Shaving soap recipe

[CookieChan]

I want to try and make a shaving soap. I read that you can add clay but does anyone have a good recipe that I can try? I don't have palm oil or palm kernel oil.

 

[xraygrl]

one thing you need for shaving soap stearic acid (and of course the clay for slip). What I do is use a lard olive coconut combo with 10% or higher cocoa butter in the recipe. Cocoa butter is high in stearic and that will give the kind of stable foamy lather that is best for a shaving soap. You could just use stearic as well, but be warned that it does speed up trace. Sorry I can't remember at the moment how much stearic is recommended......I've just always used a good amount of cocoa butter.

 

[IanT]

ok i tried making this once and it turned out really hard... anyone get the nice foamy stuff?? or do you need to use a hoghair brush to build the lather or something lol

 

[artisan soaps]

..

 

[Saltysteele]

ashley's bay rum looks like it works great (from her youtube vid). however, it may be a trade secret

i say that, just to show there are some good, foamy recipes out there. i have never used it to say whether it shaves well, or not, but it looks great, Ashley!

i, too, have been wondering about a shave soap. i think all our minds on this site must cycle together

has anyone used a homemade shave soap? i'm curious how they compare.

 

[IanT]

ashley's bay rum looks like it works great (from her youtube vid). however, it may be a trade secret

i say that, just to show there are some good, foamy recipes out there. i have never used it to say whether it shaves well, or not, but it looks great, Ashley!

i, too, have been wondering about a shave soap. i think all our minds on this site must cycle together

has anyone used a homemade shave soap? i'm curious how they compare.

my thing is when ive used it it felt more like soap than shaving soap... so i couldnt discern between the two save for the fact that there was more glide on the shaving soap... other than that they were pretty similar... so I want to design one that is DISTINCTLY different...

 

[Saltysteele]

i'm with ya, there, ian

creamy and THICK, in addition to slippery

hmmm, wonder about maybe some castor and silk

 

[IanT]

that is a lovely idea

 

[Guest]

I use silk , and 8% castor in my recipe , works very well .


Kitn

 

[ChrissyB]

I have received a specific "shaving soap" in a swap, and it had clay and castor oil in it. It is said that the clay allows for more "slip".
I think you could certainly use your general soap recipe but just add some clay, silk if you want, and maybe up the castor a little.

 

[dagmar88]

Haven't been able to try it yet, but I heard hazelnut oil must be really good in soap. It's supposed to be astringent and soothing.
And I would add some wich hazel as well.

 

[CookieChan]

I'm thinking something with coconut oil, cocoa butter (for the steric acid), castor oil and kaolin clay maybe? I have all that at home. I have no idea about the percentages though.

 

[dagmar88]

For instance: 20% coconut, 10% cocoa, 8% castor & 62% olive. Not the best, but at www.soapcalc.net you can play around a little. Or a lot

 

[xraygrl]

Cookie,

Kaolin works well for a shaving soap. As for the coconut, you won't need much as you aren't looking for the big fluffy bubbles that coconut gives, but rather a thick dense lather that will come from the steric in the cocoa butter. Also I tend not to use higher amounts of coconut in a face soap especially because I do not want it to be too drying. Anyway if you have no problems with animal products here's my suggestion :

50% lard or tallow (tallow is also high in steric so it makes for a good shave soap too)
10% coconut
10% cocoa butter
25% olive
5% castor

If you have silk throw some of that in the lye water. And as for the kaolin you can use 1 TBSP PPO. I do not like to use high amounts of castor either as it can lead to a longer cure and a "sticky" feel (JMHO) If you want you could up the castor some and replace some of the olive with it.

For the tallow, if you are in the US you could probably find it at about any grocery store labeled Pre Creamed shortening. It's usually a combo of tallow, lard and hydrogenated soybean oil. I have used it many times and it makes great soap.....just plug it into the lard field on the lye calculator.

 

[CookieChan]

xraygrl

I don't think lard or tallow is easily available here. Haven't seen it anywhere. Is there something I can replace that with?

 

[MikeInPdx]

I use my regular recipe except I add about 2% stearic acid, up the castor to 10%, and add 1 Tbsp bentonite clay PPO. The bentonite works better than the other clays.

 

[pink-north]

message for Ian T:

Sorry I had to put this hear, but I've been having trouble sending private messages, could you help me out please.

 

[Gramma Judy]

I know you stated that you do not have any palm and lard is hard to get, but this is the recipe I use. It is from an original recipe that has been tweaked several times.

OO 30%
CO 22%
Lard or Palm 30%
Castor 10%
Mango Butter 8%
1/3 Half and half as part of water.
1T sugar PPO to lye water. Glob of silk to lye water.
1T Kaolin Clay PPO

The half and half makes for a very creamy lather.

 

[lecheymiel]

I do a shave soap with coconut oil, palm, cocoa butter, olive, castor and avocato oil (very good to heal up in case of accident) and caolin (white clay)

I do the same recipe with two FO for him and for her...

and it likes to everyone!!!

 

[Saltysteele]

dagmar-

i like the idea of witch hazel (think i spelled that correctly)

i've been youtubing shaving videos lately (hope that doesn't make my life sound too sad :wink: ), and quite a few suggest applying witch hazel after shaving (pre-aftershave).

great idea