homemade shaving soap

[nightninja87]

i was looking at something on about.com about making your own shaving soap and the recipe makes about 3 lbs of soap!! well i was looking into making it and maybe if i do i was actually thinking of taking it separating it in parts wrapping in plastics and maybe even shipping it to some fellow members of this site would anyone be interested in one of these bars of soap? im not sure what scent im gonna go with but i might try to make a very small batch maybe a puck and test it for myself so i don't do anything stupid.

 

[damooshki]

I think it's probably the same recipe I tried. It made the absolute worst shaving soap I have ever used. Though it was fine for bathing.

 

[nightninja87]

well heres the link http://candleandsoap.about.com/od/soaprecipes/a/cpshavingrecipe.htm its the one i seen and if its the same thanks for saving me from wasting the money

 

[michiganlover]

well heres the link http://candleandsoap.about.com/od/soaprecipes/a/cpshavingrecipe.htm its the one i seen and if its the same thanks for saving me from wasting the money

That recipe is 40% olive oil. Generally speaking, any soap that features a large amount of olive oil is a disaster as a shaving soap.

There are a lot of recipes on the net for shaving soap, most of them are going to make a very sub-par product that won't be usable. Generally speaking, many of the people who make soap are totally clueless as to what a good lather for shaving should look like; as a result they simply take their standard bath soap recipe add some extra clay, and call it shaving soap. These make for horrid quality shaving soaps.

The amount of money, and time you will spend perfecting your recipe could be better spent on many existing quality shaving soaps.

If you really want to try your hand at soap making, general consensus seems to be that the Brambleberry Melt and Pour Soap base is the way to go. You simply cut it into small pieces, microwave in short bursts until melted, and then scent it with whatever essential oils you like (which you can also purchase from Brambleberry).

 

[SliceOfLife]

That recipe is 40% olive oil. Generally speaking, any soap that features a large amount of olive oil is a disaster as a shaving soap.

There are a lot of recipes on the net for shaving soap, most of them are going to make a very sub-par product that won't be usable. Generally speaking, many of the people who make soap are totally clueless as to what a good lather for shaving should look like; as a result they simply take their standard bath soap recipe add some extra clay, and call it shaving soap. These make for horrid quality shaving soaps.

The amount of money, and time you will spend perfecting your recipe could be better spent on many existing quality shaving soaps.

If you really want to try your hand at soap making, general consensus seems to be that the Brambleberry Melt and Pour Soap base is the way to go. You simply cut it into small pieces, microwave in short bursts until melted, and then scent it with whatever essential oils you like (which you can also purchase from Brambleberry).

Good advice, but in the interest of devils advocate... 17% Castor 40% olive 43% stearic acid makes a pretty decent shave soap. Not the worlds best, but decent.

The recipe they give is total crap though. ;P

 

[michiganlover]

Good advice, but in the interest of devils advocate... 17% Castor 40% olive 43% stearic acid makes a pretty decent shave soap. Not the worlds best, but decent.

The recipe they give is total crap though. ;P

Ian, I know you went out of your way to prove that an olive oil shaving soap was in fact possible, which is the reason why I said "generally speaking", which left room for your soap to be the exception to the rule, rather than saying all shaving soaps featuring large concentrations of olive oil are wretched.

 

[wolfmanxiii]

Unfortunately their shave soap base looks like it has a lot of coconut oil in it. From what I hear castor oil is better (I think at least, somebody correct me please if I am wrong). However I've used soaps with coconut oil as a main ingredient and still gotten a good lather out of them.

Their sampler looks promising though...maybe buy the sampler and the shave soap base and and make really small batches mixing and matching until you come up with something that works. Just avoid olive oil from what I hear it's a lather killer. Edit: disregard the olive oil thing, someone has beat me to it and explained better than I.

 

[nightninja87]

thanks everyone for the responses and i will try that wolfman

 

[wolfmanxiii]

thanks everyone for the responses and i will try that wolfman

Let me know how that goes lee, I've been thinking about doing the same thing myself for about a week now, but am waiting for some extra money after my recent antique store visit cost me close to $200.

BTW I'm willing to be a test subject and if I ever do go through with buying some bases I'll let you test mine too.

 

[nightninja87]

that sounds good and i will test it out im gonna try out the base and use some scent maybe something woodsy and ill be willing to send you a sample when i have the change to make it ill pm you when i make it

 

[wolfmanxiii]

Good man, I love woodsy scents, in fact I just splashed on some D.R. Harris Marlborough AS after shaving with the same soap.

 

[Hagbardr]

I have a block of clear glycerin soap left over from making a model for a D&D game I run.

1. Paint 2 skeleton models identically.
2. Insert painted skeleton model into clear plastic cube.
3. Pour melted glycerin soap over model; let cool.
4. Place twin on board.
5. Laugh as players realize the wimpy skeleton they charged to attack is actually a powerful gelatinous cube.

Is there a way to make a decent shaving soap out of this or should it just become hand soap with the addition of a little essential oil?

 

[SliceOfLife]

Ian, I know you went out of your way to prove that an olive oil shaving soap was in fact possible, which is the reason why I said "generally speaking", which left room for your soap to be the exception to the rule, rather than saying all shaving soaps featuring large concentrations of olive oil are wretched.

Very true. I actually LIKE olive oil in my soaps and the only reason I don't use it is cost... but with olive oil less is more. If I could get pomice oil for ~$1 to $1.30 a lb instead of more than $2 a lb, I'd probably use it, but in the 5-15% range. In the 40% range you need to load the soap up with stearic or palmitic acids to provide the creaminess required (and they are harder to work with and more expensive than Tallow or palm oils which you are able to use in soaps with less oils like olive) 30% is about as high as I could go with Olive oil and still create a soap that would be comparable to the stuff I use now... that recipe above is closer (in Soapcalc's performance rankings) to some of my older batches before I developed my techniques to allow for higher proportions of the richer/creamier fat salts.


Wolfman. I say that castor is better than coconut. This is at least true for the home soaper. Maybe coconut has some major advantages in dry milled soaps that don't present themselves in my soaps... but in my limited experience I am forced to suspect that it's actually used in mainstream soaps for the manufacturers sake and not the end users. Basically Castor is well, the God of soap oils. It does everything. It is maxed on on bubble, nourishment, and creaminess. Coconut is almost pure bubble. When you use Coconut oil to provide bubble you have to add more stearic/Palmitic acids to provide some of the creaminess Castor would have given you as a side benefit if added for the same reason. And the end result is that you HEAVILY shortchange the product on nourishment (and also slightly reduce the absolute maximum creaminess the product can achieve, but as Tabac shows, this isn't always a problem). When I worked with Coconut oil I was using the MINIMUM bubble rating that I could get to work (Because I needed less coconut oil in there in order to fit enough Creamy oils) With Castor I tend towards the maximum I can fit in before the soap gets too bubbly (thin airy lather, a'la most peoples experience with Modern Williams) because Castor is as creamy as stearic acid while being liquid at room temp (stearic melts near the boiling point of water, making it a pain to use at high concentrations) and MORE nourishing than olive oil.

 

[Redd]

Sounds like you have really put some time and effort into refining your soap recipe. What do you use other than castor oil (and I presume tallow or lard)?

Very true. I actually LIKE olive oil in my soaps and the only reason I don't use it is cost...

 

[KittensAndRainbows]

From the Brambleberry site:

Shaving Melt and Pour Base - Our shaving soap has lots of luxurious lather with none of the chemicals that most soap bases rely on! This soap base is easy to use and fairly clear, so it's great for embedding ground loofah or glitter.

Clearly, any site that advocates adding glitter to shave soap can't be taken seriously I am curious how well the base performs, though.

 

[perogee]

Has anyone here ever made, or tried, a shaving soap with neem oil? It is supposed to have some great antifungal and antibacterial properties (and insecticidal ), and as such should be great in a shaving soap. The biggest problem I see is the smell. Not sure if it is something that I want to smell when shaving, though I think it is possible to cover it up or blend it into other scents.

 

[SliceOfLife]

Sounds like you have really put some time and effort into refining your soap recipe. What do you use other than castor oil (and I presume tallow or lard)?

As simple as it gets is Castor Oil, Stearic acid, and Tallow (Or palm, but I bought 50lbs of Tallow, so Tallow until it's gone). I also like Cocoa Butter (3-12%), but it's a little treat I do for myself since it's ~$6 or $7 a pound (Versus $1 to $1.5 for the other fats) and doesn't necessarily improve the soap on paper.

 

[perogee]

So, I was intrigued enough about the idea of using Neem oil that I decided to try a couple of batches, one scented and one not
Should be able to give it a trial in a week or two. One thing I have already noticed is that I do not mind the smell nearly so much after a little bit. Though the colour is still horrid, lol

 

[rawface]

Any chance of sharing those?

 

[SliceOfLife]

Sure thing. I tend to do it via PM's though just to keep people from sniping them to produce a commercial product (I don't really mind if they do, but I'd like to know if someone does. Might save me having to keep making my own stuff. ).

Truth be told, my favorite batch so far (My "Spice Is Nice" for folks who have some), I sort of... um... lost the recipe to. I'm pretty sure I know what I like better about it than my more recent recipes though, so I keep telling myself that my next batch will be my best, but I haven't made anything in a month or two. Anyway, PM me if you want the recipe I'm toying with now (though honestly it's MY Ideal soap, so it may be better if I give you a quick tutorial on my process and a start point and you adjust it to your own liking). Some day I'll do a soapmaking video. But my camera sucks and I'm incredibly busy (lazy) so maybe we'll all be old (even more old) men by then.