Shaving Soap
Who knows that even you can make your own shaving soap at home? That’s right. You can make your own shaving soap at the convenience of your home. Making your own shaving soap or shaving cream is not so much different with making your own soap. All you need is to add some cosmetic clay like those used in mud masks and clays and adding more of castor oil to help create that thick and creamy lather.
Let’s start by preparing the ingredients of our shaving soap. This recipe calls for about 3 pounds of soap. First, you will need 2 tablespoons of Bentonite clay, although you can also use other clay such as Kaolin, Rhassoul, or Fuller’s Earth. If you want to modify this recipe, just note that you’ll need 2 teaspoon of clay for every pound of soap you make. Now, we will need some essential oils perfect for sensitive skin since we are using this soap for shaving. You can pick your own oils, but for now, follow this recipe. You will need 8% castor oil for a thick and creamy lather. You’ll need 22% palm oil for a stable ore cream bar or you can also use tallow or lard. You’ll need 30% coconut oil for that rich and bubbly lather, and 40% olive oil for good skin conditioning. The amounts of oils for 3 pounds batch of shaving soap are as follows.
13 oz Olive oil
10 oz Coconut oil
7 oz Palm oil
2.5 oz Castor oil
4.7 oz Lye (about a 5% discount)
9.4 oz water
2 Tbsp of Bentonite Clay
1 to 1.4 oz. of fragrance or essential oil
Make the soap just like in any cold process soap recipe. Just add the clay before you let the soap settle. You can add it to your lye water or in the oils while it melts. Then, pour it into a tin or coffee mug, or even into a PVC pipe with a plug in one end. Let it cure. Now you can enjoy your home made shaving soap!