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  1. #11
    Senior Member Bobbo's Avatar
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    Hmmm, I just finished a batch of shaving soap to a very simple recipe based on olive oil. I added some shea butter and glycerine as emmolients and soothers. Everything seems to go just too well which has left me a little perplexed.

    I mixed all the fats and added the lye and got the soap to trace, I added the sandalwood fragrance and the soap didn't seaze like it did in the pine and patchouli shave soap (it fact it went less vsicous so maybe the pine is to blame not the sandalwood) and then i brought it back to trace again. Poured the soap into the moulds (trying new molds) without any spillage and I even remebered to put the clay in. The washing up was easy too.

    It all went a bit too well for my liking. Of course there is still time yet for it to seperate, not set or get stuck in the molds.

    I'll see what it is like in a few weeks time.

  2. #12
    Loudmouth FiReSTaRT's Avatar
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    I'll keep my fingers crossed Rob

  3. #13
    < Banned User > suzuki's Avatar
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    This is very interesting - I've been following along.

    I have no interest in making soap - but here's my $0.02 anyhow.

    While there are lots of good soaps out there, it seems (especially if you look at the soap reviews at B&B) that many of the most-used soaps are made by independants.

    I also find it interesting to note that several soapers who get a lot of play over at B&B don't seem to get much on this site - also, I think that people on this site don't generally talk about shaving products as much as is the case at B&B (possibly because we have lots of straight specific things to talk about - honing, stropping - not to mention our highly charged political discussions ).

    Some great (and reasonably priced) soaps can be had from the following places:

    QED - Charles makes some fantastic all-natural glycerine soaps and will only scent with EO - including sandalwood. His soaps have amazing scents - the sandalwood in particular is amazing and is the benchmark I use for rating other sandalwood products. However, his soaps are so heavily scented that people have had skin reactions.

    Sue St. Charles - she makes some very nice soap - I think she has shea butter and possibly some clays in the mix. I have her trade-mark scented New Spice soap - it works well, but I'm not a huge fan of the scent - its also supposed to be sensitive to water quality (hard vs. soft).

    Honeybee Sue - Only sells through her e-bay store - glycerine soaps with shea butter and clays. Very few people have had adverse reactions to her soaps - even though some are scented with EOs - her soaps supposedly have a very mild scent (I've got a few en route). Also, some sensitivity to water quality.

    Mama Bear - Glycerine soaps with shea butter and clays - offers both EO and FO scented soaps - several people have complained about reactions to the FO scented soaps. Her soaps are supposed to have stronger scents. Supposed to work well regardless of water quality.

    If you're serious about this endeavour, you should read some of the posts at B&B, as there's a lot of information and feedback about these products. I believe that Mama Bear actually re-formulated her soaps based on the feedback she received from B&B mebers.

    From my own limited experience, it seems that soaps with shea butter and/or clays seem to be the most popular.

    Also, I think there is a real market for EO fragranced soaps and that people will pay more for a good sandalwood EO - QED charges 50% more for its soaps that have sandalwood EO in them - a generous tub still only costs US$15. Despite the higher cost, the blends with sandalwood EO are consistently the most popular scents.

    Another scent you may want to consider trying is lavender - the EO is cheap and its nice on the skin.

    If you have questions, you might consider asking any of these soapers to see if they'll help you up the learning curve.

    Well I guess this counts as more than $0.02 - hope its useful.

    Good luck!

  4. #14
    Senior Member Bobbo's Avatar
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    Suzuki,

    Many thanks for the EXCELLENT feedback!

    Colleen has mentioned the two Sues on B&B and shave my face and i intend to have a better browse around there soon as I want to sell Colleens soap to the UK crowd on that site.

    I agree that Essential oils are the way to go, but while I am learning the sandalwood fragrance oil will suffice as the real stuff is ludicrously expensive and is environmentally unsound. I'm gald the other soapers can get away with charging a premium for bona fide sandalwood product.

    Lavender, now theres an idea. I guess people have been using lavender soaps since the dawn of time. I even think Lavender is named after washing as Lavo (or lava) is Latin or arabic word for wash, or something like that. I know there is some tenuous link but can't remeber the specifics.

    The old dear next door has a lavender bush that is so big it spills over the wall into my garden. I may infuse some olive oil with this in the summer and use it to make my soap. But until then I'll get some EO in.

    Cheers

    Rob

  5. #15
    < Banned User > suzuki's Avatar
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    I agree about the sandalwood - I know its extremely expensive and environmentally unsound.

    I've also heard people say that a lot of the sandalwood EO that's coming to market isn't of the same quality as it used to be - and that some of the better FOs smell as/good as the real thing!

    Sandalwood is a very tricky scent and has many incarnations - the QED sandalwood soap that is my hallmark has a very dry, intense woody smell. This represents what I consider to be a "true" sandalwood (which it should be since it contains high quality EO). At the other end, there is the Vulfix, which some describe as having a baked cookie/cinnamon scent. Then there is everything in between!

    My sense is that most gents prefer the drier, less sweet smells, so you might want to make sure this is what you are getting with your soaps if your goal is to sell them commerically. Many don't care whether you use EO or FO, so long as the soap works and smells the way they want it to. Rose EO is another example of an EO that is extremely expensive and I'm not aware of any rose EO shaving products currently on the market (I'm not a huge fan of rose, but lots of guys can't get enough of it!).

    I think it makes more sense to perfect your base recipe before experimenting too much with scents - just seems to be putting the cart before the horse - or the smell before the soap!

    Keep us posted of your efforts.

  6. #16
    Senior Member Bobbo's Avatar
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    Well the soap came out the mold perfectly. They are uniform in consistancy, look great and smell great. They are slightly more sticky to the touch at the moment than the other soaps. I guess this is due to the glycerine holding onto the water and preventing it drying as fast. Glycerine is hygroscopic and is used as a humectant so I expected this. The soap left on the side of the pan hardened up OK so i am not expecting any problems. It will just take a while to harden and form a nice hard long lasting round.

    I have high hopes for this soap. Hopefully it will foam nicely and be nice and mild.

    I found a really good supplier of essential oils. I am really pleased about this and they are pretty cheap too. They have 100% positive record on their ebay shop and an aromatherapist friend of mine uses them and rates them highly. My Lavender essential oil arrived today and smells lovely.

  7. #17
    < Banned User > suzuki's Avatar
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    I'd be willing to be a guinea pig - if its all-natural (except for the FO), it really can't do too much damage.

    I've never used a soap with lots of olive oil on my face, but have used it with good results to shave the back of my neck in the shower.

  8. #18
    Vlad the Impaler LX_Emergency's Avatar
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    If it's an EO I'd love to test it for ya...if it's an FO I think i'll steer clear since my skin can't really handle that stuff.

  9. #19
    Senior Member Bobbo's Avatar
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    Thanks for the response guys,

    I have a few shaving soaps made now, some are better than others. One is pretty good and has the right lather consistancy I am after but the lather doesn't hold up for long enough. It kind of collapses so I am going to sort this problem out before sending anything out to test. All my soaps seem to suffer this problem. I think Colleen uses sorbitol to correct this problem but I am going to try some sugar as other soap makers use this to cure the problem. Sorbitol is just a hydrogenated sugar anyway so I'm going to stick with the natural stuff and see if that works. Once I have a few soaps ready for trying I will send three or four out in one go to you all.

    Sorry for the delay,

    Rob

  10. #20
    Senior Member Bobbo's Avatar
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    Oh yeah, and I am experimenting with cocoa butter too. This is supposed to create a good stable lather and moisturize too.

    I am also thinking of replacing the clay with Aloe Vera as this causes slip too and is good at soothing the skin. All in good time though.

    So many things to try......but when I have it right it will be the ultimate soap!

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