Brotherhood of Unscented Gentlemen Shavers

[TBoner]

Nice. Soapmaking is a joyous hobby for me, and there's little as satisfying as using a soap you made.

As for aftershaves, I have used Mandom Lucido quite a bit and thoroughly enjoy it. I buy it on the bay. No scent and a bit of menthol.

Ingredients: Water, alcohol, betaine, glycerin, peg-20mppg-6-decyltetradeceth-30, menthol, sodium lactate, lactic acid, cymen-5-ol, bht, disodium edta

 

[KeenDogg]

Well, I could wait no longer. I gave the soaps I made a whirl this morning. I fear this might be a long post so I apologize right off the bat. I will tell you that I was surprised at the end of the shave at the outcome. As a novice soap maker I understand the results but I think my heart wanted a different outcome.
I did a two pass shave with my Muhle R41 and a new Astra SP blade.
I shaved the right side of my face with soap 01, WTG.
I shaved the left side of my face with soap 10, WTG.
I made a final XTG full face shave with ... (If I said so here, it would be a spoiler).

I am a scuttle user and find no enjoyment in face lathering. What I did so I didn't have to clean the scuttle after each use and replace the water so I wan't swayed by temperature, was I palm lathered for the first application of lather (the WTG pass).
Once I made a decision as to which I liked better, I did use my scuttle.

I'm going post a series of pictures for each soap and I'll talk a little about each one before moving on.
Here goes...

Soap 01

View attachment 975595
View attachment 975596
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View attachment 975598

This was the right side of my face. This soap lathered very quickly and creamy. It required very little water to get it to a wonderful pillowy lather.

Soap 10

View attachment 975599
View attachment 975600
View attachment 975601
View attachment 975602

This soap lathered with effort. It is a harder soap and it appeared that the brush did not load as well. At first it was quite pasty but once I realized it was a damn thirsty soap, adding much more water than I normally do made this a wonderfully thick luxurious lather.

Let's talk about the shave.
I think that I could mow my lawn with an R41 if used properly so I really didn't think much about how the razor would react going into the actual shave. I guess when we are all just going through our days, we don't give much thought to the things that happen over and over and over again.
Well, the right side of my face, with soap 01, shaved very differently than the left. The R41 dragged as it shave WTG. I could feel some slight tugging. Nothing horrible mind you, just some tugging that I don't get with my usual Soap Commander Integrity. Aside from some tugging, the shave went quite well. The soap rinsed clean and the eventual brush clean up was easy. This soap had ZERO smell by the way. I mean none! I was very happy with that.
The left side of my face was very different. I even had to add more water to the brush and do a little face lathering. The R41... well, it was like ice skating on my face. It glided down my face with no effort. I won't BS anyone with flowery descriptions here, it is a shave soap, used for shaving after all. There are ingredients in there that give this soap some smell. It's just the ingredients and not due to anything being added. I will say that there was no drag but the shaves were both fine WTG first passes.

On to the XTG pass.
I made up my mind very quickly about which one I wanted to use. My scuttle produced a wonderful warm lather. Since it will be pretty easy to figure out which, by the brush I used...

View attachment 975608
View attachment 975609

The XTG pass was as nice as any other soap I have used (that I liked).

Soap 01 has 6 total ingredients.
Stearic Acid
Coconut Oil
Potassium Hydroxide
Sodium Hydroxide
Water
Vegetable Glycerin

Soap 10 has 8 total ingredients.
Stearic Acid
Lard
Shea Butter
Coconut Oil
Potassium Hydroxide
Sodium Hydroxide
Water
Vegetable Glycerin

I will be making more of this and I'm willing to share if anyone wants some. Thanks for indulging me in this little adventure.

Looks like your into something good, Ralph! Keep after it!

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[Nomad116]

Hello, I was referred to by Ralph029. Whenever I shave my head with my DE I would get bumps on the back of my head (I'm Haitian or afro Caribbean to others). I'm looking for shaving soaps to buy and have seen some interesting ones on Amazon just to try out amd hope that the less ingredients can help me.

These are: Rustic shaving all natural soap, Sir Henry's Black Tie Razor shave soap, and Henri et Victoria shaving soap for men.


Has anyone used these and what others would you reccomend? I'm also looking into getting synthetic brush for my scalp and face.

 

[ralph029]

Hello, I was referred to by Ralph029. Whenever I shave my head with my DE I would get bumps on the back of my head (I'm Haitian or afro Caribbean to others). I'm looking for shaving soaps to buy and have seen some interesting ones on Amazon just to try out amd hope that the less ingredients can help me.

These are: Rustic shaving all natural soap, Sir Henry's Black Tie Razor shave soap, and Henri et Victoria shaving soap for men.


Has anyone used these and what others would you reccomend? I'm also looking into getting synthetic brush for my scalp and face.

Recommendations from these guys? Oh my! What a can of worms you have opened
I'll start your list...
Soap Commander Integrity. It only has 8 ingredients, 2 of which are lyes and one is water. Stearic Acid, Shea Butter, Coconut Oil, Castor Oil, and Glycerin are the rest.
I do not have any sensitives so I probably am not the best source but this soap is amazing! If you have concerns, you can always reach out to Soap Commander and Carrie will respond very quickly.
I have a second favorite and that's Copper Hat Unscented.

 

[Nomad116]

Recommendations from these guys? Oh my! What a can of worms you have opened
I'll start your list...
Soap Commander Integrity. It only has 8 ingredients, 2 of which are lyes and one is water. Stearic Acid, Shea Butter, Coconut Oil, Castor Oil, and Glycerin are the rest.
I do not have any sensitives so I probably am not the best source but this soap is amazing! If you have concerns, you can always reach out to Soap Commander and Carrie will respond very quickly.
I have a second favorite and that's Copper Hat Unscented.

Dang it, you set me up!
Well after looking at both I'm looking the copper hat due to the ingredients including the oils. It's that shipping that throws me off. The Soap commander looks interesting but it has castor oil and apparently I was allergic to it as am infant but it seems I grew out of it or something.

 

[ralph029]

Dang it, you set me up!
Well after looking at both I'm looking the copper hat due to the ingredients including the oils. It's that shipping that throws me off. The Soap commander looks interesting but it has castor oil and apparently I was allergic to it as am infant but it seems I grew out of it or something.

If you read back through this thread I'm sure you'll find lots of suggestions as well. All the soaps I use (other that The Copper Hat) including the ones I make have castor oil in them.
I'm sure the boys here will shoot you ideas too.

 

[ralph029]

Dang it, you set me up!
Well after looking at both I'm looking the copper hat due to the ingredients including the oils. It's that shipping that throws me off. The Soap commander looks interesting but it has castor oil and apparently I was allergic to it as am infant but it seems I grew out of it or something.

Catie's Bubbles Le Nude doesn't use castor oil. I've used it in the past and it's a good soap.

 

[ralph029]

Well, I could wait no longer. I gave the soaps I made a whirl this morning. I fear this might be a long post so I apologize right off the bat. I will tell you that I was surprised at the end of the shave at the outcome. As a novice soap maker I understand the results but I think my heart wanted a different outcome.
I did a two pass shave with my Muhle R41 and a new Astra SP blade.
I shaved the right side of my face with soap 01, WTG.
I shaved the left side of my face with soap 10, WTG.
I made a final XTG full face shave with ... (If I said so here, it would be a spoiler).

I am a scuttle user and find no enjoyment in face lathering. What I did so I didn't have to clean the scuttle after each use and replace the water so I wan't swayed by temperature, was I palm lathered for the first application of lather (the WTG pass).
Once I made a decision as to which I liked better, I did use my scuttle.

I'm going post a series of pictures for each soap and I'll talk a little about each one before moving on.
Here goes...

Soap 01

View attachment 975595
View attachment 975596
View attachment 975597
View attachment 975598

This was the right side of my face. This soap lathered very quickly and creamy. It required very little water to get it to a wonderful pillowy lather.

Soap 10

View attachment 975599
View attachment 975600
View attachment 975601
View attachment 975602

This soap lathered with effort. It is a harder soap and it appeared that the brush did not load as well. At first it was quite pasty but once I realized it was a damn thirsty soap, adding much more water than I normally do made this a wonderfully thick luxurious lather.

Let's talk about the shave.
I think that I could mow my lawn with an R41 if used properly so I really didn't think much about how the razor would react going into the actual shave. I guess when we are all just going through our days, we don't give much thought to the things that happen over and over and over again.
Well, the right side of my face, with soap 01, shaved very differently than the left. The R41 dragged as it shave WTG. I could feel some slight tugging. Nothing horrible mind you, just some tugging that I don't get with my usual Soap Commander Integrity. Aside from some tugging, the shave went quite well. The soap rinsed clean and the eventual brush clean up was easy. This soap had ZERO smell by the way. I mean none! I was very happy with that.
The left side of my face was very different. I even had to add more water to the brush and do a little face lathering. The R41... well, it was like ice skating on my face. It glided down my face with no effort. I won't BS anyone with flowery descriptions here, it is a shave soap, used for shaving after all. There are ingredients in there that give this soap some smell. It's just the ingredients and not due to anything being added. I will say that there was no drag but the shaves were both fine WTG first passes.

On to the XTG pass.
I made up my mind very quickly about which one I wanted to use. My scuttle produced a wonderful warm lather. Since it will be pretty easy to figure out which, by the brush I used...

View attachment 975608
View attachment 975609

The XTG pass was as nice as any other soap I have used (that I liked).

Soap 01 has 6 total ingredients.
Stearic Acid
Coconut Oil
Potassium Hydroxide
Sodium Hydroxide
Water
Vegetable Glycerin

Soap 10 has 8 total ingredients.
Stearic Acid
Lard
Shea Butter
Coconut Oil
Potassium Hydroxide
Sodium Hydroxide
Water
Vegetable Glycerin

I will be making more of this and I'm willing to share if anyone wants some. Thanks for indulging me in this little adventure.

So I monkeyed a little with the ingredients in Soap #10. I added some castor oil and reduced the shea butter. I also changed the proportions of the lyes. I was trying to get a creamier lather and I was successful. Today I gave the soap a run on both my face and head. I even used my R41 on my head (first time with on my head ever). I was very pleased. The results gave me a wonderful slickness and plenty of residual for my water only clean up pass. There is no odor whatsoever and it cleaned up without a trace. Pretty damn pleased with myself Still willing to share if anyone is interested.

 

[Rusty Blade]

So I monkeyed a little with the ingredients in Soap #10. I added some castor oil and reduced the shea butter. I also changed the proportions of the lyes. I was trying to get a creamier lather and I was successful. Today I gave the soap a run on both my face and head. I even used my R41 on my head (first time with on my head ever). I was very pleased. The results gave me a wonderful slickness and plenty of residual for my water only clean up pass. There is no odor whatsoever and it cleaned up without a trace. Pretty damn pleased with myself Still willing to share if anyone is interested.

Is it hard to make soap?

 

[ralph029]

Is it hard to make soap?

No, not really. It's just a matter of combining ingredients to achieve a desired outcome. To achieve a desired result you use different ingredients or alter the amounts of ingredients. If you want a bath soap you approach it differently than shave soap but the ingredients are all the same or similar.
Soap is nothing more than a fat and lye mixed together until the lye turns the fat into soap: called saponification.
There is an art to it as with anything but it can be as easy as 3 ingredients (olive oil, water, and sodium hydroxide: castile soap).
Since this is a shaving board, I'll assume that you mean, "Is it hard to make shaving soap". My first shave soap was 5 ingredients: 2 fats, two hydroxides, and water. I didn't like it but I'm sure for some it would have been as good as what they are used to using.
Soap Commander has a book on their website, "How To Make Shaving Soap" for $10 which is a great primer and even has several "recipes".
There are some great YouTube resources that can teach you about any kind of soap making and you can go from simple to quite intricate and ornate.
Shave soap is about slickness and stable lather so you use ingredients to bolster those qualities. Bath soap is about cleaning properties so you use ingredients to bolster those.
I will say this, no soap moisturizes; some soaps just clean more mildly leaving oils in the skin. Moisturizers work differently.
Shave soap uses two hydroxides, sodium and potassium. Combined they create a softer soap which eases lather creation and a slickness. Bath soaps use only sodium and cream soaps use only potassium (I'm speaking in pure generalities on this point).
If you were to focus on purely shaving soap, the investment would be minimal and everything is available from Amazon or a great soaping supply company (and learning resource as well) called Bramble Berry.
Honestly between all my hobbies: casting and reloading bullets, fly tying, cooking, making shaving brushes, and distilling, making shave soap is a walk in the park. I can make 10 -12 3 oz tins of shaving soap in about an hour. Making regular soap is more time consuming due to curing time but shave soap needs no curing.
There are some real artists out there making soap and what they do requires time and effort and artistic flair. I am a no nonsense kind of guy with soap so I imagine that really helps with time savings. I like to be in the kitchen so I guess that helps quite a bit.
Keep in mind that sodium and potassium hydroxides are dangerous and can hurt you if you don't handle them properly. There is risk involved but it's an easy thing to make.
Oh yeah, I don't do fragrances (hence B.U.G.S.) and that also makes things a little easier as well.

 

[ralph029]

Is it hard to make soap?

I forgot to mention that there are two methods, hot and cold processed. I use the cold process only. I find it easier. It just requires temperature control of your ingredients.

 

[Rusty Blade]

I forgot to mention that there are two methods, hot and cold processed. I use the cold process only. I find it easier. It just requires temperature control of your ingredients.

Interesting. Thanks for the overview. I am guessing there is a difference between making a shaving soap (as in a puck) and a shaving cream (as in a Trufefitt and Hill kind of cream). I wish I could find a recipe for some cream like Truefitt and Hill Ultimate Comfort.

 

[ralph029]

Interesting. Thanks for the overview. I am guessing there is a difference between making a shaving soap (as in a puck) and a shaving cream (as in a Trufefitt and Hill kind of cream). I wish I could find a recipe for some cream like Truefitt and Hill Ultimate Comfort.

Once you make a couple batches, you can look at a list of ingredients and figure it out with some other recipes that you can pull off line pretty easily.

 

[ralph029]

Interesting. Thanks for the overview. I am guessing there is a difference between making a shaving soap (as in a puck) and a shaving cream (as in a Trufefitt and Hill kind of cream). I wish I could find a recipe for some cream like Truefitt and Hill Ultimate Comfort.

Try this page.

 

[KeenDogg]

I put in a request for Farhers Day with the boss for Soap Commander integrity and also Stirling Unscented.

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[ralph029]

I put in a request for Farhers Day with the boss for Soap Commander integrity and also Stirling Unscented.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

Woohoo! Happy shaving!

 

[KeenDogg]

I wanna mention I was graciously gifted some of Ralph's homemade soap. I find it is practically scentless and has a great post shave feel. It is very thirsty but manages to make explosive lather. Protection or slickness may need a bump but as far as allergies to it, I have none. For his first time making soap, he did great!
Thanks Raplh!

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[Nomad116]

Aye where can I get his soap? I wanna see if it'll work for my head.

 

[ralph029]

I wanna mention I was graciously gifted some of Ralph's homemade soap. I find it is practically scentless and has a great post shave feel. It is very thirsty but manages to make explosive lather. Protection or slickness may need a bump but as far as allergies to it, I have none. For his first time making soap, he did great!
Thanks Raplh!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

Thank you for the very kind words sir.

 

[KeenDogg]

Got to try Stirling unscented with beeswax. I dont find it truly unscented, but it still smells great. It's almost like a very mild citrus vibe to my nose. My skin had no issues what so ever.

Performance was fantastic. I was very impressed.

I also tried the unscented aftershave splash with menthol. Wow! I splashed it on a wet face and man it was bracing! I'm going to dry my face next go round. It also gave me no issues.

The next day my face felt supple and smoothe.

So pumped!

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