Formulating a Shaving Soap Recipe

Feels a bit odd being a female and joining a site for shaving. What with the no beard and all... However, what better place to get advice making a decent shave soap for various men folk in my life?
I've spent ages on google trying to find a good shave soap recipe and pretty much all I've learnt is the recipes people are prepared to share would actually make for a awful shaving experience. So I decided to try make my own recipe.

What I've come up with is this:

Tallow 40%
Coconut oil 5%
Castor oil 20%
Avocado oil 5%
Cocoa butter 20%
Stearic acid 5%

Cream as a percentage of liquid
Kaolin clay added at trace
Made with NoAH and KOH 40:60

Any thoughts on possible problems or improvements would be very appreciated. My father-in-law is going to be my guinea pig and test the soap for me but I'd like to have a good starting place to build on. Rather than just add some clay to a bath soap and see what happens!

Thanks to anyone taking the time to read this and help me

What fun. Hope it works out well. What fragrance are you thinking of? Personally, I'd love a pure cologne scent, like 4711. But I am a maniac about the scents I DON'T like.

Have you a certain consistency you are aiming for? The "croaps" like Cella are great, for me. But I like triple-milled as well. And creams! Provided that the creams aren't runny.

I have used a few artisan shaving soaps, and I have felt that some are, just as you say, soap plus bentonite clay; my reaction alone, I stress. Would you ever consider trying a formulation without clay?

Have a great time. Keep us apprised about your progress.

Yrs, Vespasian (Robert)

Personally I would increase the Stearic, increase coconut, lower castor and coco butter.

The addition if clay is a bit of a controversial thing. I've done my soaps with and without clay and have settled on leaving it out.

Not sure what you mean by "cream as a percentage of liquid"

Are you a soap maker already and just branching into shave soap, or is this your first time?

Welcome to BnB Christina.

What is the other 5% gonna be?

Go 40% tallow, 35% stearic acid, 20% coconut oil, 5% castor oil. 5% superfat with the butter. Try the lye mixture as is, but i would cook s.a. in only KOH.

I have a "Aqua di Gio" Fragrance oil I was going to try. Otherwise I'd probably stick to bay rum or sandalwood as manly scents.
To be honest I don't know what the consistency should be, my father-in-law was pretty vague when he tried to tell me what he'd like. "Soft enough to get on the brush easily but hard so it lasts longer"
I read a few comments from people saying clay is unnecessary and others (granted, most of the others were people that were making the soap for others, not shaving with it themselves) saying it was pretty much the addition of clay was what made it a shaving soap. I figured it couldn't hurt to add it but would like to eventually adjust the recipe so it is good without the clay. Should I just leave it out entirely?

DastardlyDan said:

What is the other 5% gonna be?

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Oops, I had olive oil at 5% then took it out and didn't add it, I guess I'd just up the stearic acid by 5%

driftwood said:

Personally I would increase the Stearic, increase coconut, lower castor and coco butter.

The addition if clay is a bit of a controversial thing. I've done my soaps with and without clay and have settled on leaving it out.

Not sure what you mean by "cream as a percentage of liquid"

Are you a soap maker already and just branching into shave soap, or is this your first time?

Welcome to BnB Christina.

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The coconut was a low percentage because I was worried too much would make the lather more bubbly, less creamy but not sure what percentage it would start making a bad difference..

The water used to mix the lye would be discounted by the amount of cream I use, and the cream added at trace. I made a soap with cream for Christmas presents this year and I love it! It just seemed like a good addition

I've only been making soap for about 8 months now but now that I have a massive supply of various bath soaps I'd love to try something that I could give my brothers and father-in-law as presents that would seem a bit more manly and thoughtful than a luxury soap and bath bombs

cpacamper said:

Go 40% tallow, 35% stearic acid, 20% coconut oil, 5% castor oil. 5% superfat with the butter. Try the lye mixture as is, but i would cook s.a. in only KOH.

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Most of the comments I read suggested a higher percentage of castor than a normal soap (I usually use 5-10%) Could you tell me why you recommend only 5% castor?

Man alive this site is helpful! I was worried nobody would answer as DIY shave soaps seems a common question everywhere but I'm glad I gave it a go. Thanks everyone who's replied so far, if I manage to nail down a great soap I'll update the recipe and post it.

I suggested lowering it more or less to give you room for more stearic acid. However I've read that a higher castor oil content can actually harm lather. Most of what you've read seems to be written by bath soap makers (all use soap makers have read them as well), and is slightly "off". When you formulate a bath soap you likely aim for something that conditions the skin, moisturizers, etc, etc. when you formulate shave soap your goals are slightly different. You need a slick cushiony lather, you are trying to protect the users face. If you have used stearic acid you'll know that it will make lather very readily, especially when used in conjunction with KOH, so worry less about the lathering bit. Tallow will add. Creaminess as well. A very serviceable soap can be made simply from Stearic and tallow (using KOH), the other (more expensive oils) can then be used to increase skin conditioning.

So by cream you mean cream from a cow? Like milk? Ask yourself what the milk will add to the shave soap, I'm not knocking the thought, and it might be a cool little "spin" but I'm not convinced it would have a significant improvement to your shave soap. You may want to consider something like Aloe Vera gel as an addition as it has skin healing properties, just a thought.

I think you are on the right track with your recipe. cpccamper gave a pretty solid recipe suggestion above, and for your first go at shave soap is a very good place to start. If it were me though I wouldn't worry about separate cooking with the lyes just yet, again just my two cents. If you've never used Stearic acid and KOH before be prepare for it to trace as you pour the lye into your fats, SA and KOH basically saponification instantly. You'll have to use the hot process method or a double boiler to allow you to work the soap so that there is even incorporation.

Christina,

Go to Google Books or archive.org and read some soap making books from 90-100 years ago. Look at their recipies for shaving soap. You will find they were using lots of tallow, a small % of coconut oil (5-10%) and a mix of NaOH and KOH. I made my current soap from Walmart's GV Creamed Shortening as my base oil 5-10% coconut oil and 5-10% hemp oil with NaOH as my lye. It's creamy and works well, but I will continue to perfect it.

Good Luck

Thanks for all your help guys! I'll try the recipe suggested by cpacamper and go from there. Just waiting for payday to order the KOH and I'm away

Hi Christina,

You haven't mentioned this, but you should probably do a hot process with this recipe as it will trace very quickly.

Good luck!

I'd be willing to purchase some Aqua do gio soap from you if it turns out good. Or at least be your guinea pig. I love that scent!

One of my first batches of shaving soap was 20% castor oil, I found it made the soap a little too soft. I backed it down to 7% and replaced the balance with conditioning oils. I was using only KOH so yours may not turn out as runny as mine did.

Good luck with your cook. Let us know how it goes.

I have some ho made aqua di gio soap i bought off a lady online that makes shave soaps to sell. I love the scent but it lathered about like Williams.it cost 10 times as much. I'm not a fan.

admvalentine said:

I have some ho made aqua di gio soap i bought off a lady online that makes shave soaps to sell. I love the scent but it lathered about like Williams.it cost 10 times as much. I'm not a fan.

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Actually, Stirling just came out with an Aqua di Gio scent (I think its called 'Aqua DGO', or something similar), so if you're looking for a soap with that scent that you can purchase immediately I'd give them a shot.

I'm also interested in seeing how this formula turns out. My dad and I have been toying with the idea of making soap for a while now, so I'll be following along to see how this turns out.

EDIT: Here is a link to Stirling's Aqua DGO

Nice mine was green and the hardest soap I've ever seen.

I've only got a few months of wet shaving under my belt and I'm still trying a variety of soaps, but one thing that I'm starting to learn is that I believe my skin likes Lanolin. The post shave seems more hydrated to me, even when another soap has a variety of oils and other skin-friendly ingredients. I know absolutely nothing about making soap, so I'm not sure if Lanolin effects lathering or hardness or production method.

I'd be interested to learn more about this stuff. Might help me as a consumer, and definitely helps me as a general geek. [emoji16]