The weather here in Florida has been brutally hot and humid lately. The other day I was having a shave after work (I work outside in the sun and heat) when I wondered to myself if there was a way to add menthol to any shaving soap, at will. I have used soaps that were mentholated during manufacture and enjoyed them; the cooling effect is much appreciated by me in the sweltering heat of a Florida summer, and I wanted to be able to add menthol to non-mentholated soaps. I hopped on Google and sure enough, there is. This is what I ordered from Amazon:
I grabbed a small travel shampoo bottle and filled it up about 2/3 of the way with glycerine, then added about 3 grams of the menthol crystals. Then I went to the kitchen, filled a pot about half way full of water and put it on the stove. I then put the bottle with my concoction into the pot standing up (like you would heat a bottle for a baby.) As the water heated up, the crystals began to dissolve into the glycerine. When they were totally dissolved, I gave the bottle a good shake and went to have a shave. I whipped up a lather of TOBS Grapefruit and added 5 drops of the glycerine/menthol solution to it, then mixed it well. This stuff works great! Nice cooling sensation of the menthol, and the glycerine really puts the lather on another level as well. As the solution cools, the menthol will re-solidify in the top of the bottle like this:
No problem, when you are prepping for your next shave, toss the bottle into a bowl of hot water for a minute and the menthol liquifies again. I’m sure many of you guys have done this before but it’s new to me so I thought I’d share. The supplies were less than $15 delivered, and will be enough for a year or more. This menthol solution will see a lot of use in the Iloverootbeer household this summer!
I grabbed a small travel shampoo bottle and filled it up about 2/3 of the way with glycerine, then added about 3 grams of the menthol crystals. Then I went to the kitchen, filled a pot about half way full of water and put it on the stove. I then put the bottle with my concoction into the pot standing up (like you would heat a bottle for a baby.) As the water heated up, the crystals began to dissolve into the glycerine. When they were totally dissolved, I gave the bottle a good shake and went to have a shave. I whipped up a lather of TOBS Grapefruit and added 5 drops of the glycerine/menthol solution to it, then mixed it well. This stuff works great! Nice cooling sensation of the menthol, and the glycerine really puts the lather on another level as well. As the solution cools, the menthol will re-solidify in the top of the bottle like this:
No problem, when you are prepping for your next shave, toss the bottle into a bowl of hot water for a minute and the menthol liquifies again. I’m sure many of you guys have done this before but it’s new to me so I thought I’d share. The supplies were less than $15 delivered, and will be enough for a year or more. This menthol solution will see a lot of use in the Iloverootbeer household this summer!
