Thread: Soapmaking lather question?

My ship came in. I've been able to procure tallow and stearic and will be making a batch soon enough. Still never found stearic acid and lye at the same place-for combined shipping. oh well. Gotta put up the rest of the deer first.

I've made the soap per the recipe with split salts and tallow. I'm looking for that thread now.

[oh wait, this must be it.]

The soap is amazing. I have a few years supply now.

I have tried this using the cold process. Currently waiting to see how it turns out. How much water (water percentage) did you use? Thanks for everything.

Originally Posted by maelo

I have tried this using the cold process. Currently waiting to see how it turns out. How much water (water percentage) did you use? Thanks for everything.

Not sure about what other people have done, but you can find a detailed list of ingredients and amounts for the two batches of shave soap I have done in this file:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B-JH...it?usp=sharing

Good luck,
-Holly

Count me on the soap maker gang! I did not notice this thread although I have posted messages in the past trying to look for other gentlemen involved in shaving soap process.
I made a lot of experiments in soap making and now I am waiting for my latest soap to be ready, about the end of July. I am trying to make a "perfect soap" with natural ingredients. Many experiments went very well, other not so good, I am still experimenting. And having a lot of fun, of course!

Excellent! Please consider sharing a recipe or two with us if you end up with something you like.

For those interested, as HollyGates pointed out here in post #28, a shaving soap discussion of the exact same nature as this one, using both potassium hydroxide and sodium hydroxide within a 60/40 split range with stearic acid, has been going on at the badger and blade forum since a year before this thread started. (Although I have no affiliation with the main contributing members or the b&b board, I believe online, open-source credit should go to them out of respect, at least until an older source is found). Judging by the information in that thread, the KOA/NaOH mixture with stearic acid for shaving soaps doesn't appear to be anything new or secretive by any means--for manufacturers or for homebrewers. There is tons of information in that thread with posts by multiple members who have experimented with different batches, so anyone interested in more references and tried and trued recipes before attempting a batch of his/her own will benefit from reading through those many pages. To repeat the link: http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthr...e-shaving-soap

I've dabbled in cold process hand soaps and am going to attempt a shaving soap per members charles_r and Fortitudo Dei's recipe and process discussed over at badger & blade. To deal with the expedited tracing that often occurs when introducing the stearic acid, I'm going to try a hot process as opposed to cold process. My chemicals are on their way from an online supplier, and I'm stopping by a local butcher shop to pick up 10 pounds of beef fat that I will render into tallow. For my first try, I'm going to keep it simple with a 1 pound batch using beef tallow, castor oil, coconut oil, and stearic acid as my oil phase. Depending on how it turns out, I may consider adding some conditioning oils and clay, but I need a good baseline first. I'll post back with my experience and results once I start. I look forward to the experience and the results.

Originally Posted by HollyGates

Not sure about what other people have done, but you can find a detailed list of ingredients and amounts for the two batches of shave soap I have done in this file

Holly, How did you like the hot process experience--not the end result but the actual process? Any tips for things to look out for during the brewing that might catch a cold-processor off guard?

I brewed up a successful batch of shaving soap using hot process. I decided to reproduce Charlie-R's recipe (adding clove essential oil) as a baseline before tweaking it. The recipe:

*5% Super Fat
*Water = 38% of oils
Beef Tallow: 33%
Stearic Acid: 33%
Coconut Oil: 20%
Castor Oil: 14%
Water
Potassium Hydroxide: 65%
Sodium Hydroxide: 35%
Clove Essential Oil: 2 tsp

The Process:
I enjoyed the hot process and found it very useful, especially with the stearic acid. If using cold process, the stearic acid immediately traces when adding the lye solution, so one must take extra mixing steps to help with this. With hot process, however, one simply melts all the oils together, mixes the lye and water, and then mixes both oil and lye solutions. No need to worry about matching temperatures or that the stearic acid traces immediately because the entire batch will cook for approx. 1 hour completing the saponification process. The other nice quality of hot process is that you add essential oils and other delicate ingredients after saponification has completed, so these substances aren't harmed by lye and should be stronger smelling and have a longer shelf life.

I used a crock pot, but you can use the a pot on the cooking range if you continually watch and stir the batch to keep it from burning. The crock pot is easy because you don't need to stir much or continually watch the batch. It took me 90 minutes from start to finish, including weight ingredients and pouring the soap into the mold.

The Finished Product:
Because I used hot process, I was able to use the soap within the day once it cooled. Thus far, it is the best shaving soap I've used (I haven't tried all shaving soaps, so this is pretty subjective). The 65% NAOH/35% KOA mixture makes the soap softer, about the consistency of a ball of bees wax between the fingers. I can actually break off chunks from my bar molds and press them into my shaving mug. This is nice because I don't have to rebatch and pour into a mug. The softer soap makes it extremely easy to load the brush and make lather with relatively little soap. I do use more water than normal, but I get very rich, thick, creamy lather in a scuttle. Out of curiosity, I lathered up my face and left it. After 10 minutes, the lather was still intact and usable. When I get the chance, I'll see how long the lather lasts before becoming unusable. After reapplying, I shaved using an sr for a very comfortable shave. The soap has great glide and is very gentle on the skin.

Future Modifications to Recipe:
Because of the NAOH/KOA lye mixture imparting softness into the soap, I intend to lower the amount of castor oil and supplement with avocado oil and possibly jojoba for conditioning.

I like the glide as it is, so I doubt I will add clay. I might eventually pick up some bentonite and rebatch with it out of curiosity, but I don't think the soap needs it as it is.

As for fragrance, the coconut oil, tallow, and clove lends a nice warm scent to the soap that isn't overpowering, which I like. I've ordered nutmeg and cedarwood essential oils, so I'm going to rebatch a puck using clove, nutmeg, and cedarwood to see what that smells like.

All in all, it was a great experience and extremely easy to do, so long as one reads up on what the ingredients do and on the soapmaking process in general. Aside from the satisfaction of making my own shaving soap, it's nice to find out that after adding up the cost of all the ingredients it set me back $12 to produce a 1-pound batch of soap, and I have enough ingredients for about 6 more pounds.