love to see the finished product if you get a chance to post some pics!

@AliOop thank you! It's nice to hear that, I considered it deeply.

I actually used a non-alcoholic beer! I used Athletic brand, (I don't think they have to show nutrition facts, but what I found showed no sugar, and 14g of carbs. I may want to add sugar or sorbitol for extra lather, even though that wasn't my problem and won't affect much). Even so, I boiled it to remove the carbonation, and I'm glad I did, because it still foamed up a bit.

I think you're right about the ghee; the finished soap does honestly smell pretty bad. A friend even said it smells like vomit, which I don't entirely agree with, but it's not surprising! It smells fine when used, and although it is very thirsty. It still makes a pretty nice hand soap. I have supposedly rspo palm oil, but the stearic beads are higher in palmitic acid, so I might be better off subbing with shea butter. I like ghee because it has carbohydrates, but the hoppy IPA I have does, too.

If you think milk or cream is a good idea, what about coconut milk? Apparently, it has the same fats as coconut oil, in lower quantities. Also, maybe a dual phase cook would help, since the stearic seizes pretty much instantly.

I'm much better at making lotions and other stuff, but I don't want to shill here. I'll put my website on my profile or something if I can. I couldn't figure out how to upload photos directly on here from my phone or computer, I even converted them to pdf and jpg. For now, here's a dropbox. Thanks again!

Dropbox Link

@SonuvaMitch that's quite a recipe! FsDid you boil off the alcohol from the beer? If not, that would definitely contribute to the seizing, although the stearic on its own moves super fast, of course.

I'm also wondering about the choice to use ghee. Butter and ghee typically produce a fairly nasty smell in the finished soap. Even if you don't smell it when the soap is dry, it typically comes out strongly when the soap is wet. You mentioned a "bread" smell, so perhaps it is a yeasty note for you? Since we all experience smell so differently, you might ask what others smell in the soap, and whether they find it offensive. If so, consider switching to milk or cream instead of ghee or butter.

With all that, I'd love to see the finished product if you get a chance to post some pics!

@AliOop thank you! It's nice to hear that, I considered it deeply.

I actually used a non-alcoholic beer! I used Athletic brand, (I don't think they have to show nutrition facts, but I found it's got no sugar and 14g carbs. It might not change anything, but I'm considering adding sugar or sorbitol for even more lather, not sure if it's a good idea). I still boiled it to remove the carbonation, and I'm glad I did, because it still foamed up a bit.

I think you're right about the ghee; the finished soap does honestly smell pretty bad. A friend even said it smells like vomit, which I don't entirely agree with, but it's not surprising! It smells fine when used, and although it is very thirsty, it still makes a pretty nice hand soap. I have (supposedly) rspo palm oil, but the stearic beads are higher in palmitic acid, so I might be better off subbing with shea butter. I like ghee because it has carbohydrates, but the hoppy IPA I got does, too.

If you think milk or cream is a good idea, what about coconut milk? Apparently, it has the same fats as coconut oil, in lower amounts. Also, maybe a dual phase cook would help, since the stearic seizes instantly.

I'm much better at making lotions and stuff, but I don't want to shill here. I'll put my website on my profile or something if I can. I finally figured out how to get some photos on here, so here you go!

 

[LucyBubbles]

This weekend I made my first shaving soap. It was a hot process soap, and used a recipe posted by a fellow forum poster at one of the wet shaving forums.

I did a small batch (8 oz). 52% stearic acid, 48% coconut oil, saponified with KOH. I added 1.5 tablespoons of glycerin after it was done cooking, along with 1/4 oz of essential oils: 2/3 lemon & bergamot, 1/3 rosemary.

The soap making went fine, with no surprises aside from the soap never becoming truly translucent like my olive oil soap did. It passed the zap test, though.

I used it to shave tonight, and it was lovely. Nice and slick, and there was no skin reaction to the EOs. My face feels very nice afterward.

The scent turned out too lemony, and the rosemary was lost underneath. Next time, more basenotes and less lemon.

Just after pouring:

After 24 hours to set:

Whipped up a great lather:

It was very stable. This is after sitting 15 minutes while I showered and brushed my teeth:

Omg that is fantastic
Looks awesome
May I ask how much lye you used please? Thanks so much for posting the recipe

 

[AliOop]

@SonuvaMitch and @LucyBubbles Sorry to say, but vomit is actually what many people smell when ghee or butter is used in soap.

However, regular dairy milk or cream, and coconut milk or cream are all wonderful in soap! You can search and find quite a few threads here to learn about others’ similar experiences.

 

[SonuvaMitch]

Sorry for double-posting, I kept accidentally deleting my comment! @LucyBubbles I'm not as experienced as some other members are, but you'll probably get very close to the exact amount Songwind used if you just put it into a lye calculator. I'm guessing 38% water would be good to start, especially if you cook it in a crockpot like I did for mine.

@AliOop that must be where it's coming from, at least the beer smell covers it up a good deal. It mostly smells yeasty to people, even with the high ghee percentage. I will look through other threads to see what people have done in the past, but that sounds like a great place to start. I'll post my new recipe when I've reformulated, it won't take me long. I'm considering getting one of those mini crockpots, until I'm ready to make another batch big enough for the full-size pot. I could do some smaller test batches there, but still have enough space to HP it. Thanks for everything!

 

[AliOop]

TBH, I just use a stainless pot on the stove. It's a lot easier on my wrists and hands than a heavy crockpot. I also find it easier to get everything out of it into the mold!

 

[Nav]

TBH, I just use a stainless pot on the stove. It's a lot easier on my wrists and hands than a heavy crockpot. I also find it easier to get everything out of it into the mold!

I also don't use a crockpot....I use a heavy base stainless steel pressure cooker (without the lid) on an induction cooktop.
Works awesome!

 

[Relle]

Omg that is fantastic
Looks awesome
May I ask how much lye you used please? Thanks so much for posting the recipe

This thread is from 2013, songwing is no longer here.

 

[SonuvaMitch]

Hello!

I thought I would update anyone interested in my progress. I finally made a shaving soap I'm satisfied with for sale, customers seem to enjoy it so far. I'm still going to improve a few things (because of course I am), but I'll post the recipe that worked well here. The stearic acid I'm using isn't pure, and the stuff you're using probably isn't either. Contact the manufacturer for precise details, and recalculate based on that, or else your results will vary. Here is the recipe I used:

45% Stearic Acid
25% Coconut Oil
10% Grapeseed Oil
10% Shea Butter
5% Castor Oil
5% Olive Oil

16.7% Lye Concentration
5:1 Water Ratio, 209.1 g Water (I used non-alcoholic beer instead)
60% KOH : 40% NaOH
2.1 g Honeyquat (in 400g total batch)
5% Superfat (I used 4g Rosehip, 3g Hemp Seed, 2g Jojoba, 1g Squalane)
Hope I did that right, the soap calculator told me so, not sure if I need more superfat, or should lose the jojoba entirely; maybe that's what gives the waxy feeling. Comment if you have any better ideas, but it still feels nice.
6g Fragrance Blend

It feels waxy on the skin when you wash your hands with it, and I would like to increase lather more, either by adding more coconut or adding palm oil; not sure which would be better. I also plan to add sodium phytate, which is special-ordered, but I have available to me. That should also increase lather slightly, as it is a chelator, and will help scavenge metal ions in the soap.



This is my Instagram post, where you can find a demonstration of this soap in use, and more, including my other products and business information.

 

[JoostD]

Hi All,

This I a recipe I've been working on. I quite like it but it could use some more residual slickness. Any tips on tweaking the recipe to add some slickness?

I was thinking about adding murumuru or some silk / corn powder. Does anyone have any experience with these?

 

[Nav]

I like my shaving soap to have lots of glycerine (15% of oils or more!).

But adding it to the soap batter is seizing it up badly, to the point i can no longer blend it.

Why does glycerine do this and what can i do to prevent it?

I'm already using sodium lactate and also applying heat after adding glycerine but it doesn't help.

 

[Cachemonies]

No, I just loaded the brush by rubbing it on top of the soap. My general method starts with a wet (but not dripping) brush. You load the brush until the "protolather" that's being created starts to look like a decent shaving lather. Then you finish up in the bowl or on your face. After loading about 15 seconds, I had to add a bit of extra water to get a nice wet slippery lather.

Here's what the brush looked like after loading:

I doubt it. I did have a small "weeper" on my jaw line, and it didn't give me any grief. I have only found a handful of fragrance oils that bother my skin thus far, and no EOs. I have already used commercial shaving products with all the EOs I used this weekend, so I was pretty sure it was safe.

Some people definitely do have a problem with it, however. Eucalyptus, sandalwood, and peppermint (or just menthol) seem to cause it most often, based on chatting w/ other wet shavers.

I know it’s been YEARS since you posted this, but I’m looking for recipes and this looks perfect. My question is, have you continued to make this and have you figured how a way to harden your version? MDC’s soaps are also notorious for lasting a long time. Do these pucks wear down fast?