KOH Shaving Soap Recipe Feedback please!

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Hi all! I'm going to try shaving soap this weekend. I read a lot of the giant thread and hopefully have a decent recipe on my hands.

I don't have any butters, so I'm planning on using avocado oil for the superfat. So I'd withhold 25g of AO from the 50g total, right?

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The glycerin (15%) is added post-zap along with the superfat and fragrance correct? And it doesn't factor into the oil weight?
 
It looks pretty good to me. I'd give it a go!

The glycerin (15%) is added post-zap along with the superfat and fragrance correct? And it doesn't factor into the oil weight?

Speaking only for myself, I always add my glycerin up front with my oils before adding the lye solution when I make my shave soap, but I suppose there's no harm in adding it with the superfat (don't take my word on that, though ;) )

I factor in the glycerin that I use as a add-on percentage of my oil weight, i.e., 15% glycerin ppo.


IrishLass :)
 
I know I know! I'm planning to make it tomorrow so I was hoping for a quick response. I'm sure a lot of people haven't tried the shaving soap recipe so I understand.

I'd love to try but I don't want a drying soap that I would have an over abundance of, ya know?
 
It looks pretty good to me. I'd give it a go!



Speaking only for myself, I always add my glycerin up front with my oils before adding the lye solution when I make my shave soap, but I suppose there's no harm in adding it with the superfat (don't take my word on that, though ;) )

I factor in the glycerin that I use as a add-on percentage of my oil weight, i.e., 15% glycerin ppo.


IrishLass :)

Thank you! Adding it with the oils sounds easier to me so I'll do that.
 
I would highly recommend making small batches. It took me 3 yrs to come up with one I like. I kick up the castor in my shave soap to 8% NaOH 30% KOH 70%. Add tallow and kokum butter coconut oil 22%. I also do not add in glycerin. I tried adding in some glycerin in a batch which I cut in rounds. They never stopped crying...
 
I would highly recommend making small batches. It took me 3 yrs to come up with one I like. I kick up the castor in my shave soap to 8% NaOH 30% KOH 70%. Add tallow and kokum butter coconut oil 22%. I also do not add in glycerin. I tried adding in some glycerin in a batch which I cut in rounds. They never stopped crying...

Thanks for the tips! I bought 6 little jars from the dollar store so I'm going to end up scaling the recipe to those.

Do you find the extra castor helps the lather a lot?
 
Much will depend on your formula, but unfortunately, you cannot find out what amount of which oil works best for it until you actually make a batch of it (gosh darn it!) :twisted:.

For the record, though, apart from a few differences, your formula looks somewhat fairly similar in a sense to LBussy's shaving recipe, which happens to be a very good recipe which is why I felt comfortable telling you to go for it. He sent me a tin of it and my son and hubby loved it, although his has no castor oil in it at all.

For what its worth, I use 20% castor in mine, but my formula is quite different from LBussy's or yours.....or Carolyn's, too, for that matter. ;)


IrishLass :)
 
All the variations possible are very interesting! I basically tried to follow the 52% Stearic / 48% Coconut with a few of my own variations... I'm sure I will be doing plenty of experimenting with this one. Luckily I have lots of willing testers!
 
Czmaha you are generious to share your soap, I am getting ready to do it for my hubby. I have no idea how to bite it, yet. Is the tallow, Kokum and CO the same percentage? eh that is what I am planning to make for over 2 years.
 
Well that was quite an adventure.

I melted all my oils and stearic acid in the Crock-Pot on high, then added my warm lye water.

The immediate reaction was a bit of ricing/lumpy mashed potatoes, as I assumed the lye water cooled the stearic acid enough to solidify it a bit.

After some stick blending, only a few minutes, it returned to a beautiful creamy pudding texture with no lumps.

After that it started thickening more and felt more like taffy, leaving long strands behind on my spoon. I figured it was time to zap test and add my superfat, fragrance oil and colour. No zap.

Well I turned my back for literally a second and that batter thickened into old play-doh. I tossed in my SF, FO and colour and hoped for the best. My silicone spatulas couldn't handle it and my spoon barely could so I resorted to double-handed mashing, trying to get that **** colour dispersed in the brick.

I glopped the batter onto a piece of parchment paper, hoping I could knead it. Not really. It just stuck to my gloves and made a mess.

So I just smeared the batter into my containers and called it a day. They're not the prettiest things I've ever made but I'm still looking forward to testing the lather.

So when should I have added my SF/FO/colour? Pudding phase I guess?

IMG_20170318_125950.jpg
 
Another update, in case anyone is curious.

Just tried shaving my pits with it. I don't have a proper shaving brush so I used a makeup brush. But holy cow. That lather is amazing. It's just like what you'd get out of a can of barbasol. Except it leaves my skin much softer and smells a lot better too.

In addition to the recipe I posted, it has these additives (all PPO):

- 1 egg yolk
- 1 tsp Bentonite clay
- 1 tsp sodium lactate
- 1 tbsp sugar

All in all, even though it's quite ugly, I'm very happy with the results.
 
The reaction wasn't the SA cooling, it was just that free fatty acids (FFAs) react lightning fast when you add a lye in there. Instant, most of the time - which is why soaps with a lot of SA (which includes a good shaving soap) will have to be made HP and not CP.
 
When I make mine, I pre-melt the Stearic acid alone and keep it at 180F/82C while I'm heating my hard fats in my stainless soaping pot (I don't have a crockpot, so I do the oven method). Once those are melted, I add my liquid oils and glycerin to the pot and bring the temp up to 200F/93C before stirring in my melted stearic. When everything looks smooth, I slowly add in my lye solution and whisk while the pot is still on the heat - just until everything is smoothed out. Then I cover my pot and stick it in the oven set on 180F/82C and cook until zaplessness.

I normally make mine with 80% KOH/20% NaOH, but for what its worth, I've also made batches with 100% KOH, which unlike my mixed lye batches, tends to go through all kinds of weird stages as it is cooking: Fluid to thick paste, then to a melted caramel-like consistency, then back to fluid consistency, etc.. Thankfully, by the time it reaches zaplessness for me, it is back to a fluid consistency and I am able to add my scent in nicely.


IrishLass :)
 
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