Thread: What are the Properties of a Good Shave Soap / Cream / Lather?

I have a small inventory of soaps (mostly samples) at the moment, and have some observations and some questions. currently I have C.O. Bigelows cream, some Al's soaps, Mystic Water soft soaps, and some generic glycerin, and some Ogallala that should arrive later today. I've observed a few different traits that all these soaps seem to have in different proportions, aside from the scent.

They all have a level of slickness. After I create a good lather, and rub the lather between my fingers each soap had a different slickness to it. The least slick was the glycerin soap. The slickness between my fingers with that soap was not much better than just plain water. The best slickness was by far Mystic Water soaps. Even after rinsing the lather off my fingers, the slickness remained. I had to be fairly aggressive to rinse that slickness off of my fingers. I used the Mystic Water soap for this morning's shave, and that slickness seemed to result in a smoother shave. There seemed to be less drag from the razor using this soap. Even the sound of the razor cutting through my facial hair seemed different with this soap. Not sure if that has anything to do with the quality of the soap though. In the middle for slickness was the C.O. Bigelows cream and Al's shaving soap. They both had about the same slickness. Noticeably better than the glycerin soap, but not nearly as good as Mystic Water. I also tried one other soap puck that was picked up on ebay. I don't recall the name, but it had just about the same slickness as the glycerin soap.

Each soap responded differently to a heated scuttle. I love the feel of a warm lather on my face in the morning. Unfortunately, the soap that had the best slickness suffered the most from a heated scuttle. Generating a lather from Mystic Water soaps in a heated scuttle was an exercise in futility. I didn't measure the temperature so I can't give you an exact number. But my tap water is just hot enough to sting my hands after a second or two. The water in the scuttle was a bit hotter than that. I tried for some time to get a lather in my scuttle with the Mystic Water soaps. I had to dump the hot water out and start over again before I had any success. None of the other soaps had much trouble generating a lather in the heated scuttle. They all produced a lather fairly well. Possibly the C.O. Bigelow performing slightly better than the others in a heated scuttle.

Each soap reached a max density. I realized recently that I had not been building my shaving lather as well as I could have, and learned what I think is a fairly good beginner tip in determining if your lather is approaching ready. If there is no sheen to the surface of your lather, then keep building. When the lather approaches the point where it is ready, it should be fairly smooth and a bit shiny. You shouldn't visually spot many bubbles because they are just too small. Those almost microscopic bubbles translate to a slight shine and smoothness to the lather. If your lather is dull looking, you likely need to keep building your lather, or have too much water, or not enough soap, or something else. Maybe a scuttle that's too hot. Anyhow, once each soap lather was ready, I noticed that some were more dense than others. All of the soaps I tried were fairly close in density, with the Mystic Water being easily at the top. The others soaps approached that same density, but took a lot longer to get there. I'm not sure what that density translates to in a shave, but the denser lather definitely feels better, and is easier to apply.

So after all that, here is my question. What generally makes for a good shaving lather and what ingredients in a soap create those qualities in the lather?

That is a very good question. I'm at work so can't provide a really detailed explanation, but here is a short one. I have played at making shaving soap a few times and this is what I have personally found.
A good shaving soap is lubricant above all else. It is slick and provides cushion for the blade and whiskers. When you lather your face you hair follicles are lifted and suspended off of your skin by the lather.

Shaving soaps can into Glycerin Soaps, Tallow Soaps, or Vegan Soaps. I don't have any experience with glycerin soaps, but there are a few I have heard great things about. The tallow and vegan soaps all have one thing in common, Stearic Acid. This is a naturally occurring acid in beef tallow (or pig lard) and also found in high % in palm oil. Tallow (tallow soap) and palm oil (vegan soap) are usually the prime ingredient. Percentages of different acids are added to contribute certain factors. Other acids that add different factors to soap are Lauric, linoleic, linolenic, Oleic, Palmitic and Ricinoleic acids. Some are only used in very small quantities while some can make up %50 of a recipe.

There is a ton more to this subject, but that’s all I can spout off of the top of my head.

I use a glycerin based soap. I think a good soap, is one that has a rich and soothing lather. The soap's purpose is basically to lubricate the blade and suspend the hairs of your face so that they can be cut.

Vegetable Glycerin & Shea Butter soap with essential oils (both for lubrication and scent)
Shea Butter for the soothing action

Some things I look for: slickness, especially for straight razor shaving; cushion, skin protection from the blade; staying power, does the lather last the pass; ease of lathering, I don't really enjoy working like a dog to create a lather; post shave properties, does it hydrate the skin; and, scent. There are probably other things, but I'm just heading out the door, and not thinking too much about it.