I was wondering if anyone has ever melted their soaps to make them fit into a certain mug/bowl or to add in an AS or oil? I just got my first puck of Williams and I want to melt it down so it fits into the bowl I bought for it better and to also add in either a bay rum oil I have or some Clubman AS. I thought I'd ask the experts before I went all Mr. Wizard in my shave den.
Melting Soaps
- Thread starter JDillon
- Start date
You don't want to melt that William's!
You can generally only have true success with melting "Melt & Pour" soaps, which many around here refer to as "glycerine based". Examples would include VDH, Col Conk, HoneyBee or Mama Bear.
If you want that William's to fit in your bowl better, I'd recommend grating it with a cheese grater, etc. See an example with pics here
WELCOME TO B&B!
You can generally only have true success with melting "Melt & Pour" soaps, which many around here refer to as "glycerine based". Examples would include VDH, Col Conk, HoneyBee or Mama Bear.
If you want that William's to fit in your bowl better, I'd recommend grating it with a cheese grater, etc. See an example with pics here
WELCOME TO B&B!
My recommendation for Williams would be to grate it into the new container. Microplane grates work exceptional well.
- Thread starter
- #5
Thanks for the info. I'm not so much worried about it fitting into a certain bowl as I am about wanting to add some different sents. I guess I'll just keep putting the oils into my mixing bowl.
Yer gonna need a flamethrower.
I submerged two firm (vintage and Speick) shave sticks in aftershave to A: get them to fit in their bowl and B: for science. After 2-3 days the a/s had evaporated. The soaps smell like the a/s, and were both softened enough to easily mash down into the bowl. So in a loose sense of the term, they "melted". The Science part is seeing if this effects the performance and how long the scent sticks around for.
Melting a traditional (not glycerin) soap is possible, but rather troublesome. most just grate and mash.
Melting a traditional (not glycerin) soap is possible, but rather troublesome. most just grate and mash.
- Thread starter
- #8
That sounds like a good idea. If it doesn't work I'm only out $1 for the Williams and a little bit of Clubman AS. Thanks for the advice.
You might try grating the Williams and some Van Der Hagen, mix the shavings together and then nuke them. You'll have Williams chunks floating in a pool of melted Van Der Hagen. Pour in your Clubman and stir.
only melt glycerine soaps. milled and other soaps you can grate and compress. I grated some arko and put some oils and laurel (Bay leaf) water and oil in there to mixit up. rather nice.
Regular soap will melt, you can grate it up, and add a little water to it and heat it up in the microvave. I've had to re-batch homemade soaps and they will melt eventually. You also need to watch that your temperature at which you add your essential or fragrance oils is below that oils' flashpoint otherwise it just flashes out of the soap. Watch it especially with alcohol based aftershave, not saying you're gonna go up in flames, but if your temp is too high the alcohol will just evaporate right out of it and you'll just be wasting after shave.
Used the soap today. Seems to work fine. Took a bit long to lather, but I used a boar and loaded it a ton so it was probably just too much soap making the lathering slow. Maybe a bit of the Laurate action was hampered, but it wasn't very noticeable. It also didn't rinse as cleanly between passes. And face feel after the shave was improved (it was a mix of random a/s, so no doubt some of them had some nice skin friendly crap in em). I wouldn't be surprised if none of these remain noticeable in later shaves.
Smell was there this shave, but again, I don't expect it'll last very long.
I think it'll work well with williams.
1. Soften it... which is great for williams.
2. Possibly slightly impair laurates/myristates. Good for Williams since it's kinda high in them anyway.
3. Possibly add glycerin, which williams likes.
Smell was there this shave, but again, I don't expect it'll last very long.
I think it'll work well with williams.
1. Soften it... which is great for williams.
2. Possibly slightly impair laurates/myristates. Good for Williams since it's kinda high in them anyway.
3. Possibly add glycerin, which williams likes.
I have melted Cella, Valobra, two flavors of Mike's, one flavor of Mystic Waters in a double boiler in order to make them into sticks. They worked fine - their color, scent and performance seem unchanged.
The key is not to expect the melted soaps to become liquids-they are more like cake frosting. Depending upon what you do with them, the preferred way to handle them is with a spatula (metal or nonstick) or a butter knife. When they 'melt' they become somewhat translucent, which some think is darkening. However, once it cools it gets back its normal color, scent and performance attributes. I have found this improves my ability to lather soaps that can be difficult or inconsistent when in the form of a puck. In one case I grated the soap into the bowl of the double boiler. It took several minutes to melt...it is not instantaneous, but it's a hoot. Give it a shot with 1/4 to 1/3 of your puck to convince yourself.
The key is not to expect the melted soaps to become liquids-they are more like cake frosting. Depending upon what you do with them, the preferred way to handle them is with a spatula (metal or nonstick) or a butter knife. When they 'melt' they become somewhat translucent, which some think is darkening. However, once it cools it gets back its normal color, scent and performance attributes. I have found this improves my ability to lather soaps that can be difficult or inconsistent when in the form of a puck. In one case I grated the soap into the bowl of the double boiler. It took several minutes to melt...it is not instantaneous, but it's a hoot. Give it a shot with 1/4 to 1/3 of your puck to convince yourself.
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