I found a locally made shaving soap!

[Toothpick]

I decided to hit up the farmers market today and boy am I glad I did. I found a local soap maker that had a shaving soap! A decent size puck for $4. IMO that is a great price. Have yet to use it but will for tonights shave and report back.

She said she was going to try a sandalwood scent next, I convinced her to go for a citrus scent (because that's what I like). Whatever she decides I'm sure I'll be buying it if this soap turns out to be great.

It has the consistency of a croap. It's hard for me to describe the scent. Possibly a coconut expresso scent. It smells good that's all I know. I'm just excited to find a local soap maker!

 

[Heron]

I never thought of checking a farmers market. I hope it's good soap!

 

[Toothpick]

I never thought of checking a farmers market. I hope it's good soap!

Me either, and there was actually 2 local soap makers there. Only one had shaving soap though. Also a great coffee roaster (failed to get the name I was so impressed with the iced coffee) and a tea master, didn't sample the tea though. Also a knife guy that was giving free knife sharpening. I felt like I was at a B&B sponsored event haha

Farmers markets are where it's at!

 

[Toothpick]

I just did a test lather. It has potential for explosive lather I think I just have to find the sweet spot. I tried it first with a wet brush and it produced really airy lather, bubbly and faded quickly.

These are the results with a damp brush, I gave the brush a couple squeezes to remove excess water.

Loaded for a full minute, as you can see plenty of soap on the brush.



Palm lathered for a few seconds to get this. Still pretty airy and bubbly.



Face lathered and got this. Not acceptable to shave with IMO. I think there may have been to much water in the brush still, even after 2 squeezes.



I'm going to try again for tonights shave. If I can just thicken the lather up I think it would be a great soap.

 

[mattdenicola]

Classic olive oil lather. I've yet to make any of these work.

 

[kingfisher]

Agree with Matt.

Shaving soaps that have saponified olive oil as the first ingredient are never going to lather much better than that. If you really like the scent you should super lather it with some KMF unscented.

 

[Heron]

Farmers markets are where it's at!

There's a big one in Salt Lake every Saturday. I need to go check it out. I used to go to the small local ones pretty often, but it's been awhile.

 

[Heron]

Classic olive oil lather. I've yet to make any of these work.

Agree with Matt.

Shaving soaps that have saponified olive oil as the first ingredient are never going to lather much better than that. If you really like the scent you should super lather it with some KMF unscented.

I had the same experience with an olive oil shave soap I bought on Etsy. Into the shower it went.

 

[mwhitcraft]

Classic olive oil lather. I've yet to make any of these work.

+ 1000

 

[lowjax]

I've heard the same thing about olive oil shaving soaps. My in-laws brought me back a puck from a locally made place in Utah. I was excited then realized the first ingredient was olive oil. I want to read more about OO based soaps before trying to lather it for the first time. I'm afraid it will be like Williams.

 

[Toothpick]

well that stinks! I've never had any experience with olive oil soaps. I'm going to try shaving with it anyway. I do enjoy the scent and my face still smells like it from the test lather earlier.

I assume it would make a decent bath soap as stated.

What would be a better first ingredient for making a shave soap? Perhaps I can recommend something to her and get a custom soap made.

 

[strop]

I've had the same experience with locally made soaps with olive oil as the main ingredient. Makes great shower soap though.

You can look at the ingredient list for any of the well known soaps to get some ideas of what to suggest to her.

 

[Chaloney]

Based on the few soap-making threads ive read, stearic acid, tallow, palm oil, coconut oil.

Of course I have exactly zero experience with it. There was a very interesting thread this spring. I have it bookmarked on my iPad, ill try to remember to post the link next time I use it.

 

[Chaloney]

http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showth...n-Illustrated-Guide-to-a-Test-Batch-LONG-POST

 

[Heron]

What would be a better first ingredient for making a shave soap? Perhaps I can recommend something to her and get a custom soap made.

The vegetable based soaps I have use coconut and palm oils.

 

[Chaloney]

This one had some good discussion as well
http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/198520-Home-made-shaving-soap

 

[celestino]

Classic olive oil lather. I've yet to make any of these work.

+1

 

[Luc]

If you mix it with another soap or cream, it will probably work better (Superlather). Last time that I had that experience at the farmer market, I tried to explain to the soapmaker that olive oil was the issue. I got the "You know nothing, I'm the soap maker, not you" so I simply walked away. There's a misconception that olive oil is the slickest for shave soap. Olive oil kills the lather after a minute or two. I guess they never waited a minute after lathering.

 

[bassopotamus]

I want to say they one of the highly regarded artisan shave soap makers sells at a farmers marker in addition to online, but on the whole, unfortunately, most farmers market shave soaps don't seem to work well. I used to sell bread at a farmers market and we had two soap makers, neither iof whom did a shaving soap. One guy did make some pretty crazy stuff though. He had mine wih like beer and sandblasting material that was a great hand soap

 

[Shave_Rat]

Agree with Matt.

Shaving soaps that have saponified olive oil as the first ingredient are never going to lather much better than that. If you really like the scent you should super lather it with some KMF unscented.

Yeah, you can always use it for the scent portion, and some easy/cheap KMF unscented to fix the lather issue.