shaving soap

[silvercb67]

I want to make a fluffy shaving soap with kaolin clay & almond oil. Anyone know of a recipe?

 

[Lindy]

The best way to learn what goes into a recipe is to read the ingredient lists of your favourite puck of shaving soap.... people don't tend to share these recipes as they take a lot to develop a good recipe. It's not just a bar of soap that you added clay to.

Enjoy the journey.

 

[Seawolfe]

I think for my first shaving soap recipe, I will do something similar to this: http://www.soap-making-resource.com/shaving-soap-recipe.html
But probably sub out something for the palm oil, not sure. I dont know if kaolin clay and bentonite are interchangeable?

 

[silvercb67]

I guess I wasn't meaning actual soap but rather a shaving cream type. Looking on etsy and noticed a few pretty ones with just 3 ingredients of kaolin clay, almond oil & fragrance.?.?.? :eh:

 

[DeeAnna]

"... I wasn't meaning actual soap but rather a shaving cream type..."

I'm not sure what you mean. Are you wanting to say that you don't want to make ~bar~ shaving soap, you want to make ~cream~ shaving soap? If so, look at soap made with potassium hydroxide (KOH) rather than sodium hydroxide (NaOH). It's still soap regardless of the lye used.

What Lindy said applies to shaving cream as well as shaving bars. Pretty shaving soap is not necessarily good shaving soap. Search for Songwind's very long shaving soap thread on SMF. It has a LOT more information on shaving soap in general and KOH soap in particular. There's another by Jaime about her "shaving soap mash up" that is a good read. And look for posts and threads by Fat Faced Charlie and Mark the Box Guy.

I will also add that the "shaving soap" recipe on Soap Making Resource is an example of a nice bath soap with added clay. It does not remotely have enough stearic acid to make a truly fine shave soap, meaning a soap that gives a close shave without irritation whether it's used by girls or guys. I mean no disrespect to the recipe designer -- I'm betting he/she hasn't really studied the subject much and just doesn't know.

 

[Obsidian]

Can you post the link to the ebay listing? It might help if we know exactly what is is you are wanting.

 

[silvercb67]

"... I wasn't meaning actual soap but rather a shaving cream type..."

I'm not sure what you mean. Are you wanting to say that you don't want to make ~bar~ shaving soap, you want to make ~cream~ shaving soap? If so, look at soap made with potassium hydroxide (KOH) rather than sodium hydroxide (NaOH). It's still soap regardless of the lye used.

What Lindy said applies to shaving cream as well as shaving bars. Pretty shaving soap is not necessarily good shaving soap. Search for Songwind's very long shaving soap thread on SMF. It has a LOT more information on shaving soap in general and KOH soap in particular. There's another by Jaime about her "shaving soap mash up" that is a good read. And look for posts and threads by Fat Faced Charlie and Mark the Box Guy.

I will also add that the "shaving soap" recipe on Soap Making Resource is an example of a nice bath soap with added clay. It does not remotely have enough stearic acid to make a truly fine shave soap, meaning a soap that gives a close shave without irritation whether it's used by girls or guys. I mean no disrespect to the recipe designer -- I'm betting he/she hasn't really studied the subject much and just doesn't know.

Great info. Thank you!

 

[new12soap]

But probably sub out something for the palm oil, not sure. I dont know if kaolin clay and bentonite are interchangeable?

Tallow works very well in shaving soap and is a good sub for palm IMO, just run it thru a lye calc.

Kaolin and bentonite both give slip; bentonite can be more "drawing" and is usually better suited to oily skin types, kaolin is more gentle and better for normal to dry skin.

 

[Lindy]

Actually cream soap requires both NaOH & KOH... When made properly it can make a nice shaving soap. You'll need to do your own tweeking to come up with a great shaving soap that long time wet shavers like.

 

[grayceworks]

I made a batch --with my own tweaks-- based on songwind's version of the badger and blade guy's recipe based on the martin de candre soft shave soaps, which is one of the links DeeAnna referred to... read that whole very very long thread, lots of variations, and what's been tried, what works, what doesn't, etc.

Hubby loves the batch I made and bragged on it, so I ended up making more for friends, relatives, etc. I'd say that base recipe is a pretty good starting point, and I believe songwind eventually added NaOH in addition to the original KOH, but even with just KOH, with the amount of stearic acid, it still firms up into a moldable mostly solid putty-like creamy soap, which gets super creamy the instant a wet brush gets near it. Awesome stuff.

Try it! Play around with variations! It's one of the easy-to-make recipes and a lot of fun.

 

[Lindy]

How fantastic for you!

 

[grayceworks]

It's always nice when hubby brags on ya! lol

I am seeing a lot of people say that tallow is very nice in it, sooo I'm thing about trying another version now with that and see what he thinks.

But like I said to the OP, that recipe is so easy and fun to make and play around with, I'm going to go take my own advice lol