Bentonite Clay for Shave Soap?

[KiwiMoose]

I've been reading about using Bentonite clay in shave soap - there appears to be two camps:
1) Must use it to provide slip
2) Don't use it because it clogs up the razor.
Anybody have any experience using it for shave soap and if so what are your thoughts on the subject?

 

[Obsidian]

It doesn't clog up the razor, it dulls the blade. Not something you want to happen if using pricey blades or a straight razor.

It does give slip, nice slip but a properly formulated shave soap has enough slip that clay isn't necessary

 

[IrishLass]

I've never used bentonite clay in my shave soap, but I used to use kaolin clay, which provided nice slip and an effective bit of protective cushion to my soap which prevented my hubby from ever getting cuts with my soap.

There are definitely 2 camps amongst wet shaver in regards to using clay/not using clay, lol A few years back some of our resident, self-described 'crazy wet shaving dudes' on our forum who are on the 'no clay' side put me to the challenge of trying to make my long-standing, hubby-approved formula without clay. It was a disaster.....for the first time ever in all the years of using my shave soap, my hubby got nicked (he'd been shaving with it for at least 6 years by that time). He told me it was the "crappiest" shave he ever got with my soap- no protective cushion and no glide.

Undaunted, I tried again, and managed to successfully reformulate my shave soap without the use of clay. The trick was beefing up the total sum of my stearic/palmitic fatty acid content from about 21% to 50% by reducing some of my tallow % to make room for 28% straight stearic acid. That's all it took. I didn't have to change anything else in my formula but that one thing in order to go clay-less and my hubby have a great shave with excellent glide and protection. The higher stearic/palmitic % is able to do everything that the clay did.

Moral of the story- at least where formulas like mine are concerned anyway (formulas rich in butters and tallow and very little where coconut and other oils are concerned) ...clay is a great ingredient to use if the total stearic/palmitic is on the lower end of the 20's, percentage-wise, but is not needed if the total sum of stearic/palmitic is at least 50%. That should make any straight-razor users in your family happy (if you have them). For what it's worth, my hubby has never used a straight razor. He uses a cartridge-type razor and he never noticed the blades dulling any more/less than usual when he was using my shave soap with clay as compared to when he was using a commercial shave soap without clay (edited to add: or my own shave soap without clay).



IrishLass

 

[KristaY]

When I first started making shave soap I made 2 recipes; one with bentonite and one without. I gave one of each to all my wet shaver test dummies (um...kind family and friends) and didn't tell them what the difference was. It was a unanimous for the one without clay so just went with that. FWIW, my recipe is 40% straight stearic and 20% PO so maybe that's why the clay version wasn't as well liked. Thanks for the above info IrishLass!

 

[KiwiMoose]

I've never used bentonite clay in my shave soap, but I used to use kaolin clay, which provided nice slip and an effective bit of protective cushion to my soap which prevented my hubby from ever getting cuts with my soap.

There are definitely 2 camps amongst wet shaver in regards to using clay/not using clay, lol A few years back some of our resident, self-described 'crazy wet shaving dudes' on our forum who are on the 'no clay' side put me to the challenge of trying to make my long-standing, hubby-approved formula without clay. It was a disaster.....for the first time ever in all the years of using my shave soap, my hubby got nicked (he'd been shaving with it for at least 6 years by that time). He told me it was the "crappiest" shave he ever got with my soap- no protective cushion and no glide.

Undaunted, I tried again, and managed to successfully reformulate my shave soap without the use of clay. The trick was beefing up the total sum of my stearic/palmitic fatty acid content from about 21% to 50% by reducing some of my tallow % to make room for 28% straight stearic acid. That's all it took. I didn't have to change anything else in my formula but that one thing in order to go clay-less and my hubby have a great shave with excellent glide and protection. The higher stearic/palmitic % is able to do everything that the clay did.

Moral of the story- at least where formulas like mine are concerned anyway (formulas rich in butters and tallow and very little where coconut and other oils are concerned) ...clay is a great ingredient to use if the total stearic/palmitic is on the lower end of the 20's, percentage-wise, but is not needed if the total sum of stearic/palmitic is at least 50%. That should make any straight-razor users in your family happy (if you have them). For what it's worth, my hubby has never used a straight razor. He uses a cartridge-type razor and he never noticed the blades dulling any more/less than usual when he was using my shave soap with clay as compared to when he was using a commercial shave soap without clay (edited to add: or my own shave soap without clay).
IrishLass

Thank you so much Irish - very informative. I won't have any problems getting the higher amount of stearic/palmitic with the recipe I am planning to use.

 

[user 28270]

I'm in the clay is beneficial camp. If you look at the most talked about shaving soaps on other forums, they all have clay. Bentonite is an amazing lubricant that holds a ton of water - which is a great thing to have in a shaving soap. As for dulling blades? Not buying into that line of thought. The whiskers are far more damaging to the blades than the clay could ever be. I'm a straight razor guy and haven't noticed any adverse effects.

 

[FlyingFrog]

Count me in the clay is useless camp.
Most soaps that I have tried that have clay don't lather well. The ones that do perform no differently than the soaps that have clay.
A good shave soap is a good shave soap regardless of clay. The best soaps don't need it.

Source - Wetshaving for 10 years and I own 30 plus shave soaps