Shaveing Soap
From mark555 14 years ago
- 4 minutes to make
- Serves 20
This is probably a bit of an unusual recipe. Then again…maybe not that strange, I have been using shaving soap for about 30 years. The main reason It is better soap then the stuff in a can. We also don't have to mess with all those empty shaving cream cans. Read more Plus it is very inexpensive. If you buy it in the store it will run you a whopping .99 for something like Williams shaving mug soap. Williams has only been around for about 160 years so they must be doing something right. Williams Shaving mug soap will last about 3-4 months. Now you can buy the stuff that Wal-Mart sells for about $3 and lasts about 3 weeks, but it is crap so why bother. Or if you feel adventuresome make your own! The problem is that it takes 6 weeks to cure. However it is a very nice end product and you only have to make it once a year or so. Now most people shave and those that don't you probably wish that they did. Now just think of it you have a nice warm, slippery, soft brush sliding over your skin mmmmm…err… give me a minute here…Ok now where was I? This is a recipe from on line, but is so similar to the one I have used that I don't think it makes much difference, that and I don't have to write it out by hand! If you have never used a shaving soap before then you are in for a treat. You will probably never go back to a can. Or modify your own recipe, just take your basic soap recipe and add about 2 tsp. of Bentonite or other clay for every pound of soap in the batch. I prefer Bentonite clay, though you can use Kaolin, Rhassoul or Fuller's Earth The recipe below makes about 3 lbs. of soap, so I'm using 2 tbs. of clay. Up your percentage of castor oil to about 8%. That's it. Add a fragrance or essential oil appropriate for the person shaving - but be sure that it is one suitable for sensitive skin - remember, you're shaving through this soap. All of this can be found at a good health food store or in the super market. See less
Ingredients
- 40% olive oil - stable lather and good skin conditioning shopping list
- 30% coconut oil - rich, bubbly lather shopping list
- 22% Palm oil - stable, creamy, hard bar (can substitute lard or tallow) shopping list
- 8% Castor oil - for lather and creaminess shopping list
- For my 3 lb. batch of soap, this works out to be: shopping list
- 13 oz. olive oil shopping list
- 10 oz. coconut oil shopping list
- 7 oz. Palm oil shopping list
- 2.5 oz. Castor oil shopping list
- 4.7 oz. Lye (about a 5% discount) shopping list
- 9.4 oz. water shopping list
- 2 Tbs. of Bentonite Clay shopping list
- 1 to 1.4 oz. of fragrance or essential oil shopping list
How to make it
- Pour your distilled water into the heat-proof container, then add the Lye and stir carefully with rubber spatula to mix and dissolve. This stuff will get hot, so watch out! It will also produce fumes for a few minutes, so it is best to mix it up and get away from it quickly until the fumes disperse. Then make sure to set the lye-water mixture aside in a safe place to cool off.
- Once your lye has cooled to the point where the container is just warm to the touch, pour Olive Oil into your large mixing pot and heat on the stove. We want to heat the Olive Oil to approx. 100 degrees F, if you have a thermometer you can measure this exactly. Otherwise, just heat it up until the outside of the pot feels very warm to the touch, then remove the pot from the heat source. You can add the clay pretty much any time you want in the recipe. Some people add it to their lye water. Others just mix it into the oils as they are melting. You can also take a half cup or so of your melted oils, put them in a measuring cup, a mix your clay into the oils.
- Pour the lye-water mixture into the warm oil, very slowly and carefully to avoid spills, stirring the oil all the while with your spatula. The mixture will incorporate and become smoother, continue stirring for a couple of minutes to make sure everything is well-mixed. Then start using your stick blender or beater, for short intervals, hand-stirring in between. You will soon notice the mixture getting thicker and more opaque, that means trace is occurring. Keep stirring until you get a rather thick pudding-like consistency.
- I like to pour the soap directly into Toddler Sippy cups (they don’t break when you drop them, Another option is to pour it into lengths of 3" PVC pipe that has one end plugged up. This will give you a disc of soap that can be placed into a mug or tin. Let the soap cure as normal and when it's done, enjoy a wonderfully old-fashioned but terrific shaving soap! Stack your soap on brown paper-lined shelves in a well-ventilated area, this soap should be aged and cured for approx. 4 weeks before use.
The Rating
Reviewed by 4 people-
Mark, you're killing me! Good God, where do you find the pictures you post with your recipes? I about died when I saw the hair-fest going on here! My hubby is a hairy guy (TMI) but not THAT hairy! Yikes! Anyway...I came across this recipe in the...more
fizzle3nat
in Waterville loved it
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What can I say? Hair today, gone tomorrow?
Great recipe.
And this has nothing to do with it but it popped into my head:
Erma Bombeck quote:"Someone once threw me a small, brown, hairy kiwi fruit, and I threw a wastebasket over it until...more
victoriaregina
in USA loved it
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I like your flavors comment.
victoriaregina
in USA loved it
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