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FrankenSoapShaveSticks

Give me your recipes!

Oh man, so after a decade of wet shaving, there aren’t too many unique rabbit holes to fall down. So sometimes you just make one up to keep things fresh lol! And this one sure is unique even by my standards. But I want your help all the same.

Honestly, I blame @Wtd1911 wholeheartedly. I was never interested in shave sticks, but one day he decided to send me an empty one anyway. I assume he wasn’t interested in it either.

It sat in my drawer for some time and then... and then it happened. I decided to get “creative.”

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Wtd1911’s stick utilized

I ground up equal parts of Haslinger Schafmilch & Fine American, then pulled out a little of my Osma soap simply for medicinal reasons, and then added Oleo’s Bonaire. I haven’t been able to stop using it! I’ve got some great soaps in my rotation, but I keep grabbing the stick!

Now some of you might find mixing soaps sacrilegious, being the makers know what they are doing better than we do. But I got to tell you, after years of shaving with this and that, you come to know what would compliment each other. Moreover and more importantly, mixing bases is fantastic! You can get the best of different world sans any penalty! It’s total win-win. The above mix is so slick, but leaves my face so soft... it’s awesome!

Anyway aside from the whole delightful chemistry thing going on, I’ve come to realize the beauty of shave sticks as well. I mean you could mix soaps in a bowl but... it’s not as fun or efficient. Lathering on your face is fantastic! And I can’t believe there’s still tons of lather on the brush for pass three! But a shaves stick efficiency is besides the point. Let’s talk more about the mixing!

Here’s where I’m at. Because I’m just starting, rather than 2oz containers, I went to Amazon and got 5 1oz containers. They’ll be here Monday. They look like this.

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Then I ordered some soaps just for mixing. I’m in an orange & rose sort of headspace so...

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1. The first recipe I’m going to have at, is a mix of Pre de Provence 63 & Wool Fat for “feel,” mixed with some Fine (slick) and A&E’s L’Orange for scent.

I’m thinking the Pre de Provence will really add some warmth and bring out the scents in the orange soaps. Of course the wool fat will well - hello soft lol!

2. The Declaration Grooming “Yuzu, Rose, Patchouli” isn’t what I thought it would be... but I’m thinking i’ll try a little of it and my Oleo Rose. But I’m not sure yet. Any idea’s?


Anyway, feel free to play along!! I’d love to hear what you’ve come up with or are thinking of coming up with. Or just follow along.

Happy shaving!
 
I no longer use shave sticks (too difficult on my head). However, I am too cheap to throw away bits and pieces of soap so I put the odds and ends in a jar. I grate them up and put in a container. The last one I made had: MWF, MdC, Haslinger Schafmilch, Mama Bear's Clubman, Tabac, and Wilkinson in it.
 
I no longer use shave sticks (too difficult on my head). However, I am too cheap to throw away bits and pieces of soap so I put the odds and ends in a jar. I grate them up and put in a container. The last one I made had: MWF, MdC, Haslinger Schafmilch, Mama Bear's Clubman, Tabac, and Wilkinson in it.
That sounds like it’d be fantastic!

I mixed the Pre de Provence, the Wool Fat, and the Fine A&E combo... Holy cow! My wife and I both agree aside from an awesome scent, my face is fantastic and I got close. What a combo!! The lather was insane. Winning!
 
That sounds like it’d be fantastic!

I mixed the Pre de Provence, the Wool Fat, and the Fine A&E combo... Holy cow! My wife and I both agree aside from an awesome scent, my face is fantastic and I got close. What a combo!! The lather was insane. Winning!

One of the benefits is that you're milling the soap. If you've seen how soap is triple milled in soap factories, you've figured out that's no different than grating a puck in your kitchen, just bigger in scale. For whatever reason milling makes soap lather faster and better.
 
This is putting notions into my head.
When I make Stickified Williams Mug I use a little bit of water to make a croap-like paste for filling the tube.

My stick is almost empty so I have to make some more soon, and I'm thinking "what if I use a soft cream instead of water?"
Candidates are: TBS Maca Root & Aloe, Cremo (but don't have much left), Kaloderma, and Gillette Pure.
"Superlather in a Stick" - I like that idea.
 
This is putting notions into my head.
When I make Stickified Williams Mug I use a little bit of water to make a croap-like paste for filling the tube.

My stick is almost empty so I have to make some more soon, and I'm thinking "what if I use a soft cream instead of water?"
Candidates are: TBS Maca Root & Aloe, Cremo (but don't have much left), Kaloderma, and Gillette Pure.
"Superlather in a Stick" - I like that idea.
I like that idea too! Too much fun.

Let us know what you come up with!
 
Years ago these mixes of soap rest were called Clown Barf when they were grated/cut up and mixed together....
Scroll down to post #8:

Playing Dr. Frankenstein with soaps
That’s awesome! Of course... I’m trying to avoid making anything even close to resembling “Clown Barf.” There’s (ideally) a huge difference between taking leftovers and mixing them vs a “well thought out” plan of attack lol!
 
OK, I just couldn't do it - I'd relegated my grated veggie handsoap + Cremo puck to the soapdish because it wasn't slick enough. Besides, it made a lousy handsoap. So, I melted it in the mini doubleboiler (egg poacher) and tossed in a sample of ShannonSoaps Rustbelt shavesoap. On its' own it was plenty slick, but the scent was more than I cared for.
I lathered up my cheapest Badger brush ($1.89) using the residual soap stuck in the little plastic melting cup, and it still builds dense suds, only now it's plenty slick - I also added a little glycerin.

Shave test tomorrow morning ...
 
OK, I just couldn't do it - I'd relegated my grated veggie handsoap + Cremo puck to the soapdish because it wasn't slick enough. Besides, it made a lousy handsoap. So, I melted it in the mini doubleboiler (egg poacher) and tossed in a sample of ShannonSoaps Rustbelt shavesoap. On its' own it was plenty slick, but the scent was more than I cared for.
I lathered up my cheapest Badger brush ($1.89) using the residual soap stuck in the little plastic melting cup, and it still builds dense suds, only now it's plenty slick - I also added a little glycerin.

Shave test tomorrow morning ...
Nice! I can’t wait.
 
OK, I'm back. The re-re-reformulated frankensoap did better today. The addition of the ShannonSoaps sample plus a little glycerin made it just slick enough to be more comfortable. It'll never be a ToBS, but they'll never be made from a bar of handsoap. I loaded all I could against the re-frankensoap, even uising a less-than-optimum Badger brush, but couldn't make it fail enough to free up the little covered container it's in now. Left side was an Astra SP 1 shave past expiration in a black handle SuperSpeed; Right side was a Lord Platinum with toss date of yesterday in a WeiShi. Lather was dense enough and cushion-y to get a smooth irritation-free shave in 3 passes.
Tomorrow I'll move from Lords, Astras and BICs to some Shark Steel, Chrome and Platinums and likely Blue Israeli Personnas. May play with a puck of Williams and a Lea Stick that will arrive tomorrow - grate & pack enough for a couple of days anyway. Or I may just coast thru the goodlife with lather from ToBS St. James.
 
I have made several "Frankensoaps" back when i first started, most of them are still in the den as the scent can get a bit weird.

One example is i mixed about 20 different soaps together to make something interesting. Ended up giving a few oz's to a friend to get him started. It is fun to experiement with soaps and this is the PERFECT way to use up soaps that either lack performance or perhaps a scent you dont care for, it really makes the soaps better than by themselves.
 
One of the benefits is that you're milling the soap. If you've seen how soap is triple milled in soap factories, you've figured out that's no different than grating a puck in your kitchen, just bigger in scale. For whatever reason milling makes soap lather faster and better.

Great explanation!! Thanks! :a14::a14:
 
OK, the Lea sticks arrived today, so I just had to try a face lather. I've always used a bowl to lather, so this was kinda strange. I had a bowl on the edge of the sink just in case. No sense in going cold turkey. Lather was smooth and light, shave was irritation free. Nevertheless, I just couldn't leave it be. Out came the grater and I grated equal amounts of a Williams puck and the Lea. It packed nicely into a little bowl, and trial lather was Williams dense, while smelling more like the Lea. It's a definite winner. Looks like it will lather up from a damp brush without having to soak the bowl in advance

Real shave with it coming tomorrow.
 
OK, the Lea sticks arrived today, so I just had to try a face lather. I've always used a bowl to lather, so this was kinda strange. I had a bowl on the edge of the sink just in case. No sense in going cold turkey. Lather was smooth and light, shave was irritation free. Nevertheless, I just couldn't leave it be. Out came the grater and I grated equal amounts of a Williams puck and the Lea. It packed nicely into a little bowl, and trial lather was Williams dense, while smelling more like the Lea. It's a definite winner. Looks like it will lather up from a damp brush without having to soak the bowl in advance

Real shave with it coming tomorrow.
I love it! You’re going all in! I made three today myself. Going to let em dry a bit - will report back soon.
 

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Been trying to cut back on lather, since I always have plenty left over, even if I do 3 pass shaves. I caught myself eyeing the cat the other day & wondering where to shave him down with the leftover lather.

It all goes down the drain now, but has anyone ever saved the suds left in a bowl and shaved with it the next day? I'm guessing that it would dry out quick & eventually pack back down into a puck.
 
Don't grate the soaps you want to mix. Most soaps are pliable enough to just press in separate layers in a container. I bet most guys could reduce ten partly used soaps, into one container, so making one quality new soap bowl.
 
Been trying to cut back on lather, since I always have plenty left over, even if I do 3 pass shaves. I caught myself eyeing the cat the other day & wondering where to shave him down with the leftover lather.

It all goes down the drain now, but has anyone ever saved the suds left in a bowl and shaved with it the next day? I'm guessing that it would dry out quick & eventually pack back down into a puck.
That... that might be excessive?
 
QUICK UPDATE

I am absolutely loving these sticks! Mixing the different bases makes for an incredible shave. I decided to leave my sticks and let them harden for a bit - using my soaps now seems so sub-par!

This could become a problem.
 
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