My first shaving soap is a success!

[vyadha]

When developing my recipe I did 100g batches in small screw-top food storage containers set in a pan of simmering water.

Yeah, these are 200g batches, so I have 5 of them now. More than enough. My MdC lasts me almost a year and I use it 3-5 times a week. I dont expect these batches to be that long lasting..... Too impatient to let them cure.


Now if I get these beard growing faster

 

[McSpin]

Because scent is so important to people I do an unscented soap that can either be sold that way or custom scented to the customer's preference. I am sold out right now except for some Sandalwood that is leftover from a wholesale account that has now gone out of business.

Interesting. How do you add scent to an already made soap?

 

[LBussy]

Interesting. How do you add scent to an already made soap?

Guessing (and watching to see what Lindy says) that she heats the soap somewhat and mixes it in with an electric mixer - this based on her Cream Soap tutorial.

That's what I was going to try anyway so I'm glad you asked so I might save myself a mess.

 

[Lindy]

I grate the soap and then moisturize the grated soap then microwave in short burst until smooth. Once smooth and fluid enough to pour I add the fragrance. Voila scented soap ready to go to my customer. Little more time consuming than having them pick from the soaps available but I'm known for custom fragrancing.

 

[LBussy]

I was close!

Thanks for sharing Lindy.

 

[Lindy]

You're welcome

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

Out of interest, Lindy - do you have a big batch of shreds on hand, or grate on demand?

 

[McSpin]

I would guess that the order has to be a good size to justify the extra work. Of course, with a power grater and the right equipment, the process could go fairly fast, especially if your store large amounts of grated soap ready to melt.

Hmm, this might be useful to keep scents fresh in my personal soaps. I'm guessing that grated soap would also cure much faster. I happen to have quite a bit of unscented soap. I see some experimentation on this coming up. Thanks for the tips.

 

[LBussy]

I'm guessing that grated soap would also cure much faster.

Why?

Not being intentionally obtuse - but curing is not just drying (and that's not the part we need with a shaving soap). Since this is a croap, drying is not part of what we want out of it.

As a mater of fact, mine ends up so hard even with just KOH that I have been experimenting with ways to present it as a softer soap. Softer means faster loading and faster loading means you are less likely to under-load your brush. Of course you can over-load it too .. but I use a badger brush and I need all the help I can get. A good boar brush would load it admirably.

 

[vyadha]

Softer means faster loading and faster loading means you are less likely to under-load your brush. Of course you can over-load it too .. but I use a badger brush and I need all the help I can get. A good boar brush would load it admirably.

I really enjoy the myriad of preferences we all have. Ive always preferred harder soaps than croaps and creams. I like watching the hard bar mutate into a creamy, puffy lather on my brush.

Due to that preference Im pretty pleased that these stearic/coco soaps will get hard. I thought I may have messed up the cook but now I know better.

FWIW, the lanolin addition to this threads recipe has been excellent so far.

 

[cnm]

yes indeedee

 

[Lindy]

Out of interest, Lindy - do you have a big batch of shreds on hand, or grate on demand?

\

I do have shreds on hand but I have grated on demand. I use a salad shooter.

I would guess that the order has to be a good size to justify the extra work. Of course, with a power grater and the right equipment, the process could go fairly fast, especially if your store large amounts of grated soap ready to melt.

I store a bit of grated soap but not a large amount. Because I have a salad shooter it is really quick to grate the soap. I don't grate it until it has had time to cure.

 

[FlybyStardancer]

Okay, so I hit my shave soap with my hand mixer yesterday, and it became a much smoother paste, and as of today it hasn't separated. Still trying to decide how to package this stuff up. It's very thick, but it's not as dry as I thought it would be, so pucks are out of the question. (I'll tweak the water amount next time to see if I can get it to form pucks!)

In the meantime... I currently have three options. I have empty deodorant/lotion bar tubes (not previously used!). I'm going to put some in a couple of those for sure, not sure if I'm going to do more than that. Today I purchased some wide-mouth pint jars and plastic wide-mouth lids, as well as four ramekins. I'm debating between them... For reference, none of my friends who shave currently use shaving soap, so they don't have brushes.

 

[InNae]

I've purchased the 4oz flat tin here and they are a small sized container that would be good for shaving but the larger flat container would work really well for loading soap on and aren't to expensive.

http://www.specialtybottle.com/tincontainersmi.aspx

 

[FlybyStardancer]

Unfortunately I've spent all of my current shipping-hobby money with the swap, so those tins will have to wait. The ramekins are easy enough to return if I end up not using them, and the jars can/will be used for canning if I don't use them for soap.

I'm waffling between the ramekins and jars... On the one hand, the jars can be easily closed and don't imply a specific way of using it. On the other... potential for glass shards if dropped.

And I have since found out that one potential guinea pig does use a mug & brush! Whoo! lol

 

[boyago]

Unfortunately I've spent all of my current shipping-hobby money with the swap, so those tins will have to wait. The ramekins are easy enough to return if I end up not using them, and the jars can/will be used for canning if I don't use them for soap.

I'm waffling between the ramekins and jars... On the one hand, the jars can be easily closed and don't imply a specific way of using it. On the other... potential for glass shards if dropped.

And I have since found out that one potential guinea pig does use a mug & brush! Whoo! lol

I use cheap ceramic dipping dishes from Fred Myer or the 8oz wide mouth Ball jars. with a 4oz soap. Glass is a concern but as someone either in this or another thread said (paraphrase) "you'd be surprised how spry a properly motivated half naked man can be".

 

[LBussy]

I use the 8oz flat tins from Specialty as they fit very well in a small flat rate box. I have used small screw-top food storage containers as well for quick tester batches. I'd go for as wise as possible among your choices.

 

[FlybyStardancer]

I though about the dipping bowls that were right next to the ramekins.. but they were slightly smaller, and the base was narrow enough for me to give them the side-eye. lol And LOL on that quote! I do have glass in my bathroom... both my lotion bottle and my little jar of coconut oil are glass.

 

[LBussy]

Yeah when you drop a straight razor you can get all sorts of motivated.

 

[FlybyStardancer]

FINALLY got it loaded into vessels. I ended up using all three options... 6 of the lotion sticks (2oz each), 4 of the wide mouth half-pints (4oz each), and 3 of the ramekins (also 4oz each). Plus one tiny little sampler that's less than 1 oz. That'll give a nice array for people to chose from!

One oddity that came up when I was chatting with my friends earlier... One friend prefers to use a sugar scrub for shaving! She says that she has not gotten a nick since switching to a sugar scrub. My mind boggles because I can only think of the graininess and how it would work... But she also doesn't shave that often so when she does the hair is gunking up the razor as much as everything else.