Rolling My Own
Posted: Thu Apr 25, 2013 9:10 pm
Gents,
I have been interested in soapmaking for some time, and in recent weeks I've finally gotten started. I got interested in making soap only after I found wetshaving, naturally, and mostly because I wanted to make shave soap (though I also wanted to create bath soap for my kids, my wife, and myself, respectively). Over the past couple of years, my desire to do this has grown, both because I thought the hobby of soapmaking could be an enjoyable alternative to some of my less healthy pastimes (I'm looking at you, beer brewing) and because my options for usable, high-quality shave soaps have dwindled. I have found few satisfactory palmate soaps, and I prefer tallow for ethical reasons. I can't do lanolin or shea, so many artisan products are out. Benzaldehyde burns my skin like hell, so no almond-scented shave preps.
Other than Valobra, Harris, and the Germans, it's slim pickings these days for me. I'd like to be self-sufficient regarding shave prep, so it was time to take the plunge.
I had spent hundreds of hours reading and researching in books, on forums, etc., and finally felt prepared to proceed. My initial batches of soap have been good, and I finally took on shave soap this week. I'm not going to bore everyone with lots of process information. I've got a picture below of my most recent batch cooking (in the gel stage) in a crockpot. I do hot process soaps, mostly due to lack of patience but also due to the fact that soaping is replacing homebrewing as a hobby for me, and I need the cook/gel stage to really feel like I've done something. Anyway, here's the soap in process:
My first soap recipe was a bit off, too bubbly and not rich enough. It's bath soap now. My second formulation came damn close, and I'll use it up as shave soap, though it's not quite where I want it. My third formulation is closer still to the target. The lather is dense and creamy, the shave is good, the blade glides as it ought to. What's missing as of now is mostly lather stability, but more on that in a moment. I loaded my brush with soap from batch 2 last night and went through the motions of a shave, sans blade, to demonstrate where things stood as of then (the third batch was completed last night and used for the first time this morning...more on that in a bit).
Here's the brush after loading (I loaded for 45 seconds; I typically load 30-40 seconds for Palmolive or Valobra, given my awful water situation):
I then lathered up on my face, waited a minute or two, rinsed, and applied again. Here's the brush afterward:
And here's the lather on my face:
I then rinsed again, lathered up a third time, then a fourth, and found that other than adding water as the lather tends to get dry a bit faster than I'd like, I needed no further adjustments. In fact, here's my leftover lather at the conclusion of the shave:
I then reloaded the brush, built some lather, and let it stand for 10 minutes:
And after 25 minutes:
Note in these last pics that the lather, while somewhat stable in its fluffiness, loses moisture and becomes airy over time. The lather that has been rehydrated throughout the shave, however, is still creamy and has good texture. So this is decent soap, in my opinion. The third batch, which attempts to correct this problem, was used this morning. It was not a fair test, as the soap was finished cooking only seven hours earlier. Thought hot process soap is good to go as soon as it's cool, theoretically anyway, a bit of a "cure" does some good, and indeed batch 2 improved dramatically from day 1 to day 2. So, tomorrow will hopefully reveal more about this latest batch. For now, though, I can say that it seemed a bit harsh on the skin (again, this is common with very fresh soap, whether hot or cold process) but that it shaved better and had more stable lather than batch two.
As I said, I could happily shave with the second formula, but I'd like to get something about which I'm ecstatic for daily use (and which doesn't irritate my skin with prolonged use, a factor that can't yet be accounted for) before I settle in and start messing with perfecting scents. For now, everything is lavender or lemongrass, as I have lots of these two EOs on hand.
I have been looking for ways to add some experimentation to my shave hobby without just buying more products. This is one approach I'm taking. Toward that same end, I am going to be digging back into straights. I have no stones or hones of any kind, but I do have blades and a strop and the will to learn. Again, experimentation is one goal, and the endgame of self-sufficiency is another.
I hope to post about continued progress on the soapmaking front, but I can tell you that the shave I had today, besides being pleasantly-scented and close as can be, was incredibly gratifying. I can only imagine shaving with a straight that I brought to shave-readiness by my own hand would make it moreso. For those inclined toward DIY, homebrewing, recipe-building, etc., this is a fun way to indulge two hobbies at once, and at worst you end up with good bath soap for the family. Worth pursuing, at least for me.
I have been interested in soapmaking for some time, and in recent weeks I've finally gotten started. I got interested in making soap only after I found wetshaving, naturally, and mostly because I wanted to make shave soap (though I also wanted to create bath soap for my kids, my wife, and myself, respectively). Over the past couple of years, my desire to do this has grown, both because I thought the hobby of soapmaking could be an enjoyable alternative to some of my less healthy pastimes (I'm looking at you, beer brewing) and because my options for usable, high-quality shave soaps have dwindled. I have found few satisfactory palmate soaps, and I prefer tallow for ethical reasons. I can't do lanolin or shea, so many artisan products are out. Benzaldehyde burns my skin like hell, so no almond-scented shave preps.
Other than Valobra, Harris, and the Germans, it's slim pickings these days for me. I'd like to be self-sufficient regarding shave prep, so it was time to take the plunge.
I had spent hundreds of hours reading and researching in books, on forums, etc., and finally felt prepared to proceed. My initial batches of soap have been good, and I finally took on shave soap this week. I'm not going to bore everyone with lots of process information. I've got a picture below of my most recent batch cooking (in the gel stage) in a crockpot. I do hot process soaps, mostly due to lack of patience but also due to the fact that soaping is replacing homebrewing as a hobby for me, and I need the cook/gel stage to really feel like I've done something. Anyway, here's the soap in process:
My first soap recipe was a bit off, too bubbly and not rich enough. It's bath soap now. My second formulation came damn close, and I'll use it up as shave soap, though it's not quite where I want it. My third formulation is closer still to the target. The lather is dense and creamy, the shave is good, the blade glides as it ought to. What's missing as of now is mostly lather stability, but more on that in a moment. I loaded my brush with soap from batch 2 last night and went through the motions of a shave, sans blade, to demonstrate where things stood as of then (the third batch was completed last night and used for the first time this morning...more on that in a bit).
Here's the brush after loading (I loaded for 45 seconds; I typically load 30-40 seconds for Palmolive or Valobra, given my awful water situation):
I then lathered up on my face, waited a minute or two, rinsed, and applied again. Here's the brush afterward:
And here's the lather on my face:
I then rinsed again, lathered up a third time, then a fourth, and found that other than adding water as the lather tends to get dry a bit faster than I'd like, I needed no further adjustments. In fact, here's my leftover lather at the conclusion of the shave:
I then reloaded the brush, built some lather, and let it stand for 10 minutes:
And after 25 minutes:
Note in these last pics that the lather, while somewhat stable in its fluffiness, loses moisture and becomes airy over time. The lather that has been rehydrated throughout the shave, however, is still creamy and has good texture. So this is decent soap, in my opinion. The third batch, which attempts to correct this problem, was used this morning. It was not a fair test, as the soap was finished cooking only seven hours earlier. Thought hot process soap is good to go as soon as it's cool, theoretically anyway, a bit of a "cure" does some good, and indeed batch 2 improved dramatically from day 1 to day 2. So, tomorrow will hopefully reveal more about this latest batch. For now, though, I can say that it seemed a bit harsh on the skin (again, this is common with very fresh soap, whether hot or cold process) but that it shaved better and had more stable lather than batch two.
As I said, I could happily shave with the second formula, but I'd like to get something about which I'm ecstatic for daily use (and which doesn't irritate my skin with prolonged use, a factor that can't yet be accounted for) before I settle in and start messing with perfecting scents. For now, everything is lavender or lemongrass, as I have lots of these two EOs on hand.
I have been looking for ways to add some experimentation to my shave hobby without just buying more products. This is one approach I'm taking. Toward that same end, I am going to be digging back into straights. I have no stones or hones of any kind, but I do have blades and a strop and the will to learn. Again, experimentation is one goal, and the endgame of self-sufficiency is another.
I hope to post about continued progress on the soapmaking front, but I can tell you that the shave I had today, besides being pleasantly-scented and close as can be, was incredibly gratifying. I can only imagine shaving with a straight that I brought to shave-readiness by my own hand would make it moreso. For those inclined toward DIY, homebrewing, recipe-building, etc., this is a fun way to indulge two hobbies at once, and at worst you end up with good bath soap for the family. Worth pursuing, at least for me.