experimenting with soaps

[bridger berdel]

picked up some kiss my face bar soap. it advertises that it has 3 times the glycerine of other glycerine soaps. it lathered... ok. I melted it with some coconut oil. not as good. tried straight coconut oil. no lather at all, but it did kind of shave. made a mess though.


what is the difference, really between bar soap and shave soap?

 

[JBLA]

Generally speaking, a high stearic acid content (either through using tallow or adding stearic acid directly), and using potassium hydroxide instead of sodium hydroxide as your lye are two of the key factors that differentiate a good shaving soap from a regular bar soap.

The stearic acid gives a thick and slick lather, and the potassium hydroxide frees up the goodies in the stearic acid to make a better shaving soap than sodium hydroxide does.

Olive oil is generally not recommended as a significant portion of a shaving soap, and Kiss My Face appears to be mostly olive oil. Coconut oil is good for soap, but generally the lather is too fluffy for shaving when made into soap, and not very good at all for lathering as an oil.

 

[Barto]

what is the difference, really between bar soap and shave soap?

Generally a bath soap should remove oil and dirt w/o drying the skin. Generally a shave soap should provide cushioning, glide, and lather that lasts.

So bath and shave soaps have different recipes calling for different percentages of fats/oils and omissions of others to achieve the different goals. I agree with JBLA stearic acid, potassium hydroxide, no olive oil, are good things in a shave soap; however, generally not the best to include in bath soap.

For example, a simple bath soap recipe:
35% Beef tallow
25% Coconut oil
5% Castor oil
35% Olive oil
saponified with sodium hydroxide will give you a decent bath soap.

A simple shave soap recipe:

40% Stearic acid
35% Beef tallow
25% Palm Kernal oil
saponified with potassium hydroxide will give you a decent shave soap.

Soap makers adjust those numbers and change ingredients to their liking thus making each unique. Each oil brings different qualities to the soap. For example, coconut oil, babassu, and palm kernal oils are generally used to make a harder bar and they make great bubbles. Beef tallow, lard, palm oil, help make a harder, creamier bar. Olive, safflower, avacado, and almond oils help with conditioning. But you have to saponofy the oils with lye (potassium or sodium hydroxide) to turn them into soap.

I suggest you try soaps from the artisan soap makers on this board like Mystic waters and QCS. They make great soaps!

 

[bridger berdel]

I don’t have many options for walk in off the street purchases of shaving soap, and unscented seems to be a bit hard to find anyway. if I can figure out the alchemy of turning bar soap into shaving soap I think it will expand my options.

 

[Barto]

I don’t have many options for walk in off the street purchases of shaving soap, and unscented seems to be a bit hard to find anyway. if I can figure out the alchemy of turning bar soap into shaving soap I think it will expand my options.

Re-batching bath soap into shaving soap, IMHO, wouldn't be worth the effort. You would go through more steps than making a shave soap from the beginning. Right now I can't think of an easy, worthwhile, way of doing it.

 

[bridger berdel]

ah, well. i was hoping it would be easy. the VDH soap is at least minimaly scented and is the only thing i've found for sale here locally so far. it's inexpensive and seems to perform well enough.