Shaving Soap

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SoapSap

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I have been studying everything I can on this forum and other sources about making shaving soap. There are so many opinions that I decided to just jump in an try to design my own formula. As I have a very limited need for shaving soap, I do not want to make lots of test batches and end up with 20 pounds of soap. Also, for my first time I decided to use the ingredients and additives I have on hand first. Hopefully in three months I will at least have a passable shaving soap, and at most a terrific one. Keeping my fingers crossed.

I am including my formula, and SoapCalc data. I would be happy to hear any ideas about it. Suggestions are welcome.

These are the additives that I added to the oil that are not shown on the SoapCalc pages:
1oz. Powdered Goat's Milk
1tsp. Sugar
1/2 tsp. SL
1/2 tsp. Pure Glycerin
1 tsp. Silk
1/2 oz BB Green Smoothie Fragrance Oil
EDTA ImageUploadedBySoap Making1496438581.822290.jpgImageUploadedBySoap Making1496438598.587954.jpg
 
Hi Soapsap- what type of shaving soap do you desire to make, i.e., a malleable, croap-type (such as Cella-brand or Proraso-brand) or a hard puck-type (such as Williams-brand)?

Looking at the fatty acid profile (not the oils/fats themselves- just the fatty acids), your formula has the same combined stearic /palmitic amount as my old shave formula, which was a hard puck-type, ala Williams that I would make via CP, which my hubby loved (gave him a great shave without nicks or cuts), but he loves my new and improved croap-type formula so much more. The ingredients in my new-improved formula are actually the same as what's in my hard puck formula, except that I switched out much of my tallow amount for straight-up stearic acid to boost my total combined palmitic/stearic to 50%, and I now use a combination of 80% KOH to 20% NaOH instead of my former 100% NaOH. Oh, and I completely eliminated the clay that I used to add, and I definitely have to HP it.

Based on the new improvements that I made to mine and how much more my hubby loves it, I would play round with your stearic acid/lard percentages in order to increase the total stearic/palmitic fatty acid content of your soap to 50% (right now it sits at 38%).

I was just playing on SoapCalc with your recipe, and while keeping everything else in the recipe the same, I was able to increase the combined palmitic/stearic total to 50% by changing the lard to 29% and the stearic acid to 31%. The extra palmitic/stearic will give your soap a goodly boost of shaving cushion/protection.

Regarding your additives- the goat's milk looks good me, the silk looks good, the SL looks good, but I would increase your sugar and your glycerin amounts for sure. The amounts you have of those two additives are too miniscule to make any appreciable difference (at least according to my own experience). For what it's worth, I use 5% (2 tablespoons) ppo of sugar in mine, and 20% glycerin ppo (91g ppo).

Hopefully more of our crazy wet-shaving dudes will chime in soon. :)


IrishLass :)
 
My favorite shaving soap is 15% oleic acid and 60% stearic plus palmitic. Makes a nice balance between dense, lasting lather and easy to make lather, even with very hard water.

I would use 50% Stearic aicd, 20% lard. You can replace the lard with tallow, but if you want to stick with what you have, lard makes very nice shaving soap.

You will have to hot process, the stearic acid saponifies instantly with lye addition, and hot process will take maybe 20 min if you soap hot (oils at say 160F and freshly mixed lye). Be prepared to stir like mad. You will need to add glycerine to make up for the fact that stearic acid is not an oil, so it contains none. 10% of the oil weight if you use 50% stearic acid.

Save out 2.5% of oil weight each of the shea and cocoa butters, and add them after the cook as superfat, they make for very nice skin conditioning post shave -- in fact, almost too conditioning, bordering on greasy.

High stearic plus palmitic acid makes dense, lasting lather that is quite slippery, exactly what one needs for shaving.

Definitely use 60/40 KOH/NaOH, or 70/30. Your recipe should give you a firm but waxy soap with mixed lye, easy to lather up but firm enough it's not hard to handle. Still best in a mug or bowl though. All NaOH will make Williams -- very hard, a pain to lather up, hard to get lasting lather, but slick as all getout. I prefer easier to lather myself.

I wouldn't use castor or olive oil, but having them in there won't kill shaving soap if you want them. See my comments on the castor oil thread, I'll be posting some more reviews as I shave with the samples I made last week.

I'd also make a small batch -- I find good shaving soap makes very good lather from very little soap, and you are correct, too many experiments and you will have a lifetime's worth of shaving soap sitting around. I could probably shave every day for a couple decades on what I've got, I've been giving it away.

Have fun!
 
Thank you Irish Lass and psfred. You have given me a lot of information and I can see I have a lot of tweaking to do.

I unmolded my soap this morning after a night in the fridge (was afraid it would get too hot from the goat's milk. The attachment a picture of it less than 24 hours old. I washed my hands with some of the shavings I scraped off the mold, though obviously I did not expect much from so new soap. I did not have even one little bubble. After I cut it I will do a weekly check.

Based on your suggestions I am going to continue to work on this. Now I am really feeling challenged and though I do not want to turn this into my life's work, I do want to get a good product. Just not sure what to do with the batches I do not like. I hate to waste. Any suggestions?

ImageUploadedBySoap Making1496491378.852979.jpg

Thanks again for your input.
 
It wil make perfectly good bath soap if it doesn't work as shaving soap.

If you cold processed it, I suspect it will take a few weeks to develop proper lather.
 
For making batches to test (and as a good shave soap is likely to need hot process) I make 100g batches in the microwave. Needs a very good scale (I have a 0.1g scale) and a steady hand, but it also means that I can try out multiple options easily without much waste
 
For making batches to test (and as a good shave soap is likely to need hot process) I make 100g batches in the microwave. Needs a very good scale (I have a 0.1g scale) and a steady hand, but it also means that I can try out multiple options easily without much waste


I would like to try a small batch in the microwave. Can you tell me how you do it?
 
I put my oils in a Tupperware (or other brand microwave safe pot) and heat it in short bursts, 10-20 seconds, with a stir in between. The steric acid takes the longest to melt! Then add in the lye, mix well and then back to short bursts with stirring to cook it through (the stirring is okay because it's not going to be pretty regardless). Once cooked, I add in the superfat, glycerine, and scent.

Choose a pot where the oils come up to no more than 1/3 of the pot height, to make stirring in the cooking process easier as well as lathering in use
 
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