first soap batch

I'm making a try at a full on shaving soap. today I made 2 test batches. the first is based on the soap discussed here:
http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showth...n-Illustrated-Guide-to-a-Test-Batch-LONG-POST
and here:
http://forum.shavemyface.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=51901
what I did is follow the defaults in soapcalc for 55% stearic acid 45% coconut oil saponified with potassium hydroxide.


the second batch is entirely experimental. it follows soapcalcs defaults for 100% castor oil saponified with sodium hydroxide.

both batches behaved as expected based on my reading here on the forums. I'm looking forward to shaving with them. here they are:


the castor oil numbers in soapcalc are a bit of an enigma.


the hardness of 0 would seem to indicate that it will be a liquid soap, but it isn't. if the lather is as bubbly and creamy as it says this will make great lather- but will the 98 conditioning mean it won't be good for shaving? and the high iodine? what happens with that? will this even shave?

I'm bumping this so someone who's experienced at making shaving soap might see it.

the soap on the right is such a pretty bright white! i'd love to hear how it performed!

I can't wait to hear what you think of them, I haven't making shaving soap yet..

I shaved with the stearic / coconut soap this weekend. I made some test lather and left it while I showered. I didn't time it, but I didn't hurry either, and when I got out it looked the same as when I started. it has staying power. it also shaves just fine, plenty of glide and cushion. this first test batch has no scent added and I think I will want something if the smell of the unaged soap is going to remain. I'm guessing that the soapy smell will fade with time and I'll probably make scented and unscented batches. in any case, 55% stearic / 45% coconut / KOH makes an excellent shave soap. my guess is that there is a bit of a range in the percentages that gives this sort of performance. for someone doing production dialing in the numbers would be important. I'm making it for myself and a few friends, not for sale. it would take me a long time to make meaningful adjustments to the formula, so any changes from here will happen slowly. I will make some small test batches with other oils but I'm not going to put a lot of effort into that direction unless I get really stellar improvements, which seems unlikely- this stuff as is is the best shave soap I have used to date.


I played a bit with the castor oil soap. it makes a pretty generous amount of lather that has not really enough body and fades away after a few minutes. I worked it enough to get what looked like a shaveable lather and let sit with the other. by the time I got out of the shower it was all but gone. in the shower it performed well as a body bar. it had a slightly unpleasant feel- a little too slick- leaving me to wonder whether it would rinse off. it did rinse well, so I tried it on my hair, where it worked like a very nice shampoo. I see potential in that direction. the only downside is that it did slightly sting in my eyes.

thank you for the update! looking forward to hearing more as you progress...may I pose a question? if you used shea butter or kokum, could you reduce the amount of steric acid used? according to soapcalc they are both higher in steric than tallow...i'm just a hobbyist, but would love to someday make a nice soap for hubby...he has a collection of straight edges, and uses them, too. (he loves old stuff!) just found him a vintage looking "strop" online, and last Christmas found him a Burma Shave shaving mug.

heartsong said:

thank you for the update! looking forward to hearing more as you progress...may I pose a question? if you used shea butter or kokum, could you reduce the amount of steric acid used? according to soapcalc they are both higher in steric than tallow...i'm just a hobbyist, but would love to someday make a nice soap for hubby...he has a collection of straight edges, and uses them, too. (he loves old stuff!) just found him a vintage looking "strop" online, and last Christmas found him a Burma Shave shaving mug.

Click to expand...

I don't know how low the stearic numbers can go and still get this performance. I also don't know what other properties shea butter or kokum would bring to the batch. I'm a complete noob- this was my first soap ever. what I gather from reading is that you need to keep the oleic acid numbers down. kokum is high in oleic, as is shea butter, so you may have problems with the lather not lasting.

keep oleic numbers low...thanks, i'm beginning to take notes since the shaving threads are a bit hard to keep track of! it's like going into a theater and the movie started 1/2 hour ago...i'm playing catch-up!

keep the stearic numbers up, oleic numbers down.... it's kind of funny how little actual chemistry knowledge is needed to make world class shave soap these days. it's kind of like the script kiddies discovering in the late 80s and early 90s that they could do all kinds of mischief online without needing to be able to write or understand a single line of code.