Teach Soap

Hi Guys

Does anybody know of a very good recipe for Mens Shaving Soap.

I have used three different ones so far and none of them have produced a nice lather. I have added bentonite clay to my recipes but the soap feels rather thin on the face

Any suggestions welcome

Many thanks and have a great weekend.

It took me almost a year to come up with a good shaving soap that my wet shavers love. Shaving soap is very different from regular handmade soap. I don't always use clay, as that can dull a razor.
You should experiment til you make a recipe that will work for you.

_________________
Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

There's a great thread on the soapmakingforum.com that goes on for about 16 pages on shaving soap. The classic wet shaving bar has lots of stearic heavy oils (like tallow) or uses stearic and/or palm.The best bars seem to be soft or semi-soft, and use either only potassium hydroxide, or a mix of potassium and sodium hydroxides. It's a really great read if you're trying to make a good shaving soap, and the participants were very generous with their experience and experiments.

The basic recipe (with many variations) was about 50/50 stearic acid/coconut oil hot processed with potassium hydroxide (not sodium) which is them smooshed into bowls for use. You can play with the proportions, split the hydroxides, add clay, add glycerine, add butters, use some sodium to make a harder bar that can be cut, and so on.

If all that is more work than you want, I hear Bramble Berry sells a very nice melt and pour shaving base, to which you could add clay, or colloidal oatmeal, or whatever.

Hope that helps!

_________________
***************
Lesli Sagan
Avital's Apiaries
Like us: http://www.facebook.com/AvitalsApiaries

Many thanks for your replies. Like you say it's trial and error.

I notice that Shaving recipes contain Steric Acid. Here in the UK we can buy it in powder form. If I were to add let's say 20% Steric Acid to a typical traditional CP soap recipe what effect does it have on the product.

I use beer to make my shaving bars. I also use castor oil for added lather. They sell pretty well!