First shave with homemade soap

[duck dive steve]

Hi all
So me and my dad have been trying been trying to make shaving soap for what we hope will be a successful commercial venture. Were quite a good combination my dad has a phd in chemistry and I'm a shaver with very high standards and a good business ethic.
So we started out trying to just make soap the first five batches were just handsoap but with good cleaning and reasonable lather for hand soap. Then we came up with a shaving soap recipe we thought would work and since then we have been tweaking the recipe to try get something I would shave with. So yesterday the affectionately named 'batch 10' was ready. I liked the consistency, it smelled good (unfragranced at this point) and when I put my brush to it a really rich thick lather came out of it. Did a face lather and was happy with the results. Started to shave and noticed the lather was disappearing. It wasn't stable unfortunately, however I shaved on in the interest of Science and end user experience. The strange thing was the lather was dry but there was a lot of slick to it and it left my face feeling very moisturised. Due to the lather being unstable I had to load my brush after every pass to get a lather I would shave with.
Good points: we have a soap you can shave with, lovely and moisturising.
Bad Points: Unstable lather, no where near being able to sell it.
Just thought I would share a bit of my experiences of soap making. We are trying to use natural products st the moment and haven't looked in to animal fats yet but a tallow soap is definitely on the cards. I just need to go sweet talk my butcher. We have a brand name and a few designs for labels etc but at the the moment its all product development. Will keep this post updated if anyone is interested. I'm not really after suggestions to solve the lather problem but if anyone does suggest anything helpful I can't promise to pay royalties but there may be some free soap for you .

All the best,
Steve

 

[MrDentini]

It's impossible to answer without knowing, if not the recipe, the oils you've used. They keyword here is "persistence". Find an oil that has a high persistence value and you're on the ball. Soy oil, mango oil have good persistence values but then you'll have to consider the other values that would change. It's a lot of work and tweaking until the aha moment

Good luck.

 

[duck dive steve]

Thanks for the reply. I will look in to that. As you say adding extra things can alter thing drastically. Might have to get the saponification values and the calculator out and do my homework.

 

[joshua1970]

not just the oils "persistence value", but that of you and your father too! Sounds like you guys are close

Best of luck to you both - looking forward to trying it myself one day

 

[Pat.G.Boisvert]

Sounds like fun! Best of luck!

PS - I've been looking for two smells in creams.. 1) Grapefruit. 2) Lilac. Yes, i know perhaps a little different but I've been thinking of trying to make my own creams too just to have these smells... If you make these, send me a message.

 

[duck dive steve]

Just for you Pat when we have something we can sell I will do you a sampler of grapefruit or lilac or both combined. We have access to some fairly sophisticated lab equipment so we are going to look into making our own oils and I'm interested in using plants I can grow myself. It will be a while yet but I will look in to it for you.

 

[chris.hale]

I'll be watching this thread with interest, and would also be very interested in a grapefruit-scented soap.

 

[kingfisher]

Sounds like fun! Best of luck!

PS - I've been looking for two smells in creams.. 1) Grapefruit. 2) Lilac. Yes, i know perhaps a little different but I've been thinking of trying to make my own creams too just to have these smells... If you make these, send me a message.

FYI, Benton Clay makes a soap called Vetiver Paradisi that is predominantly grapefruit, and KMF has a grapefruit/pomegranate scent that is quite nice.

As for lilac, I'm pretty sure Mama Bear makes one (or perhaps two) that are lilac or lilac blends.