Dry lather

[tsanakalos]

Hallo, i made my first shaving soap (cold process) with stearic acid 33%, coconut oil 22%, palm oil 15%, castor oil 10%, almond oil 10%, cocoa and shea butter 5% each.
It's loads very good lather, but after a while become dry. With additives cow milk, yogurt, glycerin.
What's the problem?
Thank you.

 

[DeeAnna]

You probably need to put a few drops of water on your brush and re-lather. If you live in a dry climate or if you are a slow shaver, water will evaporate and thus the lather will dry out.

Sometimes the obvious thing -- simply adding more water -- is a reasonable solution.

 

[tsanakalos]

i made lather with enough water. something is the problem with oils i suppose.

 

[lsg]

I use the Songwinds recipe.

https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/my-first-shaving-soap-is-a-success.34264/

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

i made lather with enough water. something is the problem with oils i suppose.

Enough water for what? Two shaving soaps can have very different water requirements when forming a lather. Some need a lot, others much less. Some need it added early, others a little at a time as you build it up.

Personally, I think that your recipe isn't fantastic, but I doubt that it is the reason for your problem here.

And as a wee tip, DeeAnna is a very experienced soaper including with various shaving soaps - dismissing her advice out of hand is rarely a good idea.......

 

[Johnez]

To start off I'm still a newbie so I don't have a lot of wisdom here.

As a wetshaver for ten years though I've found soaps have quite a wide spectrum of how much water is required, some soaps are very "thirsty." I've recently made my own MdC clone and while it's different than OP's I found "ruining" my lather by adding more water than I'm used to really makes a better shave.

Another note you've not got any glycerin and 1/3 of your recipe being a fatty acid (stearic acid) without glycerin molecule attached might be shorting your recipe out of the natural glycerine it would otherwise have had going through the saponification process. Glycerin is a water lover.

Also this right here:

Enough water for what? Two shaving soaps can have very different water requirements when forming a lather. Some need a lot, others much less. Some need it added early, others a little at a time as you build it up.

Personally, I think that your recipe isn't fantastic, but I doubt that it is the reason for your problem here.

And as a wee tip, DeeAnna is a very experienced soaper including with various shaving soaps - dismissing her advice out of hand is rarely a good idea.......