Experimental shaving soap recipe

[Hertzyscowicz]

I'm going to try my hand at making shaving cream. I'm going to make a small batch at first, so I'm not stuck with a years' worth of stuff-not-fit-for-shaving. Here's the recipe I'm planning on trying (please excuse the metric system):

50g Olive oil
50g Castor oil
50g Coconut butter
50g Rapeseed oil
10g glycerine

Lye:
28g NaOH
1 dl water

~1 tsp bentonite clay
~15 drops lavender EO

The lye discount is around 4%

So, does anyone here notice something horribly wrong with this recipe?

Changelog:
Aug. 21st: added ~1 tsp bentonite clay
Aug. 27th: Can't get KOH from anywhere, changed to pure NaOH, scrapped the idea of cream soap. Replaced Sunflower with Rapeseed oil. Reduced lye discount to 4%.

 

[carebear]

I've never made a cream soap! But in CP bars, kaolin clay is often used to provide "slip" and so I wonder if it would be appropriate in a cream soap...

 

[Hertzyscowicz]

Thanks. I left it out because I didn't know where to get any (other than a twenty pound sack of cement), but I luckily managed to find an actual soapmaking supplier, so I'm adding that.

 

[Hertzyscowicz]

Well, there's been a major snag. The soap making supplier isn't stocking KOH, and all the pharmacies are out of stock, too. I guess I'm going to have to make a hard bar.

 

[Muzhik]

Well, there's been a major snag. The soap making supplier isn't stocking KOH, and all the pharmacies are out of stock, too. I guess I'm going to have to make a hard bar.

Don't give up yet. Go to http://www.essentialdepot.com/ and you'll be able to get KOH easily. (That's where I got mine when I first started soapmaking.)

 

[Hertzyscowicz]

Heh, I just noticed I hadn't filled in the "Location" box in my profile. I don't quite want KOH enough to pay for overseas shipping :wink:

 

[Muzhik]

Heh, I just noticed I hadn't filled in the "Location" box in my profile. I don't quite want KOH enough to pay for overseas shipping :wink:

Bitch and moan, bitch and moan...

 

[Hertzyscowicz]

Okay, I got the shipment of lye and made the soap. The final recipe was

50g Olive oil
50g Castor oil
50g Coconut butter
50g Rapeseed oil
40g glycerine

Lye:
28g NaOH
1 dl water

1 tsp bentonite clay
10 drops lavender EO
5 drops vanilla EO
1 tsp Titanium dioxide (White pigment)

I read around some more, and noticed some talk about using up to 20% glycerine of the mass of oil.

I added the glycerol and bentonite to the water, although I did have some difficulties getting the bentonite to dissolve. I got a surprisingly quick trace, probably because I had poured the oils to the lye mixture hot.