Handmade shaving soap-hello

[Danmark]

This June I started making my own bath soap simply because a friend sold me some and I thought it would fun to do it myself.

So... eventually, since I've always preferred making my own lather (I've got an old pure badger I've had for 20 years) I thought, why not make my own shaving soap. I'd used Williams and was not all that impressed, but what bothered me the most was the puck sliding around in the mug.

Pouring my own soap in a shaving mug solves that. The cold process soap making technique makes excellent soap, prob'ly better than anything you can buy (for reasons I'd be happy to answer if anyone is interested). Shaving soap recipes basically don't differ much from bath soap, except they generally include more castor oil for rich creamy lather and a little bentonite clay for razor slide.

One thing led to another and just today I ran across the news that DE razors are making a comeback. Couldn't find my old one so I ordered a Merkur 38C (anything that sounds like the perfect bra size has got to be great). Not wanting to wait, I rode out to some junk stores and bought a couple old Gillettes for $5 a piece.

Now I don't know if it's just that I used a brand new blade, or that I used more care than I do with a routine shave with my Fusion, but... WOW!

Yes Virginia, there IS a difference.

Only... now what am I going to do with the five shaving mugs I've got with homemade soap, not to mention 15 pucks of the stuff sliced from my 3" cylinder mold?

[Jim]

Welcome to the B&B Danmark!

[Xavier]

Welcome!!

[Austin]

Welcome sir.

[joel]

This June I started making my own bath soap simply because a friend sold me some and I thought it would fun to do it myself.

So... eventually, since I've always preferred making my own lather (I've got an old pure badger I've had for 20 years) I thought, why not make my own shaving soap. I'd used Williams and was not all that impressed, but what bothered me the most was the puck sliding around in the mug.

Pouring my own soap in a shaving mug solves that. The cold process soap making technique makes excellent soap, prob'ly better than anything you can buy (for reasons I'd be happy to answer if anyone is interested). Shaving soap recipes basically don't differ much from bath soap, except they generally include more castor oil for rich creamy lather and a little bentonite clay for razor slide.

One thing led to another and just today I ran across the news that DE razors are making a comeback. Couldn't find my old one so I ordered a Merkur 38C (anything that sounds like the perfect bra size has got to be great). Not wanting to wait, I rode out to some junk stores and bought a couple old Gillettes for $5 a piece.

Now I don't know if it's just that I used a brand new blade, or that I used more care than I do with a routine shave with my Fusion, but... WOW!

Yes Virginia, there IS a difference.

Only... now what am I going to do with the five shaving mugs I've got with homemade soap, not to mention 15 pucks of the stuff sliced from my 3" cylinder mold?

I'd love to hear why! How are you making it? What are you putting into it?

[Flaxorca]

Welcome to B&B!

[farace]

Couldn't find my old one so I ordered a Merkur 38C (anything that sounds like the perfect bra size has got to be great).

Only... now what am I going to do with the five shaving mugs I've got with homemade soap, not to mention 15 pucks of the stuff sliced from my 3" cylinder mold?

I think some of the guys here would think that's a good start . . .

[Danmark]

I'd love to hear why! How are you making it? What are you putting into it?

All true soap is made by combining fats or oils with lye (or other caustic soda) dissolved in water. Commercial soaps list 'sodium tallowate,' which is what is produced when you combine beef tallow with lye.

Beef tallow makes a nice, hard bar of soap, and it is very cheap, but some claim it clogs the pores; others just don't like the idea of smearing animal fat on their faces.

I use olive oil (and or soybean) as a base, with coconut and palm oils. 100% olive oil makes a great, mild soap by itself (true castile soap), but coconut oil adds lather and cleaning power; palm oil makes a harder bar.

To that base list you can add no end of special oils, like jojoba, shea butter, sweet almond, for their special moisturizing properties. Castor oil is always included in shampoo and shaving bars since it gives a rich creamy lather. Bentonite clay is supposed to help the razor glide better.

After 24 hours you take the soap out of the mold. Something like 99% of the lye has combined with the oils, but there is a residual amount left. The soap is left to cure for 4 weeks or so. Although I have used my soap, including shaving soap, after just a couple days with no ill effects, soap gets milder and harder with time.

I could make a batch, about 15 rounds 3" x 1," for the group using just about any combination of ingredients you wanted. Depending on how fancy you got with the oils selected, the cost of ingredients would be about $1 to $2.50 per bar. It's the labor involved that makes handmade soap so expensive. Right now I do it for fun and have been giving it away, but I'm going to start adding a dollar a bar for labor (not quite minimum wage ).

Part of the reason I claim that almost any handmade soap is better than any commercial soap is that soap companies remove the glycerin that is a natural by product of the process (they sell it for use in expensive cosmetics).

This is probably not true of high end shaving soaps, where they may actually add glycerin, but is true of virtually 100% of the commercial soaps which are mass produced using the hot process and require artificial additives for hardness and other properties to get the stuff to go thru the machines without gumming up the works.

Another reason I like to make my own shaving soap, is that instead of using a regular mold, I can use a shaving mug or bowl and just leave it there. No chasing a puck around. I don't like to play hockey when I shave.

I thought it would be fun and maybe unique to pour handmade soap into favorite shaving mugs, and do refills, but the shipping back and forth would be a major hassle, not to mention needing to wait until you had enough mugs for a batch. But I'm guessing that anyone who goes to all the trouble shaving with a brush and DE or straight razor, is a candidate for making his own soap.

[Danmark]

Sorry I don't have a lens (or skill?) to take a close up in focus, but here are some soap and shaving soap photos. I've been experimenting with marbled soap. I added iron oxide (too much) to color the shaving soap red. Keeps the blood from showing so clearly.

Got to thinking, these mugs are one's I got from a thrift store for 50 cents. I could send whomever a mug with soap in exchange for a razor or whatever that is decent, but is no longer a favorite.

[raditzer]

Making your own soaps - GREAT! I'd be interested in trying that sometime. Any chance for posting the method? What, if anything, do you add for fragrance?

[SilkySmooth]

Welcome aboard!


==Tom

[Danmark]

Making your own soaps - GREAT! I'd be interested in trying that sometime. Any chance for posting the method? What, if anything, do you add for fragrance?

http://waltonfeed.com/old/soap/soap.html is as good a place to start as any. There are many free resources on line, as well as many books.

The general idea is to heat your oils to about 100 degrees. Add lye to water and let it cool to the same temperature. There are lye calculators online that can give you the amount of lye and water, based on the amount and type of oil used. Each oil/fat has its own saponification factor. Generally you add enough lye so that 5 to 8% of the fat remains in the bar; that is, it's not converted into soap. The remaining fat conditions the skin.

Always add lye to water (I freeze part of the water first), not water to lye; wear protective gear (rubber gloves and whatever). Lye is VERY caustic and gives off fumes when first added to the water.

After you add the lye solution to the oils you stir (a stick blender is a must) until it 'traces.' Trace is when it starts to get a pudding like consistency and drops from your spoon remain a while on the surface.

Then, just before pouring into the mold (shaving mug?), you add your essential oils for scent.

Most commercial soaps use synthetic fragrance oils, but you'll want essential oils. Smell better and less problematic when combined with lye.

I've used oakmoss, citronella, lemongrass, vanilla, clove, star anise (smells like licorace), hazelnut, patchouli. Some essential oils can double the price of the soap. Real Sandlewood can go for $1500 a liter. I'm going to try Atlas Cedar; supposed to smell something like sandlewood, but much cheaper.

[castlecraver]

I'd love to hear why! How are you making it? What are you putting into it?

I'd just like to point out that this was Joel's 4000th post.

[roughrider]

Welcome to the forum.

I would love to try a soap that will produce the slickest lather possible. Something that will make a razor glide effortlessly with ease. Which ingredient would increase the slickness of a shaving soap? What percent of that ingredient would you add to make the soap as slick as possible?


So how about you run an experimental batch for the fellas here? Give us an estimate of size, cost, shipping, etc. We can help you source out containers if needed. We can conduct a poll to pick the scent(s).

[Danmark]

Welcome to the forum.

I would love to try a soap that will produce the slickest lather possible. Something that will make a razor glide effortlessly with ease. Which ingredient would increase the slickness of a shaving soap? What percent of that ingredient would you add to make the soap as slick as possible?


So how about you run an experimental batch for the fellas here? Give us an estimate of size, cost, shipping, etc. We can help you source out containers if needed. We can conduct a poll to pick the scent(s).

I just finished my first batch of shaving soap. I has a couple tablespoons of bentonite clay for slickness. It's 20% each of: olive oil, palm and soy oils; 25% coconut oil, 10% castor, 5% shea butter. I scented it with litsea cubeba (citrus), hazelnut, and a blended EO that has sandlewood, patchouli, musk and god knows what else I don't want to look up.

I added just two tbls of red oxide, but that turned it a dark brick red.

Counting the two misshapen end pieces, the batch yielded 18 pucks, 3" x 1," averaging about 4.2 oz. and ranging from 3.8 to 5.6 oz. (OK, so I didn't cut it so evenly. So shoot me).

Since it's an experiment, I'd sell it for $2 per bar which isn't much more than the cost of ingredients. Packing and shipping would be a hassle, but maybe my girlfriend would do that for me. You might have some ideas on how to pack and ship cheaply and I'd just pass on the cost.

It should be better after 4 weeks of curing. You guys could try it, make suggestions and if you want I'd make more.

BTW, it was a bitch getting the log out of the mold. Here's a photo of the process and one of a puck.

[seamus402]

Welcome Danmark - PM sent

[infotech]

My girlfriend just got finished making her first batch of bath soap. After she experiments for a while she's going to try to make some shave soap. It was a little expensive to get all of the stuff to do it (120 or so) but well worth it!

[A.de.Lioncourt]

I'll be the second, PM sent.

Welcome!

[Danmark]

My girlfriend just got finished making her first batch of bath soap. After she experiments for a while she's going to try to make some shave soap. It was a little expensive to get all of the stuff to do it (120 or so) but well worth it!

Let me know how it goes. If you or she have questions you can reach me at [email protected].

[Mama Bear]

Oh that poor mold... Did you try freezing it for a while before pushing the soap through? Also, sometimes a light spritz of olive oil in the inside of the mold before pouring can help... or lining with paper.


Those are nice looking soaps you have there! Congratulations!

By the way, I liked that site that you shared, I never saw that one before. That was some of the simpliest but most comprehensive guidelines on soapmaking I have seen. I don't think it stressed using eye protection enough when working with lye tho.

Glad to have another soaper here!!

Jiffy pack padded envelopes are great... you can first class them for a couple bucks.