My first shaving soap is a success!

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SA, CO and lard (tallow is harder to find than a sober teen on Spring Break!) - 4 100g batches, 2 with 100% KOH, 2 with a mix of KOH and NaOH. I needed to make 4 as I am sending 2 of them over to the states as part of that PIF on B&B
 
Here is the 100% KOH recipe that I shaved with this morning, about 12 hours after it was made. That's right, guys and gals - 12 measly hours! Can't wait to see how it is when I come back from Georgia

This is freshly lathered
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This is just over 30 mins later
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Here is the 30 minute old lather on my hand. Not too bad
ImageUploadedBySoap Making1407574599.263940.jpg

The shave itself was amazing - better than with my TOBS puck or even Arko. I'm loving this a lot.

Will try the KOH and NaOH mix tomorrow
 
Adding clay

The very best way to add clay, if you are using it, is to sift it over your melted oils. Wait 15 minutes, then stick blend. Then add your lye solution. It works perfect for me every time this way.
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www.sadiesmissionsoaps.com


I tried this recipe this weekend as a 40% NaOH and 60% KOH and went through hours of research and calculations. Decided to use this to try out 4 masculine scents (Eucalyptus, tea tree & peppermint, bay rum & BB tobacco, and cedar) and roll them out refridgerator cookie style like DeAnna suggested.

But I screwed up with the clay. I've only ever used clay in cold process soap, and I make a slurry and add it at thin trace and stick blend it in a little more. I need to stop doing that. I need to add it to the lye water.

Anyways I added the clay slurry to the already traced and too sticky to stick blend mixture and was never able to blend it in completely, so I have little blob dots of clay in my shaving soap!! Bleh.

I am SO disappointed, because they would have been great without this messup!! The pucks are kinda soft, yet still firm enough to wrap up on their own. Even though its way early I tried a bit to shave my legs and they are very nice and slippery. Too early to tell about lather I think. But I think those clay bits are gonna be a deal breaker for face shaving. Maybe Ill give them to a friend of mine with a dive boat as wetsuit lubricants or something...

Next time clay in the lye water!! Good thing I only make 2 lb batches :)

Edit to add: Hubby did just lather test some with his brush and it does have a fluffy lather for such a young soap, so maybe its not a total loss.
 
I think you'll find that IFRA limits how strong we can make the scent and still be skin safe. In other words, 5% is the maximum usage on most FO's. Some of them are really strong like BB rose. But other than that one, I haven't found one that threw exceptionally well.
 
I have found more than a few soaps which I wish had more fragrance to them. When we whip up a lather we are taking a relatively small amount of soap and adding a ton of air. I think that takes some "oomph" to carry over.
 
Depending on the strength of the FO, I use anywhere from 1.88% ppo on the low side (about .3 oz. FO ppo), to 3.13% on the high side (about .5 oz. FO ppo) in my shaving soap. In my regular B&B bars I use a higher amount of FO- anywhere from 4% to 6%, depending.

I go lower on the shaving soap because hubby prefers it that way. I'm telling you, he must have a bionic nose or the nose of a bloodhound or something. His sense of smell is so strong that it rivals that of a pregnant woman. lol Too much scent so close to his nose tends to overwhelm him, so I keep it on the light side.


IrishLass :)
 
Since there's a lot of folks starting shaving soaps with this thread, I wanted to add where I ended up. It's been mentioned that this is a soft soap and does best in a container (at least when made with 100% KOH as mine are). It's also very easy to make in small batches of 100g of oils, using disposable food storage containers to float several in a crock-pot and do HP.

Using those small containers make nice containers from which to load a brush, but I began to need a little something more in my shave den. I found these containers which fit a 100g batch perfectly:

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I picked these up from Specialty Bottle, they are the Blue PET Heavywall 8oz Plastic Jar w/ White Dome Lid. $0.97 each in small quantities, perfect for my shave den. I grabbed the blue for this batch because this is a mentholated soap and it reminds me of the Vick's tubs.

I also picked up a few metal tins which should fit in a small flat-rate box (samples on the way) which will be nice for trading with other "crazy trouble-making wet-shaving dudes" soapers.
 
Lee, I would love to participate in a trade! I'm sure there are at least a half dozen of us, we could do a massive trade.
 
WOW! What an amazing and amusing thread. Thanks Songwind I am looking forward to making this for my picky wet shaving nephew, I have copy and pasted so many notes, I'll probably confuse myself. This will be my first hp soap and I can't think of a better recipe to try it on.
 

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