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Turning Bath Soap Into Shaving Soap?

I've read elsewhere that Yardley is one of those non-shaving soaps that can be better for making one's own custom shaving soap from, so he's being playful, conroygc.
 
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Hi, i've done shaving soap. But I didn't do it melting down another bar and adding stuff. have a look here http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthr...e-shaving-soap

there is plenty of information on the web concerning how to make cold process or hot process soaps. It's not too difficult except you have to be careful using lye (wear gogles, etc). The startup costs are reasonable(100 or so bucks). see this as a hobby investment. Start off making bath soap. It won't be any cheaper than buying a bulk pack of Dove at costco (but close), but what you'll get is a quality product. When you're familiar with the process, try shaving soap.

The thread contains my recipe (and a few failed recipes). I'm not going commercial so I didn't mind sharing.

Just don't try any recipes you find elsewhere on the web. Most of them are just bath soap with added clay and they suck. I learned the hard way... with a burning face. lol

I've had lots of help from the people here, so if you have any questions, let me know.

Good luck to you!
 
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Hi, i've done shaving soap. But I didn't do it melting down another bar and adding stuff. have a look here http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthr...e-shaving-soap

there is plenty of information on the web concerning how to make cold process or hot process soaps. It's not too difficult except you have to be careful using lye (wear gogles, etc). The startup costs are reasonable(100 or so bucks). see this as a hobby investment. Start off making bath soap. It won't be any cheaper than buying a bulk pack of Dove at costco (but close), but what you'll get is a quality product. When you're familiar with the process, try shaving soap.

The thread contains my recipe (and a few failed recipes). I'm not going commercial so I didn't mind sharing.

Just don't try any recipes you find elsewhere on the web. Most of them are just bath soap with added clay and they suck. I learned the hard way... with a burning face. lol

I've had lots of help from the people here, so if you have any questions, let me know.

Good luck to you!

Charles, I'm glad to hear that, thank you for posting. Unfortunately the link to the other thread did not work for me.
 
I have school everyday and work almost every night, so it will be slow going on the soap making. But I did experiment yesterday. I was going to spend some time with my girlfriend, so I took the girly smelling yardley soap and ran about 1/4 of it through the cheese grater. The plan was to grate some and simply press it into the bowl, viola!

That did not work at all. Perhaps my cheese grater is too fine, but the pieces of soap would not pack down.

So, since I was trying to form it in a metal shaving mug, I thought "hell, I just throw it in some hot water for a few minutes and that soap will melt right down." Long story short I couldn't get the soap to melt at all.

Any tips on using the double boiler method to melt soap?
 
Don't waste your time melting down Yardley bath soap in the vain hope that you can adulterate it into something usable as shave soap. You'd be much better off making soap from scratch (since you have a scientific bent I would suggest learning cold process soapmaking, which rewards precision). I've heard from soapmakers much the same advice that you got from charles_r; learn the process with hand soap and work your way up to shaving soap.
 
Franz,

Thanks for the advice. I'll take it :)
I'm ordering a soap making book on my next paycheck.
 

Luc

"To Wiki or Not To Wiki, That's The Question".
Staff member
It always depends which type of soap that you want to do (tripled-milled, tallow or glycerin)... I got a 2kg of unscented glycerin soap off eBay as SWMBO needed something unscented. I tried the soap as a shaving soap (it contains ~10 ingredients from memory) and it worked well... I use the soap to do superlather when I get something that doesn't work well.

I didn't do the soap myself but it seems that glycerin would be easier to make. Again, I know nothing about soap making but those were my observations.
 
I have school everyday and work almost every night, so it will be slow going on the soap making. But I did experiment yesterday. I was going to spend some time with my girlfriend, so I took the girly smelling yardley soap and ran about 1/4 of it through the cheese grater. The plan was to grate some and simply press it into the bowl, viola!

That did not work at all. Perhaps my cheese grater is too fine, but the pieces of soap would not pack down.

So, since I was trying to form it in a metal shaving mug, I thought "hell, I just throw it in some hot water for a few minutes and that soap will melt right down." Long story short I couldn't get the soap to melt at all.

Any tips on using the double boiler method to melt soap?

A soap made with lye and tallow, like the Yardley, will not melt.
 
Please show us the result of your experiment when you done , maybe something good are there , you sound very enthusiastic , I like that , people when have that actitud have great result .
Sorry for my english , good luck!
 
Ha ha- resurrecting this thread cos I found it when I was having similar thoughts to the OP.
Anyway, flying in the face of all advice, I went ahead and did it.
But why? Because I could be bothered. I tell my kids that when NASA rang up Buzz Aldrin and told him he was going to the moon he didn't go "I can't be bothered" because he could be bothered and so can we!
Here's what I started with:

$IMG00912-20130618-1601.jpg

That's a Euro Palmolive stick (50p)
A rock hard Chinese Sandalwood soap (£1)
Some fat from the end of a creamed coconut bar (95p)
Some vegetable glycerin (£1.30 for the whole bottle) and
Some olive oil (£2.20 for the whole bottle).
China pot (£1.00 from a charity shop)

I grated the stick and half (100g) of the soap bar, then mashed it up with a big tablespoon each of the coconut fat, glycerin and olive oil.
This is what I ended up with:

$IMG00913-20130618-1721.jpg

$IMG00916-20130618-1923.jpg

$IMG00918-20130618-1925.jpg

The lather smells strongly of sandalwood and actually it's fantastic- lots of cushion, good glide and very moisturising.
The only thing that could be improved is the colour of the soap. What could I add to give it that distinctive sandalwood colour?

Anyway, this has conclusively proved to me that it can be done very successfully if, like Buzz Aldrin, you can be bothered :laugh:
 
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Ha ha- resurrecting this thread cos I found it when I was having similar thoughts to the OP.
Anyway, flying in the face of all advice, I went ahead and did it.
But why? Because I could be bothered. I tell my kids that when NASA rang up Buzz Aldrin and told him he was going to the moon he didn't go "I can't be bothered" because he could be bothered and so can we!
Here's what I started with:

View attachment 343695

That's a Euro Palmolive stick (50p)
A rock hard Chinese Sandalwood soap (£1)
Some fat from the end of a creamed coconut bar (95p)
Some vegetable glycerin (£1.30 for the whole bottle) and
Some olive oil (£2.20 for the whole bottle).
China pot (£1.00 from a charity shop)

I grated the stick and half (100g) of the soap bar, then mashed it up with a big tablespoon each of the coconut fat, glycerin and olive oil.
This is what I ended up with:

View attachment 343701

View attachment 343703

View attachment 343704

The lather smells strongly of sandalwood and actually it's fantastic- lots of cushion, good glide and very moisturising.
The only thing that could be improved is the colour of the soap. What could I add to give it that distinctive sandalwood colour?

Anyway, this has conclusively proved to me that it can be done very successfully if, like Buzz Aldrin, you can be bothered :laugh:

Well Done , Sir!!

"People who say, "It can't be done" or "why", are always interrupted by someone DOING IT!"
 
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