Soap Q: Any way to add scent to a tallow soap?

[olafurson]

So, here's the thing. I've got a big ol' puck of Old Spice shaving soap, but it's from the 50's and has almost no scent left. I'd kinda like it to smell like Old Spice, you know?

I was thinking about milling it into a different container, and wondered if there was any way to add more Old Spiciness to it. Boil the alcohol off some OS aftershave perhaps, then add the distillate?

I guess adding an Old Spice "type" oil would probably work... without ordering one of each homemade "Old Spice type" soap out there, which one smells most like the original? How much to add so that the puck re-solidifies in the container and doesn't get all weirdly oily?

Thanks if you have any ideas.

 

[cleancut]

I don't know about adding scent to an old soap but if you want a good soap that smells exactly like the old OS soap give Mama Bears a try. Many on this forum feel it's a dead ringer for the original. Although it's in a glycerin formulation.

 

[erictski]

try milling it and putting it in a bowl and lathering first before trying to add scent. The scent may come back because the inside of the soap may not have lost scent only the outer most part. try that and see and you can always try adding scents later...

or you could add a bit of OS AS to your lather and try that also...

 

[HoratioCaine]

This is going a different direction from what you're talking about, but I found that placing a drop or two of lavender essential oil on the surface of the AoS unscented soap before I lathered it really made for an intense lavender-scented lather. It smelled much better than the brand's own lavender-scented soap, and it did not seem to affect the quality of the lather at all. Best of all, I didn't do anything permanent to the soap, in case I still wanted to use it as an unscented soap, or try a different scent on it. You could try adding a drop of two of Old Spice to the top of your soap to see what you get. Then if you don't like it, you haven't done anything permanent.