Noob question on Shave Soap

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Rahstyle

Rahstyle

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I dug up a recipe from a shave forum but can't seem to figure something out. How did this guy reverse engineer these 5 ingredients of a popular shave soap listed in the following order

Stearic Acid
Aqua
Coconut Acid
Potassium Hydroxide
Glycerin

into this formula

Stearic Acid - 8 1/3 oz.
Aqua - 8 oz.
Coconut Oil - 7 2/3 oz.
Potassium Hydroxide - 3 1/2 oz
Glycerin - 1 tbsp.

Cheers for the help :)
 
Rahstyle said:
I dug up a recipe from a shave forum but can't seem to figure something out. How did this guy reverse engineer these 5 ingredients of a popular shave soap listed in the following order

Stearic Acid
Aqua
Coconut Acid
Potassium Hydroxide
Glycerin

into this formula

Stearic Acid - 8 1/3 oz.
Aqua - 8 oz.
Coconut Oil - 7 2/3 oz.
Potassium Hydroxide - 3 1/2 oz
Glycerin - 1 tbsp.

Cheers for the help :)
Click to expand...

He guessed. The ingredients on the original list must by law be listed in order of predominance. Knowing that he could figure the stearic and coconut oil would be the primary ingredients, the water would be to mix with the lye. Usually you would have at least double the lye amount in water, usually a bit more since this is a HP. I am going to imagine that this shave soap has a really good lather to it, hence the large amount of coconut oil. Glycerin would be a wild guess, but still under the 3 1/2 oz of the lye.

The rest is trial and error.
 
Thanks :) He said he used the calc on this site but I couldn't figure out how it gave him those numbers. Good to know i wasn't crazy and couldn't work the calc ;P

I'd like to try to make some shave soap for myself. My wife an I make soaps for our kids using a goats milk base, but that's easy because most of the work is done. This stuff I have to make from scratch and I'm just trying to figure out the best way to start.

So would you change anything with the recipe? Does this account for superfatting? Lastly, if I want to add fragrance or essential oils, can I just add them in or is their a percentage to follow?

Cheers again!
 
Last edited:
That's where the recipe started was on Badger and Blade. I saw it there first myself and then Songwind posted it here and it took on a life of it's own. Lot of great information and tweaking.
 
Rahstyle said:
So would you change anything with the recipe? Does this account for superfatting?
Click to expand...

Yes, I don't like MdC so I have used tallow as well as lard in past batches. My current formulation is 50% stearic acid, 25% lard, and 25% coconut oil. Tallow can be used instead of lard if you like.

At a later date you might want to fiddle with the recipe some more to include castor oil in the soap and perhaps various butters (as superfat) for skin conditioning.

I don't know if that recipe has superfat or not, you have to learn how to use soapcalc and figure it out.

Lastly, if I want to add fragrance or essential oils, can I just add them in or is their a percentage to follow?
Click to expand...

It's in soapcalc. Something like 5% or 0.5oz/lb of soap. You can't just dump in some FO or you may end up with either over-scented stinky stuff or underscented soap.

-Dave
 
I don't think Songwind is the same as John at LA Shave Soap. Singwind, are you he? Songwind and I probably started in this time sink from John's original thread through.

Rahstyle, from another crazy disruptive wet-shaver dude, welcome. These ladies and gents received us with open arms and a lot of patience, which is good because I understand dealing with me requires a lot of patience.

Let me ask you the most important question about you making your first soap: Are you looking for an all-veg formula, or is Tallow something you would use? The answer to your questions depends a lot on that.
 
check-list.jpg
 
Wow lots of great info.

I'd put bacon fat in the shave cream if I could, so no veg products over here ;)
 
Rahstyle said:
I'd put bacon fat in the shave cream if I could, so no veg products over here ;)
Click to expand...
Unless my brain really is failing, I'm pretty sure someone either here or at B&B tried it with bacon fat. As I remember the result was not pleasing. Now clean lard is not bad in shave soap - but if you are going to use animal fats use Tallow. Trust me.

ETA: I guess I should say that even though I swear by tallow in shave soap, I use lard in hand soap. Not sure why that is but it works!
 
LBussy said:
Unless my brain really is failing, I'm pretty sure someone either here or at B&B tried it with bacon fat. As I remember the result was not pleasing. Now clean lard is not bad in shave soap - but if you are going to use animal fats use Tallow. Trust me.

ETA: I guess I should say that even though I swear by tallow in shave soap, I use lard in hand soap. Not sure why that is but it works!
Click to expand...

Yeah I'm sure the bacon fat would go rancid. Blech!
 
You can use bacon fat, you just need to clean it first - a process that takes hours, literally. Really, who has time for that when lard and tallow can be bought so cheaply.

(However I have made bar soap with assorted used fats and drippings went through the process of cleaning 3 times and it worked out wonderfully. Just to see how it worked. )
 

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