Using Body Soap as a Shave Soap?

At the risk of sparking a war of class anxiety, I want to know, has anyone here tried using a body soap as a shave soap? If so, what was your opinion of it? Was there really that much difference between it and a true shave soap?

Thank you in advance,
CCM

With a brush, you can create lather with bath soap, and if you're somewhere without shaving soap, it's better than nothing. But generally, bath soaps don't hold their lather very well. At least the ones I have at my house don't.

Nancy Boy makes bath bar that's so darned rich and creamy, I bet you could get a good shaving lather from it.

Dave

i shaved in the shower once with irish spring soap with no brush and it wasnt half bad.... i might mill some into a container and see how it does with a brush just for kicks some day and tell you guys about it

The reason I ask is because I want to try tallow-based shave soap, but I don't want to wait until it gets here. I have some Yardley body soap which I swear produces enough of a lather that I could shave with it easily. I will let you know what happens tomorrow!

-CCM

A good bath soap can be used to shave with.

I can also use a wood chisel as a prybar, or shoot a deer with a Walther PPK.

Seriously, there are ingredients in a shaving soap, in proportions designed to make it better for the job than a bath soap.

One of our soapers can elaborate better than I can, or you can check out this thread on the matter.

I've used bar soap to shave with in a pinch (also used hair conditioner, dish liquid and other stuff at various times when I was much younger). For *brief* periods, bar soap can be used - but I found that anything over a week and I began to get severe razor burn.

Sure you could use a good bath soap to shave with, but not sure why you would bother. VDH Deluxe is available locally in much of the US for a mere $1.50 per puck, and will provide vastly superior results.

There is more to a good shaving soap, that merely containing tallow. Quite a few of the Artisan soap crafters think they can take their bath soap, add some clay for extra slickness, and viola shaving soap; most of these are a disaster, and provide a very poor lather.

You'll probably end up with razor burn and a few nicks. Bath soap isn't formulated for shaving. Usually the lather is too airy/bubbly and won't protect your face from the blade.

It's not generally a good idea. A proper shaving soap is designed to provide cushion, slickness, and a long lasting lather. A body soap is designed to clean you. There might be a few body soaps that would work, but 99% of them are going to give you a crappy shave. I would personally rather use Barbasol or Edge gel than a body soap.

I've read elsewhere that Dove bodysoap works pretty well. Not tried it myself but reports from 2/3 others stated it worked. Don't think I'll try it though.

I've had success with Palmolive bar soap. I also tried Yardley and it generated less lather. I stopped after 1 pass with the Yardley, with Palmolive I generally do 2 semi-WTG passes. Ivory is similar in make-up to Palmolive so it may also work, but I prefer the scent of the Palmolive (for shaving anyway, I still bathe with Ivory). If I had to hypothesize, I'd say the Yardley might have so many moisturizers and skin-soothers that it might hurt the ability to get all nice and lathery. It will take more work, because the ingredients aren't chosen for the purpose of shaving but I think that if it's a real soap enough brush-loading, enough water, and enough elbow grease and you'll have a satisfying shave.

So far I loaded my brush right off the bar, holding the bar in my hand. My plan is to mill them into a container and try that too.

I'd be shocked if Dove worked well. It is rather unsoap-like. The whole reason I was brave enough to try Palmolive is that when washing my hands with it got all deliciously foamy. Although the bubbles were large it showed the potential to work into a creamy lather with a brush and a bowl. When I've had the misfortune of using Dove to wash, it always goes on like a paste to be rinsed off.


Bonus: Palmolive was 3 for $1 at the Dollar Store, even if it's faster-wearing that's as cheap as it gets.
PPS: I certainly don't shave like this every day, but I do occasionally mix things up just because I enjoy the scent and the challenge. One might say that it's a minor, minor contributor to my rotation.

Palmolive bath soap in the UK is packed full of tallow. I've often wondered about using the bar soap, but I've had no reason to with a Palmolive shave stick staring me in the face every morning.

-Andy

Just for the record (new post because the chain of edits was looking sloppy)....

I know that soaps are complex mixtures of ingredients and it is unwise to generalize, but I think this might be informative:

What seems to separate most shave soaps from most bath soaps is that they have a higher proportion of potassium salts, a higher amount of glycerin, or something like bentonite clay. The latter two, I think it's fair to say, are meant to create slipperiness. Glycerin's many uses/names include moisturizer and lubricant. The potassium salts are supposed to make for a softer, easier to lather soap.

The lesson to take from all of this is that you have to load your brush that much more to make up for these shortcomings. More soap should provide the lubrication that is missing. A stiff, scratchy brush might be more effective at biting into noncompliant bath soaps. I know that my successful forays into bath soaps have been with a VDH boar brush, so a synthetic or a badger might be a different story. You also might want to soak the soap more and use more water, again, to loosen up the soap that really isn't designed for such a use.

YMMV, but I'm hoping this makes sense.

andrew98 said:

Palmolive bath soap in the UK is packed full of tallow. I've often wondered about using the bar soap, but I've had no reason to with a Palmolive shave stick staring me in the face every morning.

-Andy

Click to expand...

I'm jealous. If I had easier/cheaper access to those sticks I might never have gotten bored enough to try shaving with body soap to begin with.

I'm totally down with shooting a deer with a Walther PPK. Especially if it betrays me.

Dove soap works very well as a shave soap.

I use it for shaving at least once a week.

It's great during the dry winter months.

I shaved some Yardley English Lavender into some VDH once and the two went well together.
Wp

Someone gave me a small sample bar of some clove soap and I thought hey this could be interesting! I whipped up a nice lather and it did an ok job of shaving but not as protecting as my good old Tabac! I loved the scent though!

I haven't tried it yet (but plan to in the near future), but Woody's Meat and Potatoes bath soap is apparently pretty good for shaving.

my dad uses dove soap with a bic disposable every day for decades and says its a great shave