Thread: How to make your own shaving soap?

Has anybody else tried the above recipe, or similar recipe? I have never bought the high end stuff like Castle Forbes, and would like to know if I am really missing something.

I have had my hands so full with an upcoming adoption and all the attendant tasks - baby-proofing, child-proofing, etc. etc. etc. that I've re-printed this thread three times and promised I would eventually get to it, but so far no luck with even gathering the supplies.

At this point I can say it's 50/50 that I'll have tried it by Christmas.

hah! i managed to find a pound of pure lye, and i have a bunch of oils and things on hand, i think i will try this when i get home today!

The hardest ingredient to obtain is the lye. Apparently not many places carry it anymore since it's used to produce meth. I have had luck finding it in the plumbing section at a few hardware stores.

Lowe's - Roebic http://images.lowes.com/product/033051/033051320872.jpg
ACE Hardware - Rooto Enhanced View

I haven't had a lot of luck making hard shaving soap yet. They all work fine but the lather is poor, which is probably due to my reluctance to use coconut oil. I've shifted gears though and I made some shaving cream that works great. Requires a few more ingredients (KOH, stearic acid) and a bit more work and patience though.

I think the soap recipe above isn't as good as AOS creams. BUT... if you do use it, use less water than you would expect. The lather takes more work than the over the counter stuff, but it still works pretty good. Just not as good as the fancy stuff.

The potassium hydroxide is impossible to buy over the shelf here in Hillbilly-land. When I get some, I will give with the results and recipe if it turns out good.

I just bought some Castle Forbes, and I my wife and I will try to reverse engineer a compromise between AOS and CF.

GREAT POST. I currently make my own soap and I'm researching my first blade still. Thinking about soap and brushes I started searching here.

I'm glad to see that "shaving soap" is just soap. Depending on what I'm using the bar for, I frequently use a fair amount of olive oil since it's cheap. A really basic soap is 25% coconut, 25% palm and 50% olive oil.

As a not about lye. Nearly ANY hardware store will have it CHEAP in their plumbing section.

The lotion I make has grapeseed, jojoba and avocado in it, due to the effects they have on the skin.

Were i to make a bar of soap I'd probably use the recipe at the bottom, and superfat to 7%.

I use palm and not palm kernel, because palm kernel and coconut are really similar. Coconut makes a bubbly lather and palm (not palm kernel) makes a creamy lather.

Avocado, jojoba, cocoa butter emu and shea butter all have great properties for the skin.

Granted, this would be considered a luxury bar, and wouldn't be cheap. I don't believe I have any emu or shea at home at the momment, but skipping them wouldn't hurt the bar at all.

Some people argue that palm and coconut dry out your skin, but they make a great lather even in hard water situations. The only way to get a lather like them is to use lard, and I don't feel like rendering lard to make my soap.

I don't use scents in my soaps, my wife is sensitive to some scents and I don't want to take the chance. It also makes the bar a bit cheaper and more natural.

I used to use the sage.com, but now use soapcalc.com as it tells me a bit about the bar of soap I'm going to be creating.

Originally Posted by joke1176

My wife makes lye soap. I use it all the time for shaving. IMHO it works a lot better than that melt and pour stuff. The lather is a lot denser, slicker and more protective without drying.

As far as being freaked out by lard: when you mix it with the lye it saponifies it so it's not just a blob of fat anymore. You can use any oil really.

My wife uses Jojoba and shea butter and avocado and a few other things I can't recall.

I think the clay doesn't really make much difference though, having used soaps with/without for several months. As long as the lather is good, it's good for shaving!!

If you guys really want a recipe that works well, I can post the base ingredients, and the total quantity of essential oils for fragrance/feel per pound of soap.

Just reply here or PM me or whatever you want to get my attention.

It is hard to get a good lather that doesn't break down with cold process soap (lye soap) Your wife is a Goddess! She should be selling her soap here!!

I hate to say this, but when it is all said and done, most of us soapmakers spend our formative years looking for that perfect recipe. I have given out many suggestions over the past 3 years.. but would never share my secrets. It took me too long to formulate them. There are a LOT of good websites out there with a LOT of really good information. It is trial and error. After all these years I still make a soap that some folks love and some folks hate. So when it all boils down, make something that YOU like... if others like it too.. then that is an added benefit. Trying to make soap from the beginning for profit is a expensive undertaking and your house will start to resemble a mad scientists lab.. or in my case.. a La Bearatory... lol God, who came up with that, it is the BEST! hehehehehe

But... as much as you learn... the final recipe will depend on you. No-one is going to give you a recipe that they spent years coming up with...

so... as I say to all my friends.. practise, practise practise....

Sue, who ducks and runs......

Originally Posted by joke1176

My wife makes lye soap. I use it all the time for shaving. IMHO it works a lot better than that melt and pour stuff. The lather is a lot denser, slicker and more protective without drying.

As far as being freaked out by lard: when you mix it with the lye it saponifies it so it's not just a blob of fat anymore. You can use any oil really.

My wife uses Jojoba and shea butter and avocado and a few other things I can't recall.

I think the clay doesn't really make much difference though, having used soaps with/without for several months. As long as the lather is good, it's good for shaving!!

If you guys really want a recipe that works well, I can post the base ingredients, and the total quantity of essential oils for fragrance/feel per pound of soap.

Just reply here or PM me or whatever you want to get my attention.

I really would like the recipe so i can make my own stuff.

If you want to make shaving soap there are a few ingredients that you'll need. certain oils, special clay and of course Lye. Be advised Lye is VERY CAUSTIC and will burn holes in your skin if handled improperly. My wife and I have been making our own soap for the last 10 years. We also sell soap, however we are very happy to share the knowledge with anyone who is responsible.

If you want more info look at this recipe it is specific to shaving soap How to Make Your Own Shaving Soap However for your first batch I highly recomend a 1 pound batch. A 3 pound batch is quit a bit to start with and might be over whelming
If you are serious about making your own shaving or even general washing soap please contact me @ [email protected] there are certain things you must do besides just throwing the ingredients together such as Never EVER!!!!! add water to lye always add lye to water if you do it wrong it could boil over instantly and cause very serious burns. This is not something that is just done. It takes time and experimenting to get it rite for shaving soap, for general cleaning soap it is a little easier.
Companies such as Proctor and Gamble make soap the exact same way as home makers do. With one little exception, when you make your own soap a chemical reaction happens called Saponification this is the oils or fats mixing with the lye that actually make soap. A normal by product of this chemical reaction is glycerin. A good quality cleaning (shower soap) soap will have the glycerin still in the bar it's very good for the skin it is a natural moisturizer, but still is not a good shaving soap. A good shaving soap will have clay in the ingredients, the clay will help with the slip of a razor for a nice smooth comfortable shave. Companies such as P&G and just about every other company that makes soap take the Glycerin out and use it for other products such as hair cair and personal lubricants to name a few. My wife and I would rather you get the experience and know how of soap making from us or someone that knows what they are doing, than some web site that only gives you tid bits of Info. Any good soap maker should feel the same way. Again working with Lye is no joke it is very dangerous a good soap maker will stress this over and over again.

P.S.
A big oops on my part
IF you make your own soap make sure you let it cure for at least 4 weeks before you use it, this gives the lye time to settle so you won't get burned. I have used soaps in as little as two weeks but I took a chance my skin is pretty tough.

There are also soap calculators out there in the web SoapCalc being the most popular you just type in the amount and what type of oils you are using or talo and the calculator will give you the exact amount of lye you'll need. It looks complicated to use but I assure you you don't need a chemical Eng. degree to use it.

Like I said if you or anyone else on SRT want more help just contact me ,
In the near future I plan on making a video for everyone here at SRT that wants to know how to make their own shaving soap, and Crazy using clay in the recipe makes an enormous difference. Maybe your wife could try using distilled water in the recipe. The harder the water the harder the soap and might make the clay useless, Just a thought, anyhow something caused the clay to not be an active ingredient for it's purpose.

Yes any more than 3 table spoons per pound will change the chemistry of the soap..actually I think 3 is a bit much per pound me personlly I wouldn't go over 2 per pound. My wife tried 4 per pound and it made the soap virtually useless. Clay in it's self can be very drying as it is designed to pull oils and dirt from your pours so to much isn't good.