What shave soap is the most chemical free that still gives a great lather.
Going natural
- Thread starter keeptahoeblue
- Start date
Most natural shave soaps suck. Your best bet is probably a traditional soaper who uses EO's. Maybe Prairie Creations? (That's a guess, I don't know what their ingredient list looks like). In the end, I'd just buy Tabac, put it in a recycled glass dish and pretend it was all natural.
Soaps are made from chemicals.
All 'natural' soaps are the resultant salts from a chemical reaction between a fatty acid and a caustic base.
Keeping that in mind, a proper soap is still better and less chemically 'enhanced' than a detergent 'soap'.
Any soap with a mix of ingredients including:
Potassium Stearate (soap made with Stearic Acid and Potassium Hydroxide)
Sodium stearate (soap made with Stearic Acid and Sodium Hydroxide)
Potassium Tallowate (soap made with tallow and Potassiun Hydroxide)
Sodium Tallowate (soap made with tallow and Sodium hyroxide)
Potassium/sodium Palmitate (soap made with Palm oil)
Potassium/sodium Cocoate (coconut oil)
Potassium/sodium olivate (olive oil)
.... getting the idea?
That will make a basic soap as naturally as possible ... but most will have other ingredients too, like glycerine (byproduct or additional) and fragrance and dyes and additives and ...
Look at the ingredients, if you can understand what was used to make it, then its as natural as you might get.
If it has ingredients that Wikipedia shows isotopes, molecular diagrams and uses such as synthetic engine oil solvent ... then its a little less 'natural'
All 'natural' soaps are the resultant salts from a chemical reaction between a fatty acid and a caustic base.
Keeping that in mind, a proper soap is still better and less chemically 'enhanced' than a detergent 'soap'.
Any soap with a mix of ingredients including:
Potassium Stearate (soap made with Stearic Acid and Potassium Hydroxide)
Sodium stearate (soap made with Stearic Acid and Sodium Hydroxide)
Potassium Tallowate (soap made with tallow and Potassiun Hydroxide)
Sodium Tallowate (soap made with tallow and Sodium hyroxide)
Potassium/sodium Palmitate (soap made with Palm oil)
Potassium/sodium Cocoate (coconut oil)
Potassium/sodium olivate (olive oil)
.... getting the idea?
That will make a basic soap as naturally as possible ... but most will have other ingredients too, like glycerine (byproduct or additional) and fragrance and dyes and additives and ...
Look at the ingredients, if you can understand what was used to make it, then its as natural as you might get.
If it has ingredients that Wikipedia shows isotopes, molecular diagrams and uses such as synthetic engine oil solvent ... then its a little less 'natural'
if what you're looking for is the most basic, mildest shaving soap i'd probably say it's uncolored, unscented glycerin soap. it's as basic as soap gets and it also lathers quite well and will out perform many "natural" alternatives. it's also cheap.
Cella
I was tinkering with the idea of making a shaving soap with the extract of;
Poison Oak
Posion Ivy
Belladonna
Strychnine
Hemlock
It's all natural and works great, but you can only use it once.
Just try to remember that many naturally occurring things can be bad and many chemically prepared things can be good. I think you really have to try to strike a balance and find stuff that works well but isn't overtly processed with additives.
A tallow soap is pretty natural, just look at the ingredients list for colors and fragrances added that may not agree with you or your perspective.
Poison Oak
Posion Ivy
Belladonna
Strychnine
Hemlock
It's all natural and works great, but you can only use it once.
Just try to remember that many naturally occurring things can be bad and many chemically prepared things can be good. I think you really have to try to strike a balance and find stuff that works well but isn't overtly processed with additives.
A tallow soap is pretty natural, just look at the ingredients list for colors and fragrances added that may not agree with you or your perspective.
I was tinkering with the idea of making a shaving soap with the extract of;
Poison Oak
Posion Ivy
Belladonna
Strychnine
Hemlock
It's all natural and works great, but you can only use it once.
Whether or not it gives a great lather or not, I can't say, but I'm intrigued by the Soap for Goodness Sake "Babassu Natural Shaving Soap:
http://www.soapforgoodnesssake.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=1212&Product_Code=babassu_shaving_soap&Category_Code=shaving_soap
Ingredients are Saponified Babassu Oil, Water, White Clay Powder.
I'm a little skeptical that a good shaving soap could have so few ingredients, but I might try it some day. Anyone else tried it?
Also, I could be mistaken, but I seem to recall that the Mama Bear's soaps were pretty natural, as are probably many other handmade soaps.
http://www.soapforgoodnesssake.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=1212&Product_Code=babassu_shaving_soap&Category_Code=shaving_soap
Ingredients are Saponified Babassu Oil, Water, White Clay Powder.
I'm a little skeptical that a good shaving soap could have so few ingredients, but I might try it some day. Anyone else tried it?
Also, I could be mistaken, but I seem to recall that the Mama Bear's soaps were pretty natural, as are probably many other handmade soaps.
B
buyandhold2018
Cella would be my pick as well. Other than not knowing whether the scent is from an essential oil or a synthetic fragrance, the ingredients are as simple as you can get, and the performance is second to none.
Cella, Crema Sapone Extra Extra Purissima,
Valobra, Crema di Sapone Purissima (Almond and Menthol),
Valobra, Sapone per barba stick,
MWF,
MdC.
Valobra, Crema di Sapone Purissima (Almond and Menthol),
Valobra, Sapone per barba stick,
MWF,
MdC.
+1 on the unscented pure glycerin soaps. You can buy these in bulk. They are what I use and then I just add a little jojoba to them for softness. Cheap, easy to use, and as natural as you get. I have also found that they build great lather.
I wouldn't consider glycerins more natural than the traditional soaps they are undoubtedly derived from. As I recall you take real soap, add alcohol and sugar and then do "something" and out pops glycerin soap. We have a few soapers on the site who know the process in some detail. I believe Sue is one of them. She spoke briefly about it to me when I was just getting started soaping.
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- Thread starter
- #16
I know that there is an organic chemical process that is unavoidable, but im looking for something that is chemically healthy. You can check ingrediance at http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/ to see if the chemicals used are at risk.
I think the point being made here is that "risk" is entirely dose dependent. You can drown in water, but no one claims it's dangerous. Parabens are dangerous when you ingest a LOT of them, but at the doses presented by cosmetics they have been shown to be harmless and keep costs down.
There is a lot of unfounded and ill-advised panic on the internet about chemicals in everything, most of which is uninformed or agenda driven. I'd be very VERY skeptical of anything I found on the internet (pro OR con) without checking a LOT of reputable sites. Note that many scare sites try very hard to appear to be reputable. My first stop would be the FDA website.
Yeah, I remember when I browsed acne.org forums. Never seen so many people torturing themselves by chugging aloe vera juice and using Vinegar/baking soda scrubs instead of soap. And that's not to even mention the "cleansing" that many of them recommended. It's not something to be discussed in... well... any company.
And aloe vera juice is the single worst thing I have ever in my life tasted.
That's no kidding. I used to wash my hands off in gasoline after fixing the tractor. None of my six arms or 3 legs fell off
