Seeking feedback on shaving soap recipe

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JackofallShaves

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Joined
Jan 18, 2020
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Location
San Jose, CA
All,

I am trying my hands at making men's shaving soap and would really appreciate if the experienced soapers can help me tweak it to my liking. Here is my current recipe:

Stearic Acid 50%
Coconut Oil 30%
Shea Butter 10%
Castor Oil 10%

I use a 80/20 KOH/NaOH ratio for my lye. This is a HP soap and here are the ingredients that go in the pot post cooking:

Super fat with cocoa butter at 5%
1 tsp of Sodium Lactate PPO
Glycerin = 10% of total oil weight
Essential Oils for fragrance

I really like the soap and have been using it personally for the last couple of months. The post shave feel is amazing, on some days I almost don't need any aftershave or lotion.

Having said that, I have the following issues with this soap:

1) The soap is extremely thirsty. I am an experienced wet shaver and am able to produce a great lather with my soap when I am bowl lathering, but it takes some work and a lot of water. Face lathering is even more difficult, the soap produces a great lather, but again takes a lot of work and water.

What can I do to this recipe to make the soap lather more easily? I have tried 90/10 KOH/NaOH ratio and that has not helped.

2) My second issue is that I would like the soap to be a little more "slick". I have been doing a lot of reading on bentonite clay and understand that this is often sparks a healthy debate in the soap making/wet shaving community.

Should I experiment with adding a little bit of bentonite clay for added slickness?

Any inputs or feedback would be greatly appreciated!
 

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