Thread: Turning Bath Soap Into Shaving Soap?

Hello gentlemen,

I am interested in learning how to make my own shaving soaps. I have done some research the past couple days to become familiar with the ingredients used, and in reading have found that making your own soap isn't an easy thing to do.

What I would like to try is to take a bath soap, melt it down and add ingredients that would make it into a decent quality shaving soap. Has anyone done this before? Is it possible?

Can you simply add some mixture of bentonite clay, castor oil, or some other compound to a soap and turn it into a good shaving soap? I realize this may take a lot of experimenting to get right.

I searched several resources for information on this, but didn't find anything satisfactory. If there is already a thread for this, please let me know.

Here are some of the soaps I currently have on hand (ignore the other stuff):

Grandpa's Oatmeal Soap
Yardley Oatmeal & Almond
Yardley English Lavender
Sappo Hill Aloe Oatmeal

Thank you in advance!
~Connor Lawrence

Several years ago, I would use Ivory soap for shaving. I grated it into a mug and when I would go to lather it wit my brush, I would add a few drops of glycerine. Not the best shaving soap there is, but it got me through a rough couple of years when my skin was incredibly sensetive. Of course then I didn't have the resources to find some of the great hypo-allergenic soaps made especially for shaving like I do now.

I've tried this and it works really well
How to Make a Shaving Cream for Men Wiki: 9 steps

I added 1/2 tsp Bentonite clay to my 2nd batch and it was even better.

This won't replace Tabac or other high end soap, but is better than modern Williams

Theseus, when I first made the switch to a safety razor, my friend gave me some Grandpa's Pine Tar Soap that I put in a mug and used for a long time. I don't remember how the lather was, but I loved the smell and it seemed to work okay. That same friend wants to make soaps with me, and has some raw pine tar he's collected that we might try to use.

robd, Thank you for the link, that's very helpful! What kind of store would have bentonite clay, castor oil, and the other ingredients? Or do you buy it online? Also, do you use the two soaps in the wiki or have you tried it with other ones?

When I get home tonight I'll post the ingredients to the soaps I have, in case that is useful.

Castor oil at Walgreen's and the clay at a health food store, possibly Whole Foods.
Clearly Natural 4 oz. Glycerine Bar Soap | Clearly Natural Soaps
Clearly Natural soap melts really well in a microwave (don't try this with tallow based or most other soaps), give it 5 sec bursts in the mug or dish until it's liquid (15-20 secs) I added 1/4 tsp clay (mixed in a few drops of water) to this as well

Okay, so glycerine based soaps are okay to melt in the microwave, and tallow based are not. Why does heating tallow based soaps ruin them? What if I used a double boiler method, would that work any better?

Originally Posted by conroygc

Okay, so glycerine based soaps are okay to melt in the microwave, and tallow based are not. Why does heating tallow based soaps ruin them? What if I used a double boiler method, would that work any better?

Tallow soaps need to heat up slowly I think, a double boiler would be fine. In that first recipe with the Dove soap, I just grated everything into stainless pan and let it melt very slowly and kept stirring it. It sets back up just like they said and is the consistency of tub Margarine.

I tried Tallow soap in a microwave before I knew better, it doesn't melt consistently and wants to burn, very nasty!!

Originally Posted by rodb

Tallow soaps need to heat up slowly I think, a double boiler would be fine. In that first recipe with the Dove soap, I just grated everything into stainless pan and let it melt very slowly and kept stirring it. It sets back up just like they said and is the consistency of tub Margarine.

I tried Tallow soap in a microwave before I knew better, it doesn't melt consistently and wants to burn, very nasty!!

Thank you so much for your advice! I feel like I now know enough to start messing around.

Originally Posted by conroygc

Thank you so much for your advice! I feel like I now know enough to start messing around.

Good luck!! Both of the soaps work well (Clearly Natural or the Dove recipe), I use the Dove recipe probably 60% of the time.

Glycerin based soaps will melt to water like consistency with heat microwave or not. Tallow based soaps in the microwave just turn into a mess.