Shaving Soap - does this look reasonable?

[Flyrod77]

I'm a newbie to all of this, and this is also my first post on the forum. I am wanting to try making shaving soap for my own use. LOL, I think my wife has concluded that I have finally lost my mind

I read the long thread recommended in this forum that had the shaving cream recipe with 48% coconut oil and 52% stearic acid at (http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=34264)

I'm hoping to achieve more conditioning than that recipe though. Also, I wanted to use oils from vegetables (no animal based oils). I welcome anyone's feedback on this recipe. Thanks in advance for helping me out, I appreciate it.

 

[Firestarter]

I would have swapped the SA/CO percentages (50% Stearic acid, 30% Coconut oil). That might work.
Usually shaving soap makers aim for Stearic + Palmitic >= 50

 

[Flyrod77]

I would have swapped the SA/CO percentages (50% Stearic acid, 30% Coconut oil). That might work.
Usually shaving soap makers aim for Stearic + Palmitic >= 50

That makes sense. I adjusted Stearic and Coconut Oil as you suggested and it raised the Stearic to 50 while also giving a higher creamy number. Here is the SoapCalc with that recipe:

 

[Firestarter]

Looks very useable. I have not tried meadowfoam oil, please keep us updated with the results.
Also: welcome to the forum!

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

It will work, of course. I know someone who lathers up using one of my salt bars.

But I do wonder how the castor will play in this instance. Some recipes work very well with it, in others it seems to do what it does in bath soap - causes big fluffy bubbles, which isn't what we want in a shaving soap.

 

[psfred]

Castor oil initially produced soap with collapsing lather for me, but after a few months it works fine. Still leaves my skin a bit sticky feeling after the shave, but so does Col. Conk soap, so it may just be me.

I find that I prefer tallow soaps -- something like 50% SA, 30% tallow, 10% CO, 5% each shea and cocoa butter with half the shea and cocoa butter retained for superfat after the cook.

No need for esoteric oils in shaving soap, what you want is 50-60% stearic plus palmitic acids and 35% or less oleic/linoleic/linolenic acids in the fatty acid profile. How you obtain that profile isn't all that important.

I use the cocoa and shea to prevent the soap drying my skin out while shaving. It works well, but one has to watch for waxy buildup on the razor and blade. I may reduce the superfat to 3% next batch.

Make it, try it, and report back with your impressions of how well it works, and if you aren't satisfied with it, we can suggest changes to improve it.

Note that I have found home-made shaving soaps to last much longer than commercial ones, I need quite a bit less to get a good shave.

Don't forget to add about 10% of the oil weight of glycerin if you use 50% stearic acid -- since the stearic acid is NOT an oil, it does not contain any glycerine, and you need what would naturally be present if you were using fats, plus some, to get well behaving shaving soap.

 

[Flyrod77]

Castor oil initially produced soap with collapsing lather for me, but after a few months it works fine. Still leaves my skin a bit sticky feeling after the shave, but so does Col. Conk soap, so it may just be me.

I find that I prefer tallow soaps -- something like 50% SA, 30% tallow, 10% CO, 5% each shea and cocoa butter with half the shea and cocoa butter retained for superfat after the cook.

No need for esoteric oils in shaving soap, what you want is 50-60% stearic plus palmitic acids and 35% or less oleic/linoleic/linolenic acids in the fatty acid profile. How you obtain that profile isn't all that important.

I use the cocoa and shea to prevent the soap drying my skin out while shaving. It works well, but one has to watch for waxy buildup on the razor and blade. I may reduce the superfat to 3% next batch.

Make it, try it, and report back with your impressions of how well it works, and if you aren't satisfied with it, we can suggest changes to improve it.

Note that I have found home-made shaving soaps to last much longer than commercial ones, I need quite a bit less to get a good shave.

Don't forget to add about 10% of the oil weight of glycerin if you use 50% stearic acid -- since the stearic acid is NOT an oil, it does not contain any glycerine, and you need what would naturally be present if you were using fats, plus some, to get well behaving shaving soap.

When do I add that glycerin? Do I add the glycerin at the end, when I add the fragrance? I'm a newbie to all of this.

 

[DeeAnna]

You can add it pretty much at any time -- some add it up front, others at the end. I generally add glycerin at the end because it helps loosen up the soap at the end when it's the thickest and stickiest. That makes it easier to get the soap out of the pot and into the mold. But you can make a good argument for adding it up front so it's incorporated really well with the rest of the ingredients. Also you are less likely to forget to add it to the soap if you put it in right at first.

 

[Flyrod77]

I thought I'd report back as to how this went. I wanted to make a shaving soap that was high in conditioning. I've liked the Taylor of Old Bond Street Sandalwood Shaving Cream, and wanted to make a shaving soap that is similar to that but more moisturizing.

This recipe produced a soft shaving soap that is very close to the Taylor in consistency. The trade-off in higher conditioning resulted in a bit less fluffy soap, but very thick and creamy. It feels good on my face and it lasts long without drying out. It does leave my face feeling more moisturized and soft. It gives a great shave (I use a double-edge razor, a Makur 34c with Feather blades). There is zero irritation after shaving, and I do shave pretty close.

Being a newbie, I went a bit crazy with the different oils, but hey, I was having fun... I kind of felt like a mad scientist adding all the stuff in this recipe

This produced enough shaving soap to last me a good 6 months. I'm not sure what I'd want to change, because this did hit the mark for me, producing what I wanted (I even went with the sandalwood fragrance that I liked with the Taylor shaving cream).

I did go with a NaOH / KOH Ratio of 40% / 60%

 

[Evangeline-13]

off topic: what is meadowfoam oil? translator does not help ;(

ok found it. seems as we dont have it in germany...

 

[toxikon]

off topic: what is meadowfoam oil? translator does not help ;(

ok found it. seems as we dont have it in germany...

It's one of my favourite exotic oils to apply right to my face. It's very light and fast-absorbing.

 

[shunt2011]

I too like meadowfoam. Use it in my whipped shea butter for myself.

 

[Flyrod77]

This is my next vegan shaving soap recipe I want to try

I really did like the first vegan shaving soap recipe but it had too many different oils. That was my first attempt to make soap of any kind. But after that first shaving soap, I made a number of conditioning bath soaps and found what I liked and didn't like. I like soaps high in Shea Butter. I like to use 100% Coconut Milk instead of water. I've found I like soap with 2% Meadowfoam used as extra superfat, added with the F.O.

Anyway, I want to try this recipe as my 2nd shaving soap attempt. It is another vegan recipe without palm oil. This would be HP. Notice that I was thinking of doing a NaOH/KOH ratio of 40%/60%. Does this look reasonable? I welcome any feedback.

 

[DeeAnna]

Dp you realize your total superfat will be anywhere from 9% to 15%? What I'm seeing is you've done this -- "official" superfat as 5% of the base oils + 2% of meadowfoam + whatever fat is in the coconut milk. Based on what I've seen, the coconut milk will raise the superfat yet another 2% to 8%, depending on the brand. If that's what you want, go for it, but from my perspective that's a lot of superfat IMO.

 

[Flyrod77]

Dp you realize your total superfat will be anywhere from 9% to 15%? What I'm seeing is you've done this -- "official" superfat as 5% of the base oils + 2% of meadowfoam + whatever fat is in the coconut milk. Based on what I've seen, the coconut milk will raise the superfat yet another 2% to 8%, depending on the brand. If that's what you want, go for it, but from my perspective that's a lot of superfat IMO.

I didn't realize that. Thank you, I did not want that much superfat. I appreciate you letting me know.

I really liked the original recipe for the shaving soap, but it had 9 ingredients & now I want to scale it back to fewer oils. I love how the original recipe shaving soap feels so good shaving... it moisturizes so well that even my wife commented on how my skin looks better now. And I never experience cuts and irritation... unless I just hurry too much in the morning and nick myself

I was just hoping this recipe would give similar results, but with fewer oils.

 

[DeeAnna]

If the first recipe you actually made is the one you give in Post 9, I suspect the recipe in Post 13 is not going to be as satisfactory.

You've changed the fatty acid profile by increasing the stearic and palmitic acids and entirely eliminating the lauric and myristic acids. You may want to ponder about this -- why do you think this alteration is going to give you a soap that functions similarly to your first recipe? Remember -- soap is less about the fats used and more about the fatty acids provided in the fats. You don't need a long grocery list of fats in a recipe to make a nice soap -- the fatty acids are the key.

IMO, although a goodly amount of stearic/palmitic is necessary to get a long lasting, cushiony lather, a modest amount of lauric/myristic is also good to include, so the soap lather can develop reasonably easily.

 

[toxikon]

To add on about fatty acids, this webpage helped me out a lot. http://www.lovinsoap.com/oils-chart/

 

[Flyrod77]

To add on about fatty acids, this webpage helped me out a lot. http://www.lovinsoap.com/oils-chart/

That webpage is extremely helpful. Thank you very much. I will start over and rethink this, in light of the good feedback I've received. I have enough of the first shaving soap to last me a few months, so there is no hurry. I will start out making a tiny batch and just see if I like it or not, before doing a larger batch.

I should have thought this through better before I posted the recipe. I am new to all of this. My goal is to get a shaving soap that is using fewer oils than my first recipe, but still gives good results that I like, and I was hoping to have this vegan and also a palm-free recipe. I have been doing HP recipes so far, and I'm more comfortable right now, just keeping with that process. My end-goal is to just get 2 soap recipes for my own personal use. One for shaving, and one conditioning bath soap.

 

[psfred]

Try this in soapcalc:

40% palm oil
30% soy wax or stearic acid (add some glycerine if you use stearic acid)
20% shea butter
10% coconut oil

You can add meadowfoam oil as superfat if you want, either by reducing the shea by 5% or by calculating a zero superfat and adding it after the cook without including it in the caculation.

I find that something on the order of 50% to 60% stearic plus palmitic fatty acids in the soap, and 30% or more oleic makes very nice shaving soap. I use 5% each shea and cocoa butters, saving half for superfat but you can do whatever you want. The main thing is high stearic plus palmitic fatty acids and enough oleic to keep it from being drying. Go easy on the coconut.

I'm still un-decided on castor in shaving soap. I made a couple batches with castor, and it took a long time for them to work well, initially I got terrible lather with them. I'm trying to use up one of my early batches because it's going rancid, so I've not used the castor containing soaps for a while.

Soy wax makes a harder soap than stearic acid, all other things kept the same. Still lathers up nicely and shaves very well.

 

[HowieRoll]

Hi Flyrod77, I was wondering if you had found a source of stearic acid that isn't derived from palm? When I was looking for some a year ago to formulate my husband's shave soap I wasn't able to find one, so I'd be interested to know if you had (if you didn't mind sharing)?