My first shaving soap is a success!

[LBussy]

Hmm. Then why wouldn't it be labeled as such?

Well, I have not purchased my stearin from a chemical supply house but a reseller of bulk chems. When I asked for "stearic acid" it may just be that he assumed what I wanted (and what everyone wanted) was this.

Of course I bought this for pyro use too ...

 

[DeeAnna]

I think you have to look at the CAS number and/or the chemical formula to know for sure. Common names are quite often misleading.

Assuming you actually have tristearin -- the triglyceride fat -- there really should not be a strong odor unless the product is rancid.

I currently have commercial stearic acid from two sources. I checked both -- one is a small bead and the other is a larger flake. Both are white and have almost no odor.

 

[verotxu]

Hello!

Thanks for answering!

This is indeed messy . The label of the bottle that I bought says estearine in capital letters, however, just below the name of stearic acid appears and its corresponding chemical formula (C18H36O2). The composition is C16 (I believe it is palmitic) 58.35% and C18 (I believe it is stearic) 40.76%. What about yours?

I really hope you have done your shaving soap with the same chemical I have so I do not need to do any extra purchase :lolno:.

Cheers

Vero

 

[claudep]

Vero, i do not have a purity rating for my stearic acid, but i assumed it was 99-100% stearic acid. When doing calculation soapcalc use a 99% stearic acid purity for lye calculation.

Palmitic acid has a lower molecular weight meaning you will have more molecule for the same weight. This will throw off your superfat%.

You are also lucky that there is more molecule as the inverse could have mean that you could have unreacted lye in you soap. If you use your product include the percentage of the weight to both palmitic acid and stearic acid.

 

[claudep]

For exemple,

If you use 100g of your mix, you would enter in the soapcalc 58.35g of palmitic acid and 40.7g of stearic acid.

The recipe on this thread is for coconut oil and stearic acid. This cannot be achieved with your product.

Coconut has around 9% palmitic acid, making the final concentration at around 4%. Very different then the 58.35% of this ingredient.

 

[verotxu]

Hi!!

You are absolutely right!!, I will buy the correct product and most likely I will try to do the recipe using the stearic acid and the stearine.

Thanks!

 

[Consuela]

Well now, this is a hell of a read.

And I'm glad I did because I was just going add some bentonite to my regular soap recipe, and call it a shaving soap for my cousin who asked me to make him some. Well that might have been a waste of time because he's looking for something that has good staying power, and good lather.

Just a question though - Stearic acid.... co-emulsifier and thickener....

Could a person use a different emulsifier if that's what they had on hand - or is it necessary to use to stearic acid specifically? I can get that in town here easy, not a problem. But I have a lb of Emulsumulse (sp???) and I wonder if I could use that?

I might just try it and see how that works..... I'm only making a small batch anyway - so we'll see what happens...

(And then I shall update...)

Again....wow what a great thread - Thanks to everyone who contributed to this endeavour.!!

 

[LBussy]

MSDS says Emulsumulse is a combination of Glyceryl Stearate (stearin I believe?), Cetearyl Alcohol, and Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate. Since we use this as a source of fatty acids and not an emulsifier, I'd probably choose to go with SA.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

I'm with Lee on that - we want the resulting potassium stearate rather than stearic acid per se

 

[DeeAnna]

"...Stearic acid.... co-emulsifier and thickener..."

Um, we're not making an emulsified lotion, we're making SOAP. The stearic acid reacts with lye to make the soap. You cannot treat it as if it's anything else but a soap making ingredient.

I use stearic acid as a thickener in lotions ... but that's an entirely different ballgame and it doesn't apply to this context.

As far as getting weird about finding reagent quality 99% stearic acid ... don't overthink this, folks. The commercial "stearic acid" is just fine. Yes, I know the commercial product is about 50% palmitic and 50% stearic acid. It's fine. It's what Songwind and other's recipes are based on. Just use it.

 

[Trout464]

Fantastic!... but help?

Hi, I am very new to the game... I have made a couple test batches of this recipe and I keep getting what I believe to be stearic spots... I am using a crock set on hi and the ratios are as posted. The first batch was butt ugly with many spots... I cooked it for approx 90 min... The second batch I added more glycerin 3tbsp and cooked for 120 min.... much better but still not completely gone... Am I on the right track to fixing this issue? any help would be much appreciated. They are intended to be christmas gifts and I would really like to make them look as awesome as they perform.

 

[claudep]

Trout, have you melted the stearic acid in a double boiler?

You don't add the solid stearic acid to the mix. The melting temperature of stearic acid is higher than most oil. I also highly encourage to use Deanna two step process. Mix coconut oil and potassium lye, emulsify. After coconut oil as saponified, add stearic acid.

I hope this helps to solve your problem.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

I would say that could be overly complicated for someone new to soaping - unless trout is only new to shaving soap but an established soaper in general, of course.

It sounds like you are cutting it in to bars. Have you tried putting it directly in to containers for the gifts instead? This way it isn't cut and the spots don't show up much, if at all.

 

[LBussy]

No crazy steps needed: Melt all oils, keep at about 150F. Pour in the lye after it's about 110 or less, mix. Cook, stirring occasionally for 2 hours. Done.

What does it look like? Post a pic and we may be able to help.

 

[shunt2011]

I agree, it's a relatively easy process. I do combine everything but the stearic which I melt separately and then add the lye to those oils and lastly add the stearic. It makes the process much easier. I pour it into wide flat jars and leave enough head space to work up a lather. My customers love it. I also made pucks that they can refill their container with.

 

[LBussy]

Not arguing ... just curious how melting stearic separately is easier than just lumping it all in together? I've measured and if my oils are at ~155 and my lye is at ~110 the mixture hits 170 after combining them. This is a great temp for me because the stearic is liquid of course and does not allow it to harden again when a cooler liquid is added. Dropping the lye down to 90 makes the subsequent mix ~150 which is still good - I get more consistent results when making sure the stearic is melted.

A comment on the jars though. You make it sound like those may be glass jars and I hope I'm wrong on that. Things get slippery and broken glass flying around with bare feet (and whatever else may be bare when a man shaves) is a bad thing ...

 

[DeeAnna]

"...how melting stearic separately is easier than just lumping it all in together?..."

I wrote up a detailed description early on in this thread, for those who want details. In summary, the advantage of adding lye to just the fats and later adding the melted stearic is that you get a more controlled saponification up to the point the stearic is added. That means you can bring the fats to trace in a nicely controlled way and make sure they and any other ingredients are thoroughly mixed before dealing with the rapid saponification of the stearic. <shrug> It's not all that complicated, really. But YMMV.

 

[LBussy]

So you are making it trace before it seizes basically?

I guess "complicated" is a poor term ... "One more dirty pot"?

 

[lenarenee]

I'm so grateful for this thread. My dd and I made this as gifts for her uncle and grandfather. There was no problem with the stearic acid though, in fact this was the easiest recipe I've ever done....made me wonder if I did it wrong because so many of you handled the stearic acid differently? Melted stearic and coconut together in crock pot, stick blended less than a minute and the batter was already translucent, but didn't trust that it was saponified enough to zap test, so let it cook 15 minutes, added glycerin and scent, and molded.

It's driving me buggy not being able to test it though....we don't have a shaving brush in the house!

 

[DeeAnna]

"One more dirty pot"?

Well, I suppose for some it might be, but not for me. I always melt high-melt-temp ingredients like beeswax and stearic separately regardless of what I'm doing otherwise. I want to ensure it is completely liquid before use. Just me -- YMMV.