Home made shaving soap

[malocchio]

all you soapers,I have half a pound of high quality bentonite clay ,will trade for ???

[Toulouse]

I wanted to do one last followup to this thread by posting pictures of the last two shaving soaps I did, so you'll know what the recipe looks like
The first image is my recipe, with kaolin clay and dumped directly into containers. It's green tea and ginger scented. (crockpot hot process)
The second one contains bentonite clay (hence to grey color) and was molded with a 4 inch PVC pipe. I had a little trouble molding so they're not perfectly round (crockpot hot process.
The last picture is for Benton... two regular soap. Sorry about the colors, they look terrible here. my iphone didn't like the lighting (or the soaps lol). The first one is COLD processed, done by my wife. White with orange swirls (orange scented). The second one was done in the crockpot by myself as a christmas soap, and something fun for my son to use. It's candy cane scented, and it's red, white and green even if the picture doesn't show this well

I think you could sell these ... Let me know if you decide to.

[charles_r]

Honestly Toulouse, i've toyed around with the idea but I don't know if I have the time to run a small business + space to keep an inventory. I'm still trying to empty my home office of all that tupperware my wife was selling a while back LOL. That's kind of why I gave the recipe away. Soap making is actually fun and I think anybody here can do it, providing that they take the proper safety precautions. That being said, I'll gladly sell small batches to B&B members who'd like some, as long as it's OK by forum rules. I wouldn't want to take anything away from the officially supported vendors.

[TBoner]

Honestly Toulouse, i've toyed around with the idea but I don't know if I have the time to run a small business + space to keep an inventory. I'm still trying to empty my home office of all that tupperware my wife was selling a while back LOL. That's kind of why I gave the recipe away. Soap making is actually fun and I think anybody here can do it, providing that they take the proper safety precautions. That being said, I'll gladly sell small batches to B&B members who'd like some, as long as it's OK by forum rules. I wouldn't want to take anything away from the officially supported vendors.

This thread made me want to make my own soap.

This very classy post makes me want to buy yours. Good show.

[charles_r]

TBoner, I would say try your hand at regular bath soap first using cold process. plenty of tutorials on the web and youtube. then try a hot process batch in a crockpot. then your ready to try my recipe. :) it's one of those rare hobbies you can actually share with your LOTH. She now actually uses a DE for her legs :)

[gousooners18]

This soap making process sounds like a blast. Does anyone know of a particularly good resources to use for someone who has never doen anything like this before. Also, if you were looking to get rid of some of the soap you already have I could definately paypal some shipping money plus some extra for the effort. I'd much rather try a homemade soap from a B&B member than anything else.

[eyebright]

www.millersoap.com, is one of the tried-and-true learning sites.

[fitheglasscatfish]

This is a very interesting thread as we have been talking about doing this ourselves. However we are in two minds as there are some great soaps we have bought and making as good as we have bought. It is a great fun hobby, and just for the enjoyment of making the soap it might be worth while.

[charles_r]

beware the addiction disorder that goes with fitheglasscatfish! It won't be long you'll end up with large quantitys of oils, molds, clays, scents, etc
it's almost as bad as wet shaving

[ladykate]

I've tried looking over all the threads on soap making, looked at other locations for their views, and decided that making my own soap from scratch was a no-go. I was also a bit worried about the 'you can't do that successfully' warnings. However, being quite lazy but still stubborn, I decide to give a try to the hobby-house meltable soaps. I got a two pound bar of Shea Butter soap from Michaels and, to 8 ounces of the base, added a teaspoon of coconut oil, a teaspoon of glycerine, 1/2 teaspoon of Orange scent, and a teaspoon of bentonite. I also tried to color it with a yellow dye. That was my only mistake. It looked like baby puke. The clay and yellow made a sickly pea-green mix.

The soap made a nice foam and left a soft skin after it was washed off. I used a Merkur Progress and a Personna blade. The result was much better than the cheap soaps from Wal-Mart - possibly as good as some of the more expensive ones from other sources. The citrus smell was very nice, too.

$10 for the base, another $10 for the stuff I put in it, and I had a 1/2 pound of soap for shaving and another pound and a half to experiment with.

I actually split the batch and made one with a teaspoon of olive oil (in addition to the other stuff) but I haven't tried that one as yet.

[CaptainK]

For creating your own shaving soaps using a melt-and-pour base, rather than using hobby store bases (which aren't intended for shaving), I'd recommend checking out Bramble Berry's Shaving Melt and Pour Base. I've heard very good things about it, and some of our own artisan soapers use recipes that are very close.

[BentonClay]

For creating your own shaving soaps using a melt-and-pour base, rather than using hobby store bases (which aren't intended for shaving), I'd recommend checking out Bramble Berry's Shaving Melt and Pour Base. I've heard very good things about it, and some of our own artisan soapers use recipes that are very close.

And... according to the website it's "great for embedding ground loofah or glitter" - something that everyone wants in their shaving soap! (Just kidding, it is an excellent product.)

[charles_r]

Nice to hear your soap base worked well! I tried a few months ago with a glycerine melt and pour. The results were not good at all.. I guess it probably depends on the ingredients used by the supplier. But I just love making from scratch now. It's really not that difficult and i'm about as non-manual, non-creative as they get.. I'm a network analyst. Geeky tech guy lol.

The next thing on my list is shaving cream. I don't use creams all that much but what i've seen from the process is very interesting. I hear there is a good book available, but I can't seem to find it anywhere.

[CaptainK]

And... according to the website it's "great for embedding ground loofah or glitter" - something that everyone wants in their shaving soap!

Yeah, I know - I couldn't help but chuckle and shake my head when I read that!

[CaptainK]

The next thing on my list is shaving cream. I don't use creams all that much but what i've seen from the process is very interesting. I hear there is a good book available, but I can't seem to find it anywhere.

The book you mentioned is very hard to find.

I only found one book on the subject and, yes: it was difficult to find. But, I found it at Bramble Berry, here:

Making Cream Soap
by Catherine Failor

Discover how easy it is to master the art of cream soapmaking. In this 40-page manual you'll find clear step-by-step mixing and cooking instructions, several recipes using pure, natural ingredients such as coconut and jojoba oils, a troubleshooting guide, a guide for formulating your own cream soaps, as well as a list of suppliers.

After years of experimenting with almost every kind of soapmaking (transparent, liquid and cold process) author Catherine Failor finds cream soapmaking the most fascinating and unusual of all. See for yourself why Catherine calls cream soap "the ultimate shapeshifter of the soap world."

Paperback, 40 pages, $5.00

If anyone knows of any other books on the subject, I'd love to hear about them. Thanks!

[CaptainK]

So it being new to me I learned the hot process.

Wow - you two are making me want to try hot process! A tip o'the hat to you both.

Not only did I do the soap, but came up with ... 13 very manly scents.

Cool! I'd love to hear more about these.

[miatapaul]

I was talking to a local soap maker who has a small shop and am trying to get her to try tallow. I think there are so many small soap makers and few use tallow I think it might give her the edge to actually be able to sell the stuff. That and having a working web site!

[charles_r]

CaptainK, thanks! that was the book I was looking for. I hear Catherine Failor is pretty much the authority on cream soap. I don't know how I missed that? I've been to brambleberry's site so many times!

[MrDentini]

Hello guys,

I am new here. I'd like to try to make this shaving soap too, but I tried to input the values in this calculator and it looks like the result is a little bit too hard (hardness 67). Do you agree? Would it be possible to soften the recipe by adding what ingredient? And, what do you think about the other values?

Next, here's the INCI of one of the best shaving soaps of all time, the 1kg Cella (my opinion):

Cocos nucifera (coconut oil)
Tallow
Stearic Acid
Potassium Hidroxide
Sodium Hidroxide
Aqua
Potassium Carbonate
Parfum

While there's no percentage or weights, it is evident what the fats are and their relative importance in the recipe. In particular, in Cella's recipe the coconut oil is the first ingredient. What I don't understand is the presence of potassium carbonate.

Any help would be very appreciated, thanks.

Thanks.

[kingfisher]

MrDentini, soaps will be softer if more potassium hydroxide is used, and harder if more sodium hydroxide is used when the fats are being saponified.
Stearic acid and tallow make the resultant lather smooth, creamy, and stable. I'm not sure about the potassium carbonate, but it might be there to bind up calcium and other minerals, in order to prevent the dreaded "soap scum."