DIY Homemade Shaving Soap

[khun_diddy]

Gent's V4β

Steve came over and I made a soap whilst he honed up a bunch of razors.

The only differences from last night's effort were that the jojoba was reduced to 1.2 g (from 1.5 g) and the scent was upped to 4 g (from 2.4 g). Essential oils were cedarwood (32 drops), vetiver (20 drops), ylang ylang (12 drops), bergamot (12 drops), juniper berry (4 drops). This is a 65/35 base/top note ratio. I reckon it may be a tad too potent but I won't know until it cools and I use it.

 

[bald as]

@khun_diddy lathered his previous version and it is truly sensational. I'm very much looking forward to the version he made today. The current version has a nice masculine woody scent. I will test it later tonight. @Robbie d may have [may] his new symetrical Kamisori and I honed a folding Kamisori to loan to @carlmaloschneider at our group tomorrow. All this plus coffee.

 

[alfredus]

YUM!!!

 

[borked]

Hey Adelaide, this is Sydney calling, we would love to try some of these soaps we hear about
Hopes I'm not coming on too strongly in hinting a collective interest.

 

[khun_diddy]

Hey Adelaide, this is Sydney calling, we would love to try some of these soaps we hear about
Hopes I'm not coming on too strongly in hinting a collective interest.

It's definitely coming. I'm not comfortable sending it until I know it's perfect though. Soon.

 

[borked]

Bah, why exclude us from the fun of being a part of contributing towards it's evolution ?
We want to hold an emotional investment in it's performance too

 

[alfredus]

Lather looks great...

Scent not very prominent though...was that the a or the b version? Might have been the hot day yesterday as well?

 

[bald as]

"Tongue firmly in Cheek" - It is good to see olive oil is no good at all for shaving soap

 

[filobiblic]

"Tongue firmly in Cheek" - It is good to see olive oil is no good at all for shaving soap

Humble pie is always tasty to eat! [emoji12]

But it's only a third of the oils and needed to be balanced. I wonder if replacing it with tallow or another oil would result in as good or better a soap?

Great work @khun_diddy [emoji106]

 

[khun_diddy]

Lather looks great...

Scent not very prominent though...was that the a or the b version? Might have been the hot day yesterday as well?

That's the beta (strong scented) version. On the face it is too potent for me. It's very interesting, and good to know, that you and Carl think the scent is on the weaker side.

 

[bald as]

The knockers who simply repeat via cut and paste - not paste and cut - repeat the perpetuated internet rubbish that olive oil kills the lather. I made the original formula so have no problems accepting it is a truly sensational soap. @khun_diddy has taken our initial discussion and run with it. We chatted on the phone one evening when I was making soap - he at that stage had not entered the rabbit hole and we tossed about the idea of an olive oil shaving soap. I made a version that night based on our rough recipe and it was great at version one. He is very interested in scent profiles. I could care less. Sorry I do like Tea Tree. As far as I'm concerned the work @khun_diddy is putting in with the small nuance changes is/are wonderful.

But it's only a third of the oils and needed to be balanced.

A third is actually a significant amount because you only have 100% to play with considering Stearic Acid is often around 50% of the total.

I wonder if replacing it with tallow or another oil would result in as good or better a soap?

There is a ready made project for you I've done the experiment but I won't comment so I don't collapse the lather so to speak. Just a clue, I now have more olive oil on hand than Tallow.

 

[alfredus]

If I may chime in on that: I personally think, that the right soap for you is highly depended on your skin type (and I believe my skin type to be on one extreme side - which side I am not sure yet)

Best example for me: MdC - lot's of love out there, but for me horrible

Same goes with the Olive Oil soap: while for @khun_diddy it seems to be the perfect recipe, I personally prefer the Tallow recipe from @bald as

All I wanted to demonstrate with this post, was how great the lather is (definitely the cushion on the very very high end of the scale). Weather the soap is the perfect fit for you personally, only trial and error can determine that.

In any case, I think what @khun_diddy and @bald as have produced, is a fantastic soap and I am very very lucky to be able to try it out...

 

[filobiblic]

The knockers who simply repeat via cut and paste - not paste and cut - repeat the perpetuated internet rubbish that olive oil kills the lather. I made the original formula so have no problems accepting it is a truly sensational soap.

It's ok @bald as - no need to ramp up the "debate". I know where you are coming from but it's easy for words to create fire when none is intended. I know you mean elsewhere but it's easy to misread it.

I was one who jumped in with "olive oil kills lather". I had personal experience of soaps with olive oil and heard from others too. I hadn't made soap with olive oil any personally though.

I think that the soaps I tried came down to the inexperience of the soap maker rather than the ingredient itself. So it's nice to have it "vindicated" and hence why I acknowledged I had to eat humble pie.

I say this to take the "heat" from the discussion. (If it is there! It's hard to read posts sometimes...) If you look back to posts here, @alfredus also didn't think much of olive oil soaps. And I think he too has come to appreciate the ingredient now in a soap - first hand too! [emoji6]

 

[bald as]

@alfredus I agree . Seriously soaps aint soaps

 

[bald as]

@filobiblic sadly text doesn't convey any thing really emotion or delivery wise so if it was not taken in the way I intended unreserved apology

It's ok @bald as - no need to ramp up the "debate". I know where you are coming from but it's easy for words to create fire when none is intended. I know you mean elsewhere but it's easy to misread it.

Not you actually - the cut and pasters from the world wide interweb. I really didn't know you had doubts about olive oil, well maybe or maybe not but seriously not aimed at you.

Steve

 

[filobiblic]

@filobiblic sadly text doesn't convey any thing really emotion or delivery wise so if it was not taken in the way I intended unreserved apology

Not you actually - the cut and pasters from the world wide interweb. I really didn't know you had doubts about olive oil, well maybe or maybe not but seriously not aimed at you.

Steve

Not a problem mate. I apologise if I took it the wrong way. [emoji106]

 

[alfredus]

If you remember @filobiblic , one of my worst "shaving" soap experiences was this one:
http://www.aussoaps.com.au/products.html

I bought this, to support a local soap maker and got something, that produced ZERO lather. When I said this to the seller, I basically just got back: "I never said, the soap would produce lather - it just works"...

Anyway, from then on I never believed in OO soaps and @roger efforts didn't do anything to convince me otherwise...

But I absolutely stand to be corrected and can only again congratulate @bald as and @khun_diddy - this OO soap definitely produces some lovely lather

 

[filobiblic]

If you remember @filobiblic , one of my worst "shaving" soap experiences was this one:
http://www.aussoaps.com.au/products.html

I bought this, to support a local soap maker and got something, that produced ZERO lather. When I said this to the seller, I basically just got back: "I never said, the soap would produce lather - it just works"...

Anyway, from then on I never believed in OO soaps and @roger efforts didn't do anything to convince me otherwise...

But I absolutely stand to be corrected and can only again congratulate @bald as and @khun_diddy - this OO soap definitely produces some lovely lather

That's exactly right!
The way to think about it is that we've now gained a "new" range of shave soaps. [emoji6]

 

[khun_diddy]

Gent's V5

I saw that Cold River Soap Works is to release an olive oil shaving soap called Oliva. It will contain olive oil, stearic acid, castor oil, glycerine, jojoba and will be pure KOH so I'm obviously very interested to see how he goes with it. He also says it will be >50% olive oil. This intrigues me as it only leaves fifty percentage points to spend on stearic and castor and we're starting to get dangerously close to Roger territory. I imagine the bare minimum castor oil one could get away with would be 5%. Anyway, I had to have a play.

It took forever to pass the zap test - 1 hr 55 mins. It better be far superior to previous formulations to justify a 250% increased cook time.

Scent: 30 drops of cedarwood EO, 15 drops of vetiver EO, 15 drops of juniper berry EO, 10 drops of bergamot EO, 5 drops of ylang ylang (first) EO.

Next year when it's set I'll give it a test lather.

 

[borked]

Question, you see some artisans mention their soaps are very thirsty, is this due to them excluding/reducing water as an ingredient in order to add more lather building ingredients per total weight?