Update on Jan. 17, 2012 at 5:40 pm: From your feedback, it looks like the soap isn’t creamy and dense enough. That will be something I’m going to attempt to fix in the next few instalments. Please let me know your thoughts, criticisms and things that you want out of a shaving soap in the comments below!
I’ve done a few reviews on shaving soaps and unfortunately they tend to have one thing in common, the addition of fragrances which can be harmful to the skin.
A few readers have asked me to either put together a recipe for making their own soap, or selling my own! So I’ve been tinkering with a formulation for the past day.
Brainstorming…
I started off by looking at highly regarded soaps, what people thought of them, and what difficulties people had in using them. Watching a few videos on Youtube and jotting some notes, I put together a list of what I think will make a good shaving soap (These aren’t really listed in order of importance)
1. It needs to foam in to a dense and stable lather
2. It should lubricate the face, but not be too greasy and slippery.
3. It should rinse off without leaving a residue.
4. It shouldn’t be fragranced and contain as simple and natural ingredients as possible
5. It should be meltable, so people can pour it into their own soap tins.
6. The soap should be soft enough, dry, that a brush can “scrape” off enough without too much time and effort.
7. It should use quality, but cheap and widely available ingredients.
Choosing the Oils to Saponify…
I’m making a saponified oil soap (Click to read an article describing what they are and how they are made), it’s just about the only “natural” way to make a soap, that still works like how a soap should. There are saponins, which are found in plants such as yucca and soapnuts that act as surfactants, but they barely foam at all - unfortunately.
Looking at a few popular brands, the same oils keep popping up: Tallow, Coconut oil, Palm Kernel oil and Palm Oil.
There are other oils too that make good soaps, like olive oil and hemp seed oil. But they tend to turn rancid and spoil, due to their high unsaturated fatty acid content.
Tallow, coconut, palm kernel and palm oil are high in saturated fatty acid content, which makes them less prone to oxidation and rancidity. They also make soaps that foam a lot better than high unsaturated fatty acid oil soaps.
The problem is that high saturated fatty acid based soaps are more drying. Soap manufacturers get around this by leaving in unsaponified oil, which can leave a film on the skin after rinsing. This unsaponified oil can, however, cause clogged pores and acne in those prone to it.
So the challenge is to create something that foams a lot, without drying the skin out too much.
I ended up choosing coconut oil as the main base of the soap. It’s around 92% saturated fats, meaning it will produce a hard bar that lathers a lot, making it a foaming base for the soap. We can add moisturizers and other oils in to the final product to make it less drying.
Here’s the lather from a pure coconut oil soap. I did 20 circular swipes on the soap itself with a damp brush (I fully saturated the brush with 40 degree Celsius water, then hand squeezed the excess), then 80 swipes in a dish with 10 ml of water at 40 degrees Celsius already in it. For reference the brush is 6 cm long.
Modifying the Foam…
Pure coconut oil produces large bubbles, which tend to dissipate quickly, this might be OK for cleansing the hands or body, but for shaving…we need the foam to build up and last on the face.
Castor oil is a very unique oil, it has its own fatty acid unique to the castor seed – ricinoleic acid. Studies have even found that this fatty acid may have analgesic and anti-inflammatory properties.
The problem with castor oil based soaps though, is that they tend to be very gel-like and soft, and the foam is sticky and almost paste like…
I did the same 20 circular swipes with a damp brush, then 80 swipes in a bowl with 10 ml of water.
…but when added to another soap in smaller amounts, it transforms the soap in to a creamy, rich lather!
Here I took 19 swipes of the coconut oil soap and then 1 swipe of the castor oil. This is the lather from 80 swipes in a bowl with 10 ml of water.
So now I’ve got a good foam structure, but the soap itself is a little bit drying on the skin…tune in next time to “Designing a Shaving Soap” as I add moisturizers to the soap! Cliff-hanger!
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hmmm. I learned how to make laundry soap from my mom out of 3 ingredients that works better than the commercial stuff and rinses out of clothes better for about $0.50 a bottle vs $16.99. Since then I understood marketing is a powerful tool.
You may be onto something here . Keep me posed
I’d love to know your mother’s recipe, I’m intrigued!
Great experiment although I wonder if a couple of variables may change your results:
Have you tried a badger or boar brush? I believe the results can be vastly different between a natural and synthetic.
Also, your lather appears to be light, airy, and bubbly. Most shavers I believe would prefer a much more creamy lather for shaving cushion and a longer lasting lather.
I could be misunderstanding and you may still be working on the “foam” but I just wanted to throw in my two cents. Looking forward to the end result!
Hey Adam!
Others have raised your concerns, and I’ve gone back to the drawing table and repicked my oils and fatty acids. I’ll be making an update soon, the lather is much denser and creamier, but not quite there yet.
Possibly because of my brush. However I would like to create a shaving soap so fool-proof that even a cheap synthetic brush, like the one I’m using, is able to create a rich lather!
Keep reading and I appreciate your feedback!
Stephen
What oils have you changed to get a creamier lather
I’ll be doing an updated post soon (Sorry it’s been so long!). But I’ve incorporated oils like palm oil to get a creamier lather.
I’ve made an excellent shaving soap using a combination of coconut, castor, olive, and soybean oils. For scent, I added clove and eucalyptus oils after most of the saponification had taken place. I poured the soap into a clean coffee mug to set, and that is my shaving mug. The remainder of the soap I poured into a clean Pringle’s can. I use that to refill the mug.
That sounds awesome! Hopefully you’ll give a try at the recipe I post eventually (yes, yes it’s coming soon!) and see how it compares!
Dear Stephen,
My name is Dan Herlin, and I am currently working on a research project for an international company focused on shaving cream, where we try to identify innovative users like yourself. And after reading your post above I was very impressed.
It would be great to get in contact with you for an interview. The goal of the project is to find innovative ideas on how to improve the shaving experience for men and women. All ideas will be presented to a global acting company and the most interesting users will be selected for an innovation event.
Please let me know when you are available for a talk. You can reach me via e‐mail, skype or phone
(please find contact details below).
If you prefer I can call you, please let me know how and when.
Deadline for my interviews is April 15th.
Thank you,
Best regards
Dan Herlin
Usersinnovate
http://www.usersinnovate.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9hwd_01MHM
e‐mail:dan@usersinnovate.com
skype: dan@usersinnovate.com
phone: +1 321431 2069
Hello again, I commented on the DIY clay, earlier, reading along and came upon this. I also make soap and I must tell you with complete certainty that a soap this high in coconut oil will be drying.You can get around this of course with superfatting and unsaponifiables, but I’m assuming you want to start with a moisturizing soap. I completely understand you study the chemistry of ingredients and unsaturated fatty acids..yada-yada. BUT tallow as well as lard and mutton fat in soap will make a very moisturizing bar. Perhaps it because our fat is similar esp so to that of a pig. Animal oils are cheap and readily accessible. Some may object to using ao’s but if you eat meat and/or consume any of the multitude of byproducts then using this waste product is actually better for the earth then the growing processing and transporting of oils around the world. Anyway enough of that, back to the soap. The best lathering most moisturizing soaps are a combination animal and vegetable oils. All veggie soap can be fine but it’s very hard to come close in quality to a soap using animal oils.
Every oil adds a unique property to the soap. the key to a great soap is a mix of oils that add impart the ideal skin acids and such to your soap while also giving the ideal hardness, creaminess, lathering, etc…
If you’re interested shave soap is one of my favorites to make and i’ve learned some great tips along the way..
Hi, Denise. Nice post. I would really appreciate it if you would be willing to share some of the tips you’ve learned along the way in making shave soap.
lifelightlove…anita
DIY projects are a great way to learn while having fun. The sad news is that this becomes like reinventing the wheel. You end up spending a lot more time and money and getting worse results than buying a good product. I get excellent shaves with Al’s Shaving Products, very close and irritation free. This guy nailed process down and has created perhaps the best product in the market. His creams are very natural too and he uses essential oils. After trying many other products (very expensive), I am a convert. Give it a try, if nothing else, you will know what a good shaving cream should be like.
secret ingredient…kokum butter. loaded with stearic acid, what you want in a shaving soap. also try hot process instead of cold! cheers!
Hey, Crumb Catcher…good info. thanx. I also put in a little clay. I’m told it provides for a smooth shave, especially on the head.
~anita