Rolling My Own

[drmoss_ca]

Don't worry, it's not for sale and won't be used to flood and control the international shaving soap market à la Hunt brothers.

Chris

[brothers]

Well, if it was for sale there would be a lot of satisfied customers. If it's gifts, there are going to be a lot of happy beneficiaries of your generosity. Big project, regardless. Fragrances?

[drmoss_ca]

I seem to have lost the little measure I had used before for the scent oil, so I guessed and added 2oz. This is going to be a lot more strongly scented than the original batch (gardenia again, to answer your question). I think I shall store some of this soap in ziploc bags to see if it will stay soft.

My shaving bowl with two soaps pressed into it had just a thin flake of soap in the bottom - so those two lasted six-seven months in daily use. They have more or less lost their scent, so making it more strongly scented is probably OK. I refilled the bowl with two more soaps from last summer's batch. They have gone hard so I carefully softened them in the microwave, in increments to about 50 seconds total, then pressed them into the bowl. Use a tool for this! I pushed my thumb through the outer crust of soap and discovered the molten lava in the middle. I was a bit less pleased than Little Jack Horner was with his pie, and have a blistered thumb.

Chris

[brothers]

Aside from the burn, use it in good health Chris. I've missed about a week of using mine, attempting to rid myself of some of the commercial creams and soaps. Sold several, trying to give one away. Trying to get a clear focus on the rest so I can eventually find my way out from under this stuff. Also slowly planning exactly how to integrate fragrances for the next batches, eventually.

[drmoss_ca]

Sliced and initial surface drying overnight. Now to find some plastic bags.



Chris

[Squire]

Chris did you scent that batch?

[drmoss_ca]

Yes, as noted above. Pretty strong too.

Chris

[Squire]

So you did, somehow I managed to miss almost a page of posts.

[brothers]

I've experimented using a couple of commercial shaving creams for the last few days. They don't give me what the home made stuff does, so tonight was back to the good stuff I made myself in my own kitchen. The experiment was a success. I learned what I wanted to know.

[rsp1202]

First lather with Chris' Gardenia soap, using a new 2-bander. I've never gotten such rich, thick lather out of a commercial product as I got with this. I thought at first that the scent was a little too much -- and if Chris cut it in half I wouldn't complain -- but as is, it's just a delicious, hedonistic experience. Cushy and slick and shiny, expediting an easy cut, with enough lather left over for a dozen more lathers. Two dozen! And great face-feel afterwards, too. If this is the state of private soap-making these days*, well, I love the state I'm in. Clive, I gotta borrow some of your thumbs, man. This deserves it. Thanks, Chris.

Now, if I only had a Somerset with which to spread this with, I would ask no more out of the shaving world.**

*Our small rag-tag band of soap-makers here are to be commended. I hope more give it a try; the standard has been set.
**Just kidding. Not. Yeah, I am. Uh, let me get back to you on that . . .

[drmoss_ca]

I've not tried the new batch yet. Sounds like I should dial down the scent - which was too weak in previous batches.

And thank you, Ron, for the kind words.

Chris

[John Parker]

Gardenia does sound wonderful! Not sure I have seen a shaving soap with a gardenia scent before.

[tester]

Chris,

Are you still using your same recipe as follows ?

Lard 46%
Stearic Acid 30%
Coconut Oil (76º) 15%
Castor Oil 7%
Lanolin 2%
50% NaOH and 50% KOH

I have cooked this recipe twice and it is simply an amazing soap. I can't thank you enough for sharing it.

On a similar note, a poster at the B&B forum decided to reverse engineer the simple ingredients in MdC and posted his success. I have cooked his recipe and it is likewise an outstanding soap. I can't speak to it's similarity to MdC since I don't have MdC. I take no credit for his recipe, but I don't think he would mind me sharing it here:


Stearic Acid 52%
Coconut Oil, 76 deg 48%
100% KOH lye
Glycerine to superfat -5% superfat works out equivalent 3 tbsp of glycerin per lb of fats

For all my recipes Stearic acid is the last ingredient I add. Typically I cook all the other fats with the lye mixture until trace, then add the Stearic. If cooking Stearic right from the start, I find the mixture can trace immediately when the lye is added.

Any of the two recipes above will blow the socks off any products you have previously bought IMO.

[Gene]

For all my recipes Stearic acid is the last ingredient I add. Typically I cook all the other fats with the lye mixture until trace, then add the Stearic. If cooking Stearic right from the start, I find the mixture can trace immediately when the lye is added.

I can appreciate the comment about tracing quickly - but do you do anything to the stearic acid? Do you melt it separately, then add it? I used it in a body soap, and while it mostly dissolved, some did not. Soap still worked, but wan't what I had hoped for.

[tester]

Gene,

I followed the SoapCalc to a "T". No Stearic left - everything saponified. If the proper amount of lye is there, it should convert - if not by enough heat initially, then by cold process in a few weeks.

In my case I added the stearic and put the lid on the pot. Came back in a half hour and it was all melted in. Stirred for the next 10 minutes, cooled slightly, added essential oils, stirred, and then placed into Ziploc round plastic containers.

[drmoss_ca]

Yes, I'm still using it exactly like that, and I am reluctant to mess with it. Chances are I won't make a change for the better.

The comment about adding the stearate last is interesting - I was describing to Gene in a PM how this recipe solidifies really fast and looks nothing like the YouTube videos of soap being whisked till trace. It's instant porridge and it takes a lot of aggressive stick blender use to get it homogenous. By adding it last do you avoid it setting up into a lumpy mess?

Chris

[dosco]

Chris:
I've been thinking about how to make a batch "all at once" rather than rebatching individual soaps...I was thinking because of stearic 'tracing instantly' that I'd add it last.

-Dave

[brothers]

I admire you fellows who can get involved in the details to such a degree. I was doing good to finally find the recipes, get the stuff, and then make the soap. I just followed the recipes as closely as I could, and was on cloud 9 when I realized the soaps are better than most. I have to leave the engineering to those who are good at it.

[John Parker]

How/where do you gentlemen come up with the fragrance formulae? Gary, I know you have spoken to that but it is now buried in a mound of threads! Are there publications that serve as guides?

[drmoss_ca]

Speaking for myself, I just buy a scent oil that sounds nice (four out of five won't be as nice as they sound when they arrive) and pour some in. My first batch was tangerine and too weak, my second gardenia and too weak, and my third gardenia and possibly too strong. A few more iterations will do it. I've also used lemon essential oil to make some bath soap for The Boss (also a bit weak). I think I'm moving slowly towards 3/4 of an ounce of this scent per 3lb of soap. But that won't work for other scent oils, and it also makes a difference whether it is added when the soap is very hot (some oils 'flash' - ie their volatile smelly parts evaporate) or whether they are added prior to full saponification, in which case the scent oil may react with the lye and less scent results. Generally cold process soap requires more scent for this reason, and hot process soap needs to be cooled enough to avoid flashing, though not so coll you can't stir it in and get it into a mold. Soap-making, like life, is about compromises.

Chris