SMF

next to trumpers rose. mdc is my all time fav soap.

clive

I'm still at it.

Although the Tim's Soap business has come and gone, I still make my own shave and bath soaps and use them daily. I've tweaked things along the way, and I've tried a lot of different recipes. I landed on needing less coconut oil than I originally thought, particularly if more tallow is included. The body of soap lather that seems to be lacking in many creams comes, I believe, from unsaponifiable components and from the palitic and oleic acids in tallow or palm oil (not too much oleic, mind, as it kills lather). Straight stearic/coconut soap is great, but even stearic/palm kernel lathers better, and from there the addition of tallow, castor, and palm oil can be of benefit if done judiciously. An added bonus is that soaps with other fats tend to hold scent better/longer. Finally, I superfat now with stearic acid after the cook, and sometimes a bit of coconut, babassu, or palm kernel. These are all saturated fats that lend creamy stability to a lather when they aren't saponified.

I've gotten into homemade aftershaves, too, but that's for another thread.

Soap on, gents!

creamy stability to a lather

Im sorry Tim's Soap closed down ( not even bff private sales??? ), because we could all do with some creamy-ness

Nice to see you out and about Tim

clive

No worries, Clive. I closed it of my own volition. It reached a point where there was too much work to be a side gig, and I wasn't sure I wanted to expand it into a full-time thing, so I just shuttered it. As for private sales, I make far more soap than I can ever use, so I reckon there's always some around to send to friends gratis. Next time I cook up a rose batch, I'll let you know.

It is good to be back at SMF, and it's a bid odd to realize that the soapmaking thing happened about 5 years into my wetshaving journey, which in turn was a full 5 years ago. The last half-decade has flown by.

TRBeck wrote: ↑Mon Apr 09, 2018 7:09 am It is good to be back at SMF, and it's a bid odd to realize that the soapmaking thing happened about 5 years into my wetshaving journey, which in turn was a full 5 years ago. The last half-decade has flown by.

The feeling is just the same when you realise you are looking back over multiple decades. It's quite cruel, the way we feel just the same inside, even as our bodies crumble about us. I'm finding I can't use up my soap fast enough to be able to remember how the last batch was made, despite giving away half of it. It's changed from being a soft creamy white soap, to a hard dulce-de-leche colour, even though kept in ziplock bags. It still works just lovely though, when needed.

Chris, I used the last of your Gardenia soap from six years ago recently. Amazing stuff.

I have a batch of liquid soap finishing right now (dissolving the soap paste into water to attain the proper consistency). Downstairs two batches of bar soap are curing. I just tried a new formula for shave soap last week and have been delighted with it thus far.

What a grand hobby.

I've still got a lot of it left, but it's as hard as nails and I'm using it as a bath soap now, having a fresh batch of soft stuff (unscented) to use for shaving.