Thread: I didn't make soap................so WHAT is it?

Ok well let me explain.

I started with pure glycerin base M&P stuff. I added coconut milk, goat's milk, vitamin E oil, Almond oil and vanilla. It set up ok, not hard but not soft. I guess it is due to all the stuff I added no biggie.
How well does it work was my next question. I still can't make a lather to shave my legs, so I call on my SO to help. Off we go to the bathroom to test my evil creation. Just in case it is bad we used my boar brush and not his badger, understandable there, and is big mug. Not a lot happened, all my hope was gone out the window.
No lather, No work!! He pulls the brush out and starts to rub it on his hand and it started to cream up. It looked like cool whip and felt creamer! Not a lot of bubbles to it, but boy it was slick! I needed to chop down the forest on my legs so I asked him to put some on and let me test it. WOW! It was silky smooth and slippery. I had to get more on my brush every so often, he said a lot more that what he would us on his face to keep it going and creamy for the whole shave. The smell was not really there at all. So I have to work on lather and smell but I like it. I didn't put on a lotion after or anything and hubby said it felt nice. I can post pics tomorrow if anyone is interested.
I have a few things up my sleeve so I will post what i come up with next

Well, it sounds like it might be something like the "crema da sapone" from the Italian makers...kind of a sticky, soapy "goo". If so, well done! It's great stuff.

I always get better results with hand/face lathering than bowl, so I can't speak to that, but if you want my...ahem..."expert" opinion I'd be happy to take time from my immensely busy PS3 schedule and test it for you!

**EDIT** also, Bubbles=bad, so no bubbles=GOOD! A thick, whipped cream texture is exactly what a good lather should be, as far as I'm concerned. Thick, creamy and slick sound perfect to me...

Originally Posted by JimR

Well, it sounds like it might be something like the "crema da sapone" from the Italian makers...kind of a sticky, soapy "goo". If so, well done! It's great stuff.

I always get better results with hand/face lathering than bowl, so I can't speak to that, but if you want my...ahem..."expert" opinion I'd be happy to take time from my immensely busy PS3 schedule and test it for you!

**EDIT** also, Bubbles=bad, so no bubbles=GOOD! A thick, whipped cream texture is exactly what a good lather should be, as far as I'm concerned. Thick, creamy and slick sound perfect to me...

JimR thank you very much for the words of encouragement!
I want to tweak it a bit, after that I will be glad to send you some. Please give me a few days to play and see what happens, and I will post here to give updates.

Congrats on success! The amount of moisturization and face-loving ingredients you have in that makes the concoction sound like it'd be a great after-the-shave experience! Did your legs feel softer after you used your creation? Also, how was the lather cleanup (did it rinse out easily?).

Well, a few facts:

You certainly didn't make soap, you started with soap; that's what M&P base is, a premade soap base, usually with a substancial amount of added glycerine. Plain old soap contains some glycerine, at least if it is made in the traditional manner from fats and lye. The glycerine is a by product of the saponification reaction. M&P base as well as the so called glycerine soaps are produced by melting hard soap in the presence of a high purity alcohol, adding glycerine and then letting the mix set.

When you melt the base, you are just remelting the soap/glycerine mix. Then you add materials. Some of what you added was water based, some oil based. If you added the vanilla as an extract you also added a little more alcohol. This probably set up fairly soft, and was probably cloudy (thats what water does to glycerine soap base).

Originally Posted by fccexpert

M&P base as well as the so called glycerine soaps are produced by melting hard soap in the presence of a high purity alcohol, adding glycerine and then letting the mix set.

Unfortunately not all of them.
What does it say on the ingredients list?

Originally Posted by claytor

Congrats on success! The amount of moisturization and face-loving ingredients you have in that makes the concoction sound like it'd be a great after-the-shave experience! Did your legs feel softer after you used your creation? Also, how was the lather cleanup (did it rinse out easily?).

My legs were really soft and smooth. I didn't have any irritation nor did I need a lotion/shave balm.
Clean up was easy, only taking one good rinse to clean out my brush.

Originally Posted by fccexpert

Well, a few facts:

You certainly didn't make soap, you started with soap; that's what M&P base is, a premade soap base, usually with a substancial amount of added glycerine. Plain old soap contains some glycerine, at least if it is made in the traditional manner from fats and lye. The glycerine is a by product of the saponification reaction. M&P base as well as the so called glycerine soaps are produced by melting hard soap in the presence of a high purity alcohol, adding glycerine and then letting the mix set.

When you melt the base, you are just remelting the soap/glycerine mix. Then you add materials. Some of what you added was water based, some oil based. If you added the vanilla as an extract you also added a little more alcohol. This probably set up fairly soft, and was probably cloudy (thats what water does to glycerine soap base).

Thanks for the info I will take this into account when I try again. I really want to do it using lye when $$ and time permits.

Originally Posted by 0livia

Unfortunately not all of them.
What does it say on the ingredients list?

I will have to look I am not sure.

I didn't get a chance today to make a new batch or get pics. I will get on that sometime this weekend.

Happy shaving

I made a new batch that I haven't tested yet. Gunna let it set over night to see if that helps any. It is softer than the last batch. I don't know if that is from the heat or just the stuff I put in it. I dropped the vanilla cuz I didn't like the color of the first try. This time it is a lot whiter, extra coconut milk. We will see I guess.

Ok this is pics of batch #1. I had to use a ton of it to get a lather going and as you can see it didn't do well in the bowl.



I started using my hand instead and look what happened.







The soap is an almond color. It is really slick and smooth to the touch and leaves skin soft. It smells like almond liqueur.