Shaving soap and the bearded lady

[Derpina Bubbles]

Ok let me explain. I've been planning a shaving soap for ages. I've driven myself fair up the wall trying to pick if I should CP or HP it and what to add blah blah. Anyhoo, with shaving soap thoughts still obviously rolling around in my head, I went to bed and had a dream.

In the dream I woke up having a long scruffy beard and a moustache. There I was staring in the mirror thinking "I'm running late, I don't have time to deal with this. I can't go out with it looking all scruffy. I'll just give it a quick trim". My concern seemed to be the scruffy look not, hey lady you've got a ZZ Top beard and a Fu Manchu stache on yer face.

So, apparently if I ever wake up to sudden onset manly facial hair I'll be cool with it. As long as I have time to style it. I'm going to make the stupid soap in the morning so I can lose the shaving dreams already. Soap obsessions are a bit much.

*For the record - I don't have facial hair, it's for the hubby. Just thought I should clear that up.

 

[shunt2011]

Derpina you are hysterical.....My legs could actually qualify for a good shaving soap. It just to darn cold and snowy here to give it up yet...

 

[Obsidian]

If you are using a high % of steric acid, you'll want to HP it. That stuff instantly seizes when you add the lye and it needs to be cooked back down into a soft consistency. I used a round mold for my shaving soap so the slices will fit in a coffee mug.
Make sure you try the soap yourself, I'll never use anything else to shave with again. I get such a nice close shave on my legs with no irritation or ingrown hair.

 

[MzMolly65]

I read the title of this thread and knew INSTANTLY it was you Derpina .. too funny! You crack me up and I always appreciate that first thing in the morning.

I made my first shaving soap a week ago, just waiting for a bit of cure time before I try it out (on my legs .. ). I poured most of it in small, wide mouthed jars (100 g per jar) and the bit left over I poured into little silicone cube trays. Those will be great for travel or shaving in the shower while the jars are for the men who like using a brush.

Have you picked or formulated a recipe yet? I used David Fisher's
http://candleandsoap.about.com/od/soaprecipes/a/cpshavingrecipe.htm for several reasons .. 1. he's a guy, they know about this sh!t .. 2. and more importantly, it didn't require a lot of weird ingredients and I already had all of it in stock!

My brother will be the manly guinea pig since he loves shaving with a brush and all that fluff (that men don't consider fluff, even though it takes hours in the bathroom.)

Good luck with yours and thanks for the laugh .. AGAIN!

 

[kikajess]

Ladies shave too! Just not our facial beards, usually. I have plans for a ladies' shaving soap mulling around in the back of my mind. Maybe yours will be good for the gams as well as good for the guys. Can't wait to find out how yours turns out!

 

[DeeAnna]

If you want another hysterical read as well as a girl's perspective on shaving soap, here ya go... http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=38607

 

[Lin]

I actually had my first soap dream last night, it was weird!

 

[Derpina Bubbles]

I should split the batch and try some myself, good call. Normally I just use any CP soap and I'm good to go. I was going to try the famous Songwind formulation so that was my HP one (yep stearic acid). The CP one was just something I made up (I really like CP) in an attempt to avoid doing a HP. I have decided to just go ahead and make both.

Oh MzMolly, I like that one on that link so I might switch to that for my CP but just tweak it a little (missing a couple of those oils). Thanks for that! I need to stop with the indecisive stalling and just make the stuff already. I can't just sit here braiding my beard all day trying choose anymore. Glad I could give you a laugh.

Ha! That's my kinda thread DeeAnna, cheers for that.

Lin - Do tell!

 

[Lin]

Lol it wasn't really anything interesting, just weird! And nonsense. I was molding soap in a pringles can. I went to swirl the top (for some reason? I've never swirled the top in a pringles can lol) but when I stuck a plastic knife in it to swirl, instead it cut through and the top was like a solid skin with the rest of the soap batter normal still, like a skin on pudding. So I decided to shove the weird top skin part down into the soap batter (instead of remove it?) so I could correctly swirl the top. But shoving it down, I realized it didn't feel right. Suddenly I'm like peeling open the pringles can the way I do when I can't unmold the soap. As I peel down, the top half of the soap falls off in a chunk (suddenly solid?) and I realize the middle of the soap was burnt, it was brownish black and looked like a porous sponge. So I tried to remove that strange part, and shove the rest of the soap back together. But I had peeled open the pringles can.... So I'm holding the soap together with my left hand and thinking crap what am I going to do now to put the pringles can back together.... I think maybe I can manage to duct tape it, and I'm messing around trying to find something in reach to hold the can together while steadying the soap with my left hand when I woke up.

 

[Derpina Bubbles]

Yep, that's weird all right Lin. I love the swirling of the top lol. That soap experience would be both the worst and the best thing ever. It would be a massive freak fest at the time but would be fun to work out what happened. That's if a face eating creature wasn't suddenly born out of the tube because sounds like you woke up just in time. The dream soap sounded evil.