I just came across this article that suggests melting unscented glycerine soap with sunflower oil to make your own shaving soap. Has anyone ever doen this? Does it work well?
Make your own shaving soap
- Thread starter Steve Crane
- Start date
I'm going to vote "no" - even though I have not tried. One can actually shave with just plain old glycerin soap, but it sure isn't as nice as a "real" shaving soap, and I can't imagine sunflower oil adding a significant amount slip or lather stability.
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- Thread starter
- #3
I thought it sounded a bit iffy. I use a shaving cream from The Body Shop which gives a reasonable lather but not as dense as the lather I used to get from Old Spice shaving soap. I haven't found any form of shaving soap locally so might end up ordering some from overseas.
Living in South Africa is great but if you use anything a little out of the ordinary, fountain pens & proper shaving gear for instance, your pretty much screwed for finding supplies locally. Just ordered a new pen and some ink from the UK. Guess I need to order shaving soap too unless I'm just going to keep on using the Body Shop cream.
Living in South Africa is great but if you use anything a little out of the ordinary, fountain pens & proper shaving gear for instance, your pretty much screwed for finding supplies locally. Just ordered a new pen and some ink from the UK. Guess I need to order shaving soap too unless I'm just going to keep on using the Body Shop cream.
That sounds like a bad idea. Some people use a preshave oil, I imagine that even in the best case scenario, that is the best the sunflower oil would be doing. The glycerin soap should provide some glide but without being a shave soap it'll probably provide very little lather.
You might already know this, but just as a clarification to any and all people who find this thread and are wondering: Let's just say this: adding fat (oil) to a soap manually is not the same as adding the soap of that fat to the soap. Soaps made from vegetable oil are made by reacting the oil with lye, not just melting it in.
You might already know this, but just as a clarification to any and all people who find this thread and are wondering: Let's just say this: adding fat (oil) to a soap manually is not the same as adding the soap of that fat to the soap. Soaps made from vegetable oil are made by reacting the oil with lye, not just melting it in.
Incidentally, I just noticed the article pitches this as D.I.Y. project. I guess by that logic I'm a D.I.Y. soap maker because I whipped up some Van Der Spice last night by melting a VDH puck and adding some Ivy Club before it set.
I'm sure all the craft soapers on here are disappointed to hear their art reduced to melting a finished, store-bought good and making a minor, irrelevant addition. I wish we would all just stop this self-satisfaction with our "greenness" (I'm looking at you, discovery.com).
@op: fortunately most shaving soaps are available online. The shipping will kill, but at least you can order in bulk I guess. You might want to poke around the retailers a bit more though, a lot of the rest of the world still uses this sort of stuff as their primary method. I don't know exactly where, but it's worth a shot right?
Edited to add: please note, any negative attitude expressed toward the Discovery.com article in question is not directed at environmentalists, environmentalism as a whole, the blog's readers and certainly not toward the B&B poster. I'm glad that the OP posted this so we could all scrutinize the article, and I wish him the best of luck on his search for a worthwhile shavesoap available to South Africa.
I'm sure all the craft soapers on here are disappointed to hear their art reduced to melting a finished, store-bought good and making a minor, irrelevant addition. I wish we would all just stop this self-satisfaction with our "greenness" (I'm looking at you, discovery.com).
@op: fortunately most shaving soaps are available online. The shipping will kill, but at least you can order in bulk I guess. You might want to poke around the retailers a bit more though, a lot of the rest of the world still uses this sort of stuff as their primary method. I don't know exactly where, but it's worth a shot right?
Edited to add: please note, any negative attitude expressed toward the Discovery.com article in question is not directed at environmentalists, environmentalism as a whole, the blog's readers and certainly not toward the B&B poster. I'm glad that the OP posted this so we could all scrutinize the article, and I wish him the best of luck on his search for a worthwhile shavesoap available to South Africa.
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You ought to consider getting yourself a nice puck of triple-milled shaving soap. A single puck can last 6-12 months depending on various factors, which is probably a fair bit longer than a tube/tub of shave cream or a melt-and-pour shaving soap.
- Thread starter
- #7
Actually, the Body Shop cream I use comes in a tub about the size of my Old Spice shaving mug and lasts for ages. My wife gave me the current tub for Christmas last year and there is probably enough left in there to last until March or April.
