Renee emailed in not that long ago asking for some help formulating a shaving soap. Clays are very common in shaving soaps because they create a barrier that protects the skin from razor burn. I also wanted to create a soap with lots of lather. Come join us in the kitchen while we make Renee’s Shaving Soap!Renee has the following oils in her cupboard. Coconut Oil,Palm Oil, Palm Kernel Oil, Olive Oil, Grapeseed Oil, Shea Butter, Sweet Almond Oil, Castor Oil, Kaolin Clay, French Green Clay, and Bentonite Clay. I wanted to keep things simple so I only used a few of the items she has available. You can substitute any of the clays and add fragrance of your choice. I choose to leave this batch unscented. What scent would you like to see in a shaving soap?
Needed Materials
Recipe
Weigh all of the oils into a microwave safe container. Heat gently until liquid. Add the lye to the water to for a lye solution. Allow the oils and the lye to cool to a lower temperature. We do not want to have the soap overheat and volcano. Mix the oils and lye solution and blend until a light trace is achieved. Add the Bentonite Clay and mix well. Pour into a mold and allow to sit for 24 hours. Cut the soap. Allow the soap to cure. Longer curing time will result in a harder bar. Enjoy!
This soap lathered up really well. It’s lather had a lot of volume. It wasn’t tacky under water like soaps with lanolin can be. It was smooth with easy glide. Too bad I don’t have a razor at work I can test it with! I tested this soap before it had much time to cure. Do to that fact, it was very soft. I still enjoyed using it and I can’t wait for it to cure! |
Hi Taylor – can you tell us a little more about how you developed this recipe? I’m curious about why you chose to use so much palm kernal. Thanks!
This looks like a really skin-friendly soap, with all those yummy oils! I love cucumber & melons for my ladies’ shaving soap, and Somali Rose or Bay Rum (very, very lightly) for the men’s shaving soap.
Great recipe! I also leave my shaving soap unscented. I debated about doing rosemary or mint or a combo, or something else altogether. But I decided to leave it alone since I wanted this to be a unisex soap, especially if men are going to use it on their faces. So far those that have tried it like that it’s unscented, so I’ll likely leave it that way for a while.
Traci,
Excellent question! I choose to use that much Palm Kernel Oil in order to insure that I had a firm bar. Also, Palm Kernel produces a lighter, fluffier lather, which I wanted to combat the dense lather that Olive Oil, Castor Oil and the Bentonite Clay give to the soap.
It is okay to use Palm Kernel at higher usage rates. Palm Kernel Oil makes a wonderful bar. If we limit how much percentage wise we can have off a certain oil in our soaps, we have to do it to all oils. Also, we would miss out on some really nice bars of soap! Consider Olive Oil. If we say that you can’t exceed more than 25% of oil in your bar then we wouldn’t have what we know as Castile Soap or 100% Olive Oil Soap. Does this help?
Taylor
Hi Taylor,
Could you sub Palm oil for the Palm Kernel? What is the SF % you used?
Thank you.
Kathie
Kathie,
Yes! You can use Palm Oil instead of Palm Kernel. Just be sure to recalculate your lye.
I typically use 6% excess fat. I hope this helps!
Taylor
Hi Taylor,
Thank you for explaining. I think I’ll give it a try :).
Traci