All, newbie here. I have a friend that is into making soap, and he wants to have him, and me, and our daughters get together for a 'soap making day'. I'm game...it sounds fun.
I've used several of his soaps, and they're great for bathing but very bad for shaving. I'd like to add a recipe into the day for a shaving soap, specifically one designed for tough bearded men to use with straight razors. I'm currently learning to use a straight, so I have some 'skin in the game' here.
I done a lot of asking around on the straight razor forums, and those men have a strong consensus around several points. Could you all please post some suggested recipes that fall within the guidelines/consensus points below?
1. The universal opinion of the straight razor group is: stay away from anything with olive oil. No 'reason' for this, except that one of the two common denominators that seem to consistently appear in 'soaps that work poorly for straight shavers' is 'olive oil'.
2. No 'mechanical' exfoliatants. Clay quickly dulls the very fragile and difficult to achieve edges on straight razors. Oats/oatmeal, apricot shell, etc, all get trapped between the skin and razor and either inspires one to use too much pressure and cut onself, or leaves patches of whiskers.
3. The lather needs to be dense and fluffy, like merangue pie. Straight shavers will put the soap and some water in a bowl and use a brush to 'whip' the soap into a lather. The lather thus created should 'maintain' itself long enough to get through a shave, rather than whip up nicely and then fall back down as soon as you let it stand for a few second.
4. The lather needs to have a 'slick' quality.
5. The straight razor folks believe they have figured out that 100% sodium hydroxide makes a completely 'hard' soap, and 100% potassium hydroxide makes a totally 'soft' or 'cream' soap. I'd like something just to the hard side of 'in the middle'.
Finally...I don't know if this makes any difference, but I'll want to add a very, very light touch of some combination of sandlewood, cedar, and/or patchouli scent.
My friend is a very competent soap maker, so he can follow any recipe's exactly. I'd ask him this same question and get his suggestions...but he's a very 'color within the lines' kind of guy and is not the one to ask about new things he hasn't thought about.
I'd really appreciate your recipe suggestions!
I've used several of his soaps, and they're great for bathing but very bad for shaving. I'd like to add a recipe into the day for a shaving soap, specifically one designed for tough bearded men to use with straight razors. I'm currently learning to use a straight, so I have some 'skin in the game' here.
I done a lot of asking around on the straight razor forums, and those men have a strong consensus around several points. Could you all please post some suggested recipes that fall within the guidelines/consensus points below?
1. The universal opinion of the straight razor group is: stay away from anything with olive oil. No 'reason' for this, except that one of the two common denominators that seem to consistently appear in 'soaps that work poorly for straight shavers' is 'olive oil'.
2. No 'mechanical' exfoliatants. Clay quickly dulls the very fragile and difficult to achieve edges on straight razors. Oats/oatmeal, apricot shell, etc, all get trapped between the skin and razor and either inspires one to use too much pressure and cut onself, or leaves patches of whiskers.
3. The lather needs to be dense and fluffy, like merangue pie. Straight shavers will put the soap and some water in a bowl and use a brush to 'whip' the soap into a lather. The lather thus created should 'maintain' itself long enough to get through a shave, rather than whip up nicely and then fall back down as soon as you let it stand for a few second.
4. The lather needs to have a 'slick' quality.
5. The straight razor folks believe they have figured out that 100% sodium hydroxide makes a completely 'hard' soap, and 100% potassium hydroxide makes a totally 'soft' or 'cream' soap. I'd like something just to the hard side of 'in the middle'.
Finally...I don't know if this makes any difference, but I'll want to add a very, very light touch of some combination of sandlewood, cedar, and/or patchouli scent.
My friend is a very competent soap maker, so he can follow any recipe's exactly. I'd ask him this same question and get his suggestions...but he's a very 'color within the lines' kind of guy and is not the one to ask about new things he hasn't thought about.
I'd really appreciate your recipe suggestions!
