A couple of years ago, on a lark, I bought a tube of Cremo Reserve Blend shaving cream. The one in the black tube with red and gold highlights. Well I really quickly became enamored with the scent and half-heartedly tried to find an analog in a soap, which I never really found. So my thought was to try to assemble something with an unscented soap and maybe Cremo's cologne, aftershave, or body soap of the same scent. That Idea soon went on the back burner because I'm very cheap and didn't want to sink $$ into such a project. Well, I finally decided to do something with what I had in the drawer, so I grated remnants of a puck of Heritage Sovereign, chopped up almost a whole puck of Fine Vetiver and added a healthy squeeze of maybe half a tube of the Cremo Reserve blend into a ziplock bag an kneaded it all together. Then I cut the corner of the bag and piped it into an empty soap container. The scent was good but certainly not as robust as what I would have wanted. As a shaving soap though, WOW!!! It loads easily and the lather practically bursts off the formed puck. And it's slicker than unicorn snot! I'm a really big fan of Stirling shaving soaps but there's absolutely no question that the performance of this Franken soap sure gives Stirling a run for it's money. Go figure. Maybe someday I'll stumble on a soap analog to the Cremo.
My Franken Soap
- Thread starter Hercule
- Start date
I dislike face lathering with sticks so I took to grating first La Toja and then Palmolive and storing in old soap containers. Makes lathering a breeze. But then the evil hand touched me. I spied partially used, neglected sticks of Arko and Derby. Grated both and mashed into one container. I'm waiting for a lightning storm to awaken this beast. I'll call it Arby. No, Arky. No, Derko. Derky!!!
I grated Speick stick, Wilkinson Sword stick and a Williams Mug puck into a tallow bomb of a Frankensoap.
My mug currently has leftovers of 3 different pucks.
My frankensoaps came about from combining leftover remnants of shaving soaps to get something easier to work with. Just a vague sense of compatibility was enough.
Three successful combos so far have been:
- MWF + Haslinger Sensitive (unscented)
- Speick + Wilkinson Sword Stick
- Pre de Provence + Osma Rasage
Three successful combos so far have been:
- MWF + Haslinger Sensitive (unscented)
- Speick + Wilkinson Sword Stick
- Pre de Provence + Osma Rasage
I think I created another winner. I grated vintage Old Spice, D.R. Harris Windsor and a La Toja stick together. A quick lather and things seem promising, we’ll see tomorrow.
50 g grated Arko, 50 g grated Dove + Men Care, 50 g grated Ivory + 5 ml glycerin mixed well and then packed into the bottom of my shaving soap mug works great.
I've been alternating using this Frankensoap with Vitos and Cella and they all perform well with good lather and slickness.
Vitos and Cella are inexpensive so I am not sure why I would go the Frankensoap route other than just plain fun, like making mud pies as a kid. When I use up this current Frankensoap, I might try swapping out the Arko with Vitos in my recipe to see if the desirable qualities still remains.
I've been alternating using this Frankensoap with Vitos and Cella and they all perform well with good lather and slickness.
Vitos and Cella are inexpensive so I am not sure why I would go the Frankensoap route other than just plain fun, like making mud pies as a kid. When I use up this current Frankensoap, I might try swapping out the Arko with Vitos in my recipe to see if the desirable qualities still remains.
For me, it isn't about the performance (although I have found some to be as good or better than single soaps). It is about the fun of mixing scraps, little used soaps, or creating scent/performance experiences (like mixing tallow and vegan bases).
