Frothy Airy Nothing Lather

I purchased a couple of pucks of locally made artisan soap recently that I had high hopes for. The price point was very good, the ingredients were all natural, and it was made in the town where I went to high school. Unfortunately, the "lather" was pretty much just air bubbles and unusable. I tried a wetter brush, a drier brush, more product, less water, more water, cold water...but got the same disappointing results. The only thing that made it usable was adding some cream, but the cream makes better lather by itself. Plus, I have soft water and have had no trouble making good lather with any other soap, including MWF.

Has anybody had similar results with a soap? Any other suggestions I can try before relegating this stuff to bath soap?

Do you have the ingredient list? Might help to determine if it's the soap.

mattyoung said:

Do you have the ingredient list? Might help to determine if it's the soap.

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+1 It just might not be up to par as the better shaving soaps. The individual who made it just might not have enough experience making shaving soap which is quite different to hand soap.

Saponified oils of coconut, organic palm, castor, sunflower & olive with cocoa butter & betonite clay essential or fragrence oil.

The lady said that she has been a soap maker for twenty years, but just started making shaving soaps in the past year. That could be the problem.

Yes, a couple of times. One was a local made soap that was supposedly bay rum shaving soap. It wasn't bay rum and it was barely a bath soap. Olive oil soap with clay in it. The other was a Caswell Massey almond scented abomination of a shave soap. It was terrible but at least smelled good. I'd put lightfoot pine shave soap in this category as well.

It seems hard to find a good lathering soap with olive oil in it.

Yes. I bought some soap from an artisan in Key West, FL. I took it home it produced the worst lather I have ever seen. Smelled great, performed terribly. There was no ingredient list so I should have asked before buying it.

Any soap made with olive oil seems to be a bad shaving soap.

I don't understand why everyone wants to make shaving soap. Really.

Gotta have Stearic or mystearic acid number two on the list after aqua.

Had the same thing happen, with an ingredient list similar to yours. Ended up using it as a bath soap.

As far as I know, one of the only decent olive oil recipe is the Nanny Silly Soaps from the UK. They have a line of olive oil soaps, which seem to work excellently for me.

Sounds like this is more akin to bath soap than shaving soap. The maker may need more practice.

Fishertwin said:

Saponified oils of coconut, organic palm, castor, sunflower & olive with cocoa butter & betonite clay essential or fragrence oil.

The lady said that she has been a soap maker for twenty years, but just started making shaving soaps in the past year. That could be the problem.

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I had a similar experience when I bought a puck from a local soap maker at an outdoor market. The soap was terrible and unusable. Too be honest I could not even use it as a regular soap in the shower as it seemed to turn to goo. From reading it seems most of these home soap makers really do not understand that it is different than normal soap. I think most of their soaps are regular hand soaps with a masculine scent added. I stick to the better know commercial names and artisans.

At $6 for 4 oz I figured it was worth a shot. Oh well, at least it smells good and should be usable as a bath/shower soap. I'm going to let her know that she needs to go back to the drawing board on her shaving soap formula if she wants to pursue that market.

Looks like the classic case of "I just need to add bentonite clay to my bath soap recipe in order to make a shaving soap". I want to support my local artisans but my interest needle only moves if I see one (or more) of the following ingredients:

- Tallow
- Sodium/Potassium Hydroxide
- Stearic/Myristic Acid

The needle goes down if I see:

- Olive Oil (near the top of the ingredient list)

rockviper said:

It seems hard to find a good lathering soap with olive oil in it.

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Sam, Cold River soap is releasing a soap with olive oil as its primary ingredient in the new year. It looks very good and knowing how his others perform, it should be excellent if you are interested.

DCRIII said:

Any soap made with olive oil seems to be a bad shaving soap.

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This isn't necessarily true as long as the individual knows what they are doing.

Thanks, Celestino. That's why I didn't make a blanket statement condemning all shave soaps with olive oil. Who knows that the future will bring.

Most local soap makers don't really understand shaving soap, although videos and tutorials are widely available. Most have no clue how a shaving soap is even supposed to behave when lathered with a brush or how a stable lather is to be acheived. Out of all the local artisan soaps I tried only 1 was a true shaving soap, which is now available and Fendrihan (it's called Jack's Shaving Soap, and it's a great soap). I'm still willing to try them when I find them but I'm disappointed 99% of the time.

celestino said:

Sam, Cold River soap is releasing a soap with olive oil as its primary ingredient in the new year. It looks very good and knowing how his others perform, it should be excellent if you are interested.


This isn't necessarily true as long as the individual knows what they are doing.

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I think it was SliceOfLife who posted about olive oil shave soaps and their possibilities. It seems like they are difficult to make into good shaving soaps but it can be done.