My first shaving soap is a success!

That will work. I use less coconut oil and more tallow, but there isn't any reason not to try your recipe.

I would put the EDTA in the water for the lye, and would use 0.1% or more. I've also had issues with rancidity in my shaving soaps, so I now use 0.1% citrate and BHT in everything. May or may not be an issue with tallow for you, but something to think about.

Home made shaving soaps last a very long time for me, be careful not to get too excited and make a couple pounds of various experiments like I did. I won't need any more for about a decade.....

kuroda said:

I plan to add 2.5% Lanolin and 2.5% Aloe butter to the mix after saponification

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It's early so my coffee has not fully sunk in yet. You may be saying the right thing but I'm reading it wrong. Do you mean you will add an additional 2.5% of each of those, or retain 2.5% of each of those to add after saponification The latter would be correct. The former would raise your superfat to 10% which is a little high/greasy.

Other than that it looks solid. I've never used aloe in a shave soap so please let us know how it comes out.

LBussy said:

It's early so my coffee has not fully sunk in yet. You may be saying the right thing but I'm reading it wrong. Do you mean you will add an additional 2.5% of each of those, or retain 2.5% of each of those to add after saponification The latter would be correct. The former would raise your superfat to 10% which is a little high/greasy.

Other than that it looks solid. I've never used aloe in a shave soap so please let us know how it comes out.

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I wasn't specific enough in my original post! I would retain 2.5% of each of those to add after saponification. I'll post with the results of my batch when It's done!

Hi everyone, this is an amazing threat, I had no idea how to do a shaving soap, I have some of them ( Truefitt and Hill, Tabac, Martin Candré) but I would like to try a handmade shaving soap. Thanks to everyone who shows his success and his fails. In some months I will post my results.

I just tried making the first recipe in this thread as my first shaving soap. All went well until the mashed potato stage. No matter how much I stirred, the soap would not thin up. I kept heating it for around a half hour, and nothing changed. Passed the zap test. I froze a small amount and tested the lather. It was beautiful. So I put the soap in molds. We'll see how it turns out. I'm confused why the soap never moved past the mashed potato stage, though.

alatos said:

I just tried making the first recipe in this thread as my first shaving soap. All went well until the mashed potato stage. No matter how much I stirred, the soap would not thin up. I kept heating it for around a half hour, and nothing changed. Passed the zap test. I froze a small amount and tested the lather. It was beautiful. So I put the soap in molds. We'll see how it turns out. I'm confused why the soap never moved past the mashed potato stage, though.

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It looks like your soap did exactly what it was supposed to do. The mashed potato stage is the last stage a hot-processed soap goes through before glopping it into the mold. It would be abnormal for it to thin up after that, unless you added some form of extra liquid to it, that is.


IrishLass

IrishLass said:

It looks like your soap did exactly what it was supposed to do. The mashed potato stage is the last stage a hot-processed soap goes through before glopping it into the mold. It would be abnormal for it to thin up after that, unless you added some form of extra liquid to it, that is.


IrishLass

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Ahh, I see. I was thinking it would initially look like mashed potatoes, then thin back out into something resembling vasoline, then finally thicken up again as it cooked off the water. What happened to mine was instant mashed potatoes, then I just cooked and stirred for another half hour or 45 minutes. The soap works great actually, better than I could have hoped. After hardening overnight, it's about the consistency of Figaro Italian soap, so almost like super duper firm, but also light, playdough.

Interesting. A few online tutorials I've seen mention that after mashed potatoes the shaving soap should / will develop a very thick pudding type consistency.

On a different note, this is a very informative thread and I appreciate that everyone here has freely given out a lot of valuable information. I'm a hobbysit cold process soap maker and this thread has motivated me to try my hand soon at hot process shaving soap [emoji4]

The texture changes you're talking about will depend a little on the method, the recipe, the water content, the temperature, and the experience of the person making the soap. The essential goal is to get the the fat and the alkali (KOH, NaOH, or both) to saponify until all of the alkali is consumed. Whether you see mashed potatoes, applesauce, flying bubbles, vaseline, or whatever during this process is not particularly important. I don't cook my shave soap for hours and hours -- it's zap free in under 1/2 hour so I don't cook it any longer than that, and I seldom see any of those stages y'all are looking for. It turns out fine.

DeeAnna said:

The texture changes you're talking about will depend a little on the method, the recipe, the water content, the temperature, and the experience of the person making the soap. The essential goal is to get the the fat and the alkali (KOH, NaOH, or both) to saponify until all of the alkali is consumed. Whether you see mashed potatoes, applesauce, flying bubbles, vaseline, or whatever during this process is not particularly important. I don't cook my shave soap for hours and hours -- it's zap free in under 1/2 hour so I don't cook it any longer than that, and I seldom see any of those stages y'all are looking for. It turns out fine.

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This makes a lot of sense. Thank you.

Nice thread - I read it again to refresh my knowledge base and thank you for all that contributed. I have a question that maybe was addressed but I didn't see it.

To the experienced gentlemen or ladies that have used other brands ( pucks ) from some of the well know vendors of shave soap - What was the texture of those? They seem to me from pictures that they have a more finished look. Is this true?

Thanks!
Sherry

All of the solid (as in not croap) soaps I've tried were waxy pucks that look like they were sliced off an extruded roll. That is how I would make it if I were making shaving soap in commercial quantities. They are all soft enough to mold with hand pressure -- the hardest one is Derby shaving stick, probably the softest I've used is Haslinger. I don't have any 100% KOH "croaps" -- those are soft enough that they don't work as pucks.

Some of the "artisan" soaps appear a bit rough as they appear to be scooped into jars by hand,

Hi all,
Hope you don't mind joining in.
Yep, its the dreaded shave soap battle.
Did my first shave soap, and whilst I have spent an age researching old recipes to new ones.
Decided there's nothing like doing it yourself, making mistakes and learning by them.
Happily I'll share the recipe as a starting work in process.
I've started at a 90/10% starting point of NaOH/KoH
The images attached were taken within hours of making (because it set ssssooooo fast, lol) and separated a bit. lol.
But, I have learnt oooddles.
For reference I tried via cold process method and learnt firstly, I should of whisked and beat for longer at the end when adding the 80gr of glycerin to force it to accept and blend in.
The images were for first after putting in mould.
The final images of a lather from the first to last were tried (because wanted to see first how it did before curing) 5 mins left standing, then 50 mins later.
To be honest was happy how it stayed on the brush 50 mins after going out and coming back to see if it held on the brush.
Apologies for old shave brush as bristles at end of use as hubby needs new one.
Will cure the pucks for 4 - 6 weeks as I usually do with all other soaps, and see how they mature.
Feedback welcome

Recipe:
Castor Oil 36.2 gr
Coconut Oil 76 deg 108.7 gr
Palm Oil (RSPO) 217.4 gr
Soy Wax 181.2 gr
Stearic Acid 144.9 gr
Sunflower Oil 36.2 gr
NaOH 90.2 gr
KoH 15.6 gr
and after all mixed Glycerine added 80 gr

I have a question that maybe some of you can answer. Has anyone tried Silk in their shaving soap? And how do you think it would effect it? Positively or negatively?

redhead1226 said:

I have a question that maybe some of you can answer. Has anyone tried Silk in their shaving soap? And how do you think it would effect it? Positively or negatively?

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Hi there,
I'm learning with the shave soap side of things as above and you can see. But, I am led to believe depending on whether you use liquid silk or the fiber silk itself it adds smoothness quality to the soap.
Depending on which one you use a general rule of thumb for the fiber silk put into your Lye solution at above 170 degrees F and mix thoroughly to avoid clumping (it'll take a few mins to dissolve). The liquid silk about max of 5% but thats a guide everyone is different but silk does make soap have a shiny effect visibly also.
So i would say it would give a smoothness on the skin in shave soap, but not used yet only in my normal soap making.
Sorry if telling you stuff you already know, but just mentioning just incase.
Give it a go and let me know also x

I'm not sure a well-crafted shaving soap would benefit by the addition of silk ... as a marketing item/differentiator for soap made for sale it might be interesting, but I'm betting a blind test (literally, so people could not see the soap) would not show a benefit to it.

LBussy said:

I'm not sure a well-crafted shaving soap would benefit by the addition of silk ... as a marketing item/differentiator for soap made for sale it might be interesting, but I'm betting a blind test (literally, so people could not see the soap) would not show a benefit to it.

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Not sure, this is why I wanted some input as I do not use shave soaps. But Im going to make a small batch with and without. I know how much I like it in some of my other soap recipes, so Ill test it. Thank you for your input.

Testing is always good!

I'm just going on my experience with my own recipes - I've not found any additive that substantially improved the shave experience (for me.) Maybe the next time I have to purchase supplies I'll get a little silk and give it a go. Might be a while since I buy in bulk and my supplies seem to last forever for the volume I do.

With that much stearic acid you will get much better results by using hot process, as the stearic acid saponifies on contact with lye.

I use 60/40 KOH/NaOH, and will eventually try 70% KOH -- the soap will lather much more easily with higher KOH content. 10% is likely to give you trouble with maintaining lather for more than a minute or two, and will be significantly more difficult to lather up.

As far as additives and fancy oils go, unless you add the oils after the cook in hot process, they only contribute fatty acids to the soap, and I've not personally found a huge difference in performance so long as the stearic plus palmitic acid content is 50% or higher. Shea or cocoa butter after the cook is nice, as they leave some "conditioning" behind when you rinse the soap off. Might also be true for other oils, but you still need to keep the fatty acid profile correct for shaving soap.

Experiment to your heart's delight, worse case you will just be making bath soap instead of shaving soap.

I'm curious to know, what is the difference between shave soap and cream soap?