I've had a few that never lathered for me. Badger shaving soap smells good but doesn't do anything. Avon made a Skin So Soft shave soap that never lathered either.
Have you ever had a soap that just won't work?
- Thread starter Jbird45
- Start date
Badger shave soap doesn't do well does it? That's a shame since it seems like a couple chains and Jeff Bezo's grocery store seem to have latched on to it.
lasta
Blade Biter
Most soaps work for me, even bar soap! Airy/wet messes can work too.
Just lubricant after all.
Just lubricant after all.
Unfortunately Mystic Waters wouldn't lather for me.
I've had trouble with many "market" soaps I've tried, end up using them as shower bars. Cheers
Mike M
...but this one IS cracked.
Anyone who ever used a Wilkinson Sword blue puck will tell you it has less slickness than plain water, one of the most dire soaps I have ever possessed and definitely not artisan soap
In my mind, one of the key factors that makes a good soap a good soap is how easily it lathers. Life is too short — and there are too many good soaps — to waste my time trying to figure out how to make a bad soap useable. They don't get a second chance with me. It either lathers the way a good soap does or it goes in the trash.
Much of the problem with just bar soap is that they lack high enough percentage of stearic acid and/or palmitic acid. Some oils/fats are much higher in stearic acid and/or palmitic acid than others and to get a stable rich creamy lather that you need for shaving. Some of the ones containing stearic acid and/or palmitic acid are: Stearic Acid (duh), Soybean Wax(not really a wax, but just hydrogenated soybean oil), Palm Oil, Tallow, Cocoa Butter, Shea Butter, Lard and others. The ingredients of a good shave soap should have a high amount of one or more of these oils/fats. You rarely see the butters like shea and cocoa in really high amounts in the soap, due to their cost.
Coconut oil will give you a bubbly lather and too much of that will give you a "weak" lather that dissipated quickly. Higher amounts can also dry your skin. Some also use Castor Oil, which is a good oil as well. It gives the lather a longer lasting more stable lather characteristic. High amounts of "soft" oils like olive, corn, canola, peanut, soybean.... tend to reduce the lather, but they may add to the post shave feel as well, so there is a balance there.
I have also encountered so called "shave soap" that does not meet these criteria and I just stay away from them. My best advise is to read the ingredient list and if the first ingredient is not one of the stearic and/or palmitic acid oils/fats, do not buy it. You will be disappointed.
For example here is an ingredient list from a "shave bar" from a "artisan soap" chain. I am not naming names not to cause issues.
"Sodium Cocoate (from Coconut Oil), Sodium Palmate (from Palm Oil), Sodium Rapeseedate (from Rapeseedate Oil), Sodium Olivate (from Olive Oil), Fragrance, Kaolin, Mica, Titanium Dioxide, Iron Oxides, Chromium Oxide Green"
First ingredient is sodium cocoate is in essence coconut oil. Second ingredient is palm oil, but I would not not buy this due to the high content of coconut oil. Third ingredient is a soft oil. The bar probably gives you a nice bubbly lather, but I do not think it would be great for wet shaving and I think the lather would dissipate rather quickly.
Just a hobby soap maker here so I may off on some of this. Soap making is just so much fun and interesting.
Coconut oil will give you a bubbly lather and too much of that will give you a "weak" lather that dissipated quickly. Higher amounts can also dry your skin. Some also use Castor Oil, which is a good oil as well. It gives the lather a longer lasting more stable lather characteristic. High amounts of "soft" oils like olive, corn, canola, peanut, soybean.... tend to reduce the lather, but they may add to the post shave feel as well, so there is a balance there.
I have also encountered so called "shave soap" that does not meet these criteria and I just stay away from them. My best advise is to read the ingredient list and if the first ingredient is not one of the stearic and/or palmitic acid oils/fats, do not buy it. You will be disappointed.
For example here is an ingredient list from a "shave bar" from a "artisan soap" chain. I am not naming names not to cause issues.
"Sodium Cocoate (from Coconut Oil), Sodium Palmate (from Palm Oil), Sodium Rapeseedate (from Rapeseedate Oil), Sodium Olivate (from Olive Oil), Fragrance, Kaolin, Mica, Titanium Dioxide, Iron Oxides, Chromium Oxide Green"
First ingredient is sodium cocoate is in essence coconut oil. Second ingredient is palm oil, but I would not not buy this due to the high content of coconut oil. Third ingredient is a soft oil. The bar probably gives you a nice bubbly lather, but I do not think it would be great for wet shaving and I think the lather would dissipate rather quickly.
Just a hobby soap maker here so I may off on some of this. Soap making is just so much fun and interesting.
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I had the same issue with a 'shave soap' I bought from a farmers market. I think a lot of these home soap makers are just selling their regular hand/body soap as shave soap, not realizing they are not the same thing at all.
I am currently using Eucris right now. My trick is to add 2-3 spoons of hot water and leave it on top of the soap for one minute. This gives me some time to prepare my beard before shave. When I start to lather, I use all that water, I don’t drain it. I sometimes have to add even more water. Hope this helps!
- Thread starter
- #33
Well after all the posts of unsatisfied users of farmers market "artisan shave soaps", I guess I'm glad to know I'm not the only one that's had this issue. Definitely reassures me it was indeed the soap and not something I did.
I find the key to a great shaving soap to be stearic acid. You also indicate that palmitic acid is suitable, but it needs to be balanced with stearic acid. Stearic acid has the chemical formula C18H36O2. Palmitic acid has the formula C16H32O2. The stearic acid chain is longer by two hydroxyl (CH2) groups. That seems to make a difference in performance. Palm oil, palm kernel oil, and coconut oil are all rather low in stearic acid. Thus, I avoid purchasing soaps based on these oils. Animal tallow does have a significant quantity of palmitic acid, but it is balanced by stearic acid. Shea butter, Kokum butter, Mango butter, and cacao butter are excellent sources of stearic acid, so I look for soaps containing these ingredients.
I agree that the balance is important. I actually prefer a high stearic acid soap and not the palmitic acid ones. I also agree that butters make a great shave soap, but they are also high in cost, which drives up the overall cost of the soap. I am a cheap kind of guy, so I tend to use cheaper oils and fats in mine. Besides after saponification the butters will be "consumed" so I do not usually spend the money for them, unless I can control the superfat through HP process and add them after the cook.
I used to hang out and lurk in a few soap-makers forums. A mistaken belief at one time was that you could make shaving soap by using a regular soap recipe and adding some bentonite clay for slip. I still see these 'recipes' occasionally when I'm out on the internet.
Some well-meaning soap makers may think they are making a good shaving soap. In their defense, it may work perfectly fine for cart shavers.
I learned through experience that ‘artisan’ in combination with shaving soaps too often means ‘underperforming, made by amateurs’. I have become suspicious of all shaving products labelled ‘artisan’.
But my award for the singularly most unsuitable shaving soap goes to Lightfoot’s Pure Pine Shave Cream Soap.
I tried this shaving soap a few years back because of its unusual but very attractive scent and found it near impossible to shave with.
Out of necessity, I even have used bar soap on occasion for a shave, but it’s Lightfoot’s Pure Pine Shave Cream Soap that stands out in my memory as the most unsuitable.
B.
But my award for the singularly most unsuitable shaving soap goes to Lightfoot’s Pure Pine Shave Cream Soap.
I tried this shaving soap a few years back because of its unusual but very attractive scent and found it near impossible to shave with.
Out of necessity, I even have used bar soap on occasion for a shave, but it’s Lightfoot’s Pure Pine Shave Cream Soap that stands out in my memory as the most unsuitable.
B.
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Ditto. It didn't get along with my tap water. When I used distilled water, it worked fine.
Geo F Trumper Limes.
Just a frothy flat mess for me no matter what I did.
Gave up and used it as body soap for the shower.
It even gave a rubbish lather as a body soap.
Just a frothy flat mess for me no matter what I did.
Gave up and used it as body soap for the shower.
It even gave a rubbish lather as a body soap.
My worst soap is De Vergulde Hand (standard version in a blue plastic tub with yellow/blue sticker on it), an old recipe dutch soap. Smells incredibly boring (like super old plain soap) and i dont get a good lather from it. Its also not slick and dries my skin.
