Thread: Home-made soap update

Be SURE ou look at MSDS for the product you think might work. That's what you tells you what "it" is adulterated with.

Originally Posted by jgjgjg

Be SURE ou look at MSDS for the product you think might work. That's what you tells you what "it" is adulterated with.

Good Point. I don't trust a lot of advertisements that says 100% Lye (or whatever ingredient they say). I work in a lab and sometimes just the process in making and purity of a product can dictate what it can be used for. When I was in college, we done a chem lab that made aspirin, but they cautioned us not to take it if we had a headache because since the process contained some pretty dangerous stuff and the purity would definitely be in question (being students and all), the result could be deadly.

I have purchased caustics from amazon and brambleberry.com

Originally Posted by jgjgjg

By the way, I also have a disc of untried Mitchell's wool fat soap laying about. I was reading ingredients and noted that it has no "wool fat" in it.

Sorry, but you are wrong on that. Double check the ingredients and/or look up wool fat.

Both before and after being loaded in soap bowl.



Loaded on brush. Takes a LOT of wrist action to get here.



Side "A" lathered up



Side "A" [B]after[B] side "B" has been shaved. You can see how it's gone 'flat'.

Hey JG
This is just my opinion so don't take offense.

The "lather" in post #15 on "side A before shaving side B" appears very foamy with very little "lather" characteristics. The bubbles are what caught my attention.

Have you tried getting a more dense lather before shaving?

IMO, based on the pics, I would have worked the suds a bit longer to get a more dense and uniform lather.

Rolo: thanks for the perspective! I concur. I doesn't lather much beyond what you see. It will foam more. I am trying to map the concepts of "foamy" and "lather" to soap making terminology. They seem conflated. But , yes. Next batch needs more cushion.

Originally Posted by jgjgjg

Rolo: thanks for the perspective! I concur. I doesn't lather much beyond what you see. It will foam more. I am trying to map the concepts of "foamy" and "lather" to soap making terminology. They seem conflated. But , yes. Next batch needs more cushion.

Guys, I found something on this. From the perspective of soap makers, "foam" and "lather" are the same thing. More accurately they are ranges on the spectrum of "how large are the entrained air bubbles". Caster oil, glycerin, lard are all cited as supporting smaller (latheryer) bubbles.

Instead of the molecular number in the soap recipes , would it not be better to say what it actually is , like H2SO4 is sulphuric acid .
Just realize what you will be slapping on your face.
love the site.

Couldn't help chiming in. I've tried my hand at shaving soap as well and ended up about where jgjgjg did. I've played around with soap calculators like these to control hardness and lather but I haven't had success. Then I came across this site where the purveyor explains the process he went through. With only 6 ingredients (a reduced set of variables) I think I can get a little closer than before.

I bought a tin of his soap and it's actually really good. It lathers up really well and provides a nice cushion. So now I'm inspired to buy some stearic acid (I already have all the other ingredients) and try to dial in the recipe.