Thread: Standing on the shoulders of giants......

I figure I will play around with a few more formulations and tweaks on them.... say another month or two. I have been re-reading all of the info I have and searching out more. Once I have a few different formulations down pretty well I will start looking at EOs and scenting. I figure slow and steady will work well. Just need to keep LOTS of notes.

@OCD: Tried the MdC clone today. I have never tried MdC so have no comparison. Didn't like it. It worked fairly well to shave with, but the lather seemed too ... fluffy. Also dried my skin out after the shave. Had to apply some lotion to hydrate it. That being said, I have reviewed the threads I got the recipe from and it seems I may have miscalculated somewhere. I will record the results and move on to the next batch. I may try to rebatch this one and try to make a shower soap out of it. No need for it to go to waste.

I have also looked at some of the info out there on cream soaps. That may be an experiment for another day

TwistedOak: As you can see from the prior post, I have the basics down, but I am in no way proficient...yet.

I may get brave in the future and see how people like the recipes, but I don't see that happening for a bit.

Very few people are proficient at anything their first time around. I wish you luck here. For every formerly good soap producer that re formulates and destroys their product, we need two new choices to replace them. I've recently become a sucker for Barrister and Mann soaps. If Trumper wants to make garbage, I'll opt for Will's soaps as an excellent alternative. You could be next if you get it right.

now you go from a Soap acquisition disorder to a SMD-Soap manufacturing disorder
1 puck has lasted me over 9 months and probable got about half left
you look like you have enough for 10 years already & you want to make more LOL

It's as much learning a new skill set and how a process works as providing myself and friends with a product. I have always asked myself why is done a certain way. I have only had the ... fortitude/nativity to start trying to answer these questions the last few years. Heck, that's part of what started me wet shaving in the first place.

they all look to have lathered very well also by the way
can't wait to here the final results of your testing

Well, its's been awhile since I posted any update on this. I did get a chance to retry my McD clone and a variation of it I figured out from an old book. I also thought I would share what sources I have used as references. Maybe someone can find something I overlooked. First off, here are the references I used. There are a few more books from Google books, but I can't find my links

REFERENCES:

SRP Forums
HomeGrown
Soapmaking lather question?

Shave My Face forum
“Roll your own” thread

Badger and Blade
“Homemade shaving soap discussion club”
“Reverse Engineering MdC”

Google Books:
Soap-making Manual: A Practical Handbook on the Raw Materials, Their ... By Edgar George Thomssen
Manual of Toilet Soapmaking: Including Medicated Soaps, Stain-removing Soaps ... edited by Carl Deite
Soap Gazette and Perfumer, Volumes 19-20