Homemade Brushless Cream

What is your opinion on fine shaving creams and hard soaps? Do you like Trumpers, Coates, Taylors, Truefitt & Hill? Post your reviews and opinions here!
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drmoss_ca
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Homemade Brushless Cream

Post by drmoss_ca »

This rather follows from my experiments in which I used a shaving oil after full hydration of the beard. The stimulus was - why am I using your shaving oil, or is there anything better to use the same way?

So I have all sorts of left overs from the last batch of proper shaving soap I made. I took a couple of good scoops (maybe 100g or so) of 76º coconut oil, a couple of lanolin, and then a good squirt of castor oil and nearly as much again of lemon oil, all warmed and mixed, then cooled in the fridge, and then whipped with an electric mixer with nearly a cup of water dripped in, along with a few squirts of lemon dishwashing detergent for the sake of emulsification.
And.....when I sobered up this morning and found the hard set white 'cream' in a fridge, I tried to shave with it. Rather difficult to scoop up much of it, but I got a lovely shave (and yes, I softened my beard with hot water and detergent gel first). It seemed that once it reaches room temperature it might be nice to keep around.

Just as with my comments on shaving oil, this is a different approach to the usual. You MUST degrease, soak and hydrate your beard until it is soft and silky, then lubricate with something that is purely fat or oil, and shave all you like. It works, it's different, it gives a very close shave. I can't say it's better than the best shaves with a traditional prep and soap-based cream or a shaving soap, but it does leave the skin soaked in fats (which I liked to add, some would say perversely, with Eucris Hair Lotion shaken and used as aftershave), soft, moisturised and quite happy.

Having wasted the morning with a 10x8 camera, a couple of monolights and four paper negatives, I came back to the 'cream' to find it has now attained room temperature, and is just like a soft margarine (Becel or Olivina would do, and maybe Flora if it still exists in Britland). Completely useless as a traditional shaving cream, but if you soften and hydrate your beard first, a very nice lubricant for shaving which leaves the skin properly moisturised and protected afterwards. An alternative answer to the problem of shaving well that ought to be on offer to all who have beards and sharp edges.

Chris
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Re: Homemade Brushless Cream

Post by brothers »

Chris, it makes me wonder why some commercial shaving creams mention sodium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide (unless I'm mistaken about those names) two forms of lye? When I see those ingredients in a shaving cream I always wonder why they are necessary in a cream as well as a soap.
Gary

SOTD 99%: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, soaps & creams, synthetic / badger brushes, Colonial General razor, Kai & Schick blades, straight razors any time, Superior 70 aftershave splash + menthol + 444
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Re: Homemade Brushless Cream

Post by drmoss_ca »

They are there because that kind of a cream is really just a very soft soap. I was simply trying to make a lubricant, and relying on a thorough washing and wetting of the beard to soften it. It is extremely slick, and provides a rather different experience - no lather, just a slick layer of lubrication that can be shaved over several times, and still leaves oil on the face afterwards. I wouldn't recommend it as better than the traditional style, but was really just an experiment to see if it could be done. In terms os speed and space-saving, a tiny bottle of shaving oil is more efficient.

C.
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Re: Homemade Brushless Cream

Post by Squire »

Chris that's an impressive amount of work, and here's me grumbling about a sticky cap.
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Re: Homemade Brushless Cream

Post by drmoss_ca »

The last two days I have tried to use this fat/oil mixture a bit differently. I put it into a bottle (it is thin enough that it will slide through a funnel like custard) and added just half a milliliter to the top of the P160 in a bowl and then lathered with a brush. Now I did put a few squirts of dishwashing liquid into the 'brushless cream' as I whipped it to enable it to emulsify with the little bit of water I also added, and detergent and soap don't get on together. Consequently I didn't get much lather, but I did get a thick shiny cream that brushed onto my face (pre-washed with soap) easily and covered well. It gave an extremely slippery shave, the first application going downwards, and with a second going up then across. It still left a very thin layer of oil on my skin after, but nothing like as much as after using shaving oil alone, and despite shaving in all directions there was no sting on slapping on the Trumper's Marlborough.

I guess I'm simulating a soap that is super-fatted to a level unattainable in the cooking process. "Hyper-fatted" maybe. You could probably do much the same with a few drops of a liquid moisturiser onto a cake of soap before, or during lathering.

Chris
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Re: Homemade Brushless Cream

Post by brothers »

drmoss_ca wrote:
I guess I'm simulating a soap that is super-fatted to a level unattainable in the cooking process. "Hyper-fatted" maybe. You could probably do much the same with a few drops of a liquid moisturiser onto a cake of soap before, or during lathering.

Chris
For fathers' day my daughter gave me a tube of hydrating moisturizer that contains a prominent portion of hyaluronic acid. I had not thought of using it in connection with shaving until I read your post.
Gary

SOTD 99%: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, soaps & creams, synthetic / badger brushes, Colonial General razor, Kai & Schick blades, straight razors any time, Superior 70 aftershave splash + menthol + 444
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