Rolling My Own

[beartrap]

Interesting!

[brothers]

what didn't work for you with the MdC formulation, and what do you use?

I presume you've read my posts on this thread with regards to my homebrew shave soap?

Based on comments about 'the awesomeness of MdC,' I made an MdC-like formulation of stearic soap and coconut soap (my formulation, results, and pictures of the lather are on this thread). I found that the lather from this soap irritated my skin, and it didn't seem to provide any worthwhile cushioning. I assume the irritation was a result of the high percentage of coconut soap (which is known to by drying/irritating).

IIRC my daily shave soap is my "r3" formulation which is a rebatched combination of stearic soap, tallow soap, coconut soap, and castor oil soap. All were superfatted to 3%, and made with potassium hydroxide. No scent.

Last month I exclusively used Chris Moss' homebrew shave soap ... I traveled extensively last month to Boston, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Chicago, Salt Lake City, and Long Island (NY). (edit) i enjoyed it immensely, and found it to be better than any of the products i previously used. (end edit) Since returning from travel and a short vacation I've returned to my "r3" formulation on a daily basis.

Dave, I came across this post of yours from a few months ago. With this post (the one cited above) in mind, today I made a test lather with my first soap, and decided it was almost dialed in and appears to be something special, so on a whim I grabbed the MdC and lathered it with the same brush. Same lather. In full bloom, they look and feel identical to me. (my opinion) I get no skin irritation with my soap, fortunately, but I haven't had a chance to focus and evaluate the cushioning ability of my new soap against MdC. I only wish my scentless soap smelled as good as the MdC Fougere.

Also, in response to your mention of Chris Moss's soap above, I've rounded up all but one of his list of ingredients locally so I can make a two pound batch of it in the next few days. I've run the Saopcalc on it, I've seen the math, and am ready to roll. I've happily used yours too, and again, thanks.

[fallingwickets]

I pop into this thread once in a while to check up on what you soap geeks are bizzy doing and lucky for me gary's post about making 2lbs of soap was the first and last one i read Gary!, good luck with your manufacturing.

clive

[brothers]

Made the soap.

[fallingwickets]

did it lather??????

[drmoss_ca]

Gary has indicated to me in a PM that there was indeed lather. I'll let him speak for himself when he's tested it.

I still haven't used any other soap or cream since making it.

Chris

[brothers]

did it lather??????

Clive, it lathers very well. I separated the finished product into two equal batches, one Lime, and the other Cedarwood. The project lasted 4 hours, one hour and forty minutes of that was cooking time and the rest was prep and finishing up.

[brothers]

Here are some pictures of the lathers produced by the two separate batches of soap I made over the past week. The smaller batch of the MdC clone soap produced two big 5.5 ounce chunks of soap. This soap occupies the green lidded glass bowls. The larger batch (Chris Moss's soap recipe) produced 10 x 4+ ounce pucks of soap. These are housed in the plastic ziploc bowls. The lather created by Chris Moss's soap is obviously more substantial, due to the ingredients he selected. The lather pictures begin by showing the proto-suds/lather produced as a result of swirling the brush on the soap for 20 seconds with distilled water. The second photos in the sequences are photos of the finished product that fills my wooden lather bowl, with the head of the brush completely engulfed in the lather. The third photos show the lather on the brush.

[brothers]

First time to actually use the Moss soap for its intended purpose. Couldn't have asked for anything more. I think I got the Lime right too.

[Gene]

Gary - PM'd you.

[fallingwickets]

Well done....enjoy and use in excellent health.

clive

[brothers]

I'm a very lucky guy.

[brothers]

Now that I've made these great soaps, using recipes developed by others, I admit I'm probably not equipped to actually "invent" my own formulae. I'm just not! Why am I supposed to re-invent something that already is proven to work! Why? There's no need to reinvent the wheel. I can imagine a laboratory whose walls are lined with dozens of my own ill-fated test batches, labelled with cryptic identifiers, e-14, f-6a, bb-3/6, and such. I see the would-be soap maker running software to predict what will happen if I add a teaspoon of this and a gram of that, or telling me what will happen if I substitute ingredient x for y, blah, blah, blah. I am simply not able to do that. The concept of making test batch after test batch is far too daunting of an undertaking for me to want to do. It is this trait in the bold and highly intelligent others who've taken to that process of discovery like ducks to water. Oh, how I wish I could do that, but I just can't. However, the good news is that some of those soap-making inclined brethren among us have generously and humbly chosen to share their recipes. They've created something important, and they're not obligated to share the recipes, unless they choose to do so. My hat's off to these kind gents. Again, thanks for showing me the path out of the forest. Unfortunately, adding fragrances to soaps is also fraught with danger. Too much, too little, finding fragrances that I like and don't like, when and how much to add to the recipe, these are all on the sagging shoulders of the guy making the soap. Keeping it simple is my personal approach. Those famous commercial products that we buy are a tribute to the art and science of fragrance. This particular SMF forum is significant because of the impact it has had upon my interest in this pursuit of making our common daily grooming activity more interesting and enjoyable. Making shaving soap for our own daily use is as significant as the art and science of using and maintaining straight razors on a regular basis.

[Gene]

Gary,

Well said...and I agree.

On fragrance - I hold the belief that it might be best to stick with personal favorites, or wander no further down the path than classic blends of scents that have proven popular over time. Unless you are building something for a friend or family member that wants something specific.

[dosco]

Gary:
Well said.

I wouldn't worry too much about trying to formulate something new ... why reinvent the wheel?

If you can make world-class soap in your kitchen why bother trying to invent the next mousetrap?

Glad to hear of your success!

Cheers-
Dave

[brothers]

My home made soaps - from now on I'm going to type HMS and forget about spelling it out - are superb. In every way except my humble efforts to add scents, they are equal to or better than (I'll shout it quietly, for the record) BETTER THAN anything else, bar none. No credit to me, I just followed the recipes as carefully as possible, and made sure to use what appear to be good quality ingredients.

[tester]

I'm intrigued and I'm going to this a try.

Where can the ingredients be bought, particularly the NaOH and KOH? For items like lard, can I use the lard sold by Crisco off the store shelf? Once in a blue moon my grocery store puts out 5lb buckets of beef tallow in the meat counter... that's a lot of soap.

My thanks to Chris Moss for posting his recipe.

[brothers]

I'm intrigued and I'm going to this a try.

Where can the ingredients be bought, particularly the NaOH and KOH? For items like lard, can I use the lard sold by Crisco off the store shelf? Once in a blue moon my grocery store puts out 5lb buckets of beef tallow in the meat counter... that's a lot of soap.

My thanks to Chris Moss for posting his recipe.

Tester, Crisco isn't Lard, don't buy that. Lard is probably on the shelf next to the Crisco. I ordered the two kinds of lye from essential depot. Here's a photo.

[tester]

Thanks for the info. I know I can pick up Goya brand products dirt cheap in some of the Caribbean grocery stores around Toronto.

[brothers]

I've been using MdC Fougere for my nightly shave for a couple of days now. My home made soap is being allowed to cure for several days now, until I begin using it as the official and intended exclusive replacement for my commercial soaps. The reason I am temporarily using Martin de Candre Fougere is because one of my soaps is made from the same ingredient list, and has been created by one or more guys who've put their hearts into the project of re-creating MdC. It has been my experience that (aside from fragrance, of course) these are identical twins. The lather and performance of the two are so close that I can't specifically detect or identify any differences. Maybe others can, but I can't. All of those qualities that seem so endearing to those of us who consider the original French soap to be excellent are also present in the duplicated soap. Loading time on the soap with distilled water for 15 seconds appears to be sufficient. With this in mind, my hand made soaps will last quite a while.