I was inspired and made my first ever batch of soap tonight. It was an 8 oz batch of the MDC recipe that has been kicking around the B&B (I hope this doesn't offend anyone). I used a bit less KOH (55g), double the original glycerin (so 1 tbsp for the 8 oz of oils), 1.5 tsp of bentonite (probably not necessary, but I wanted to try it) and sandalwood (2 parts) and lavender (1 part) essential oils, totaling 7g. My KOH was rated at greater then or equal to 90% so I calculated it for both 90% and 100% and split the difference, not sure if that is correct but it seemed smart at the time, haha. I wasn't able to source a reasonably priced stick blender so I just went crazy with a whisk. Added the e/o's, glycerin and bentonite after the KOH was completely added and mixed in since I figured it had to be traced with the characteristic consistency for this amount of stearic. Cooked on low in the crock pot for 90 minutes, passed the zap test, so I spooned it into some custard dishes to cure for a day too. Covered them with a paper towel and rubber band and they're sitting in my closet. The smell is masculine yet soothing. Washed my hands with a bit of the dried leftovers that were left in the crock and on the utensils and the lather that arose was a low cream with not much loft. If my assumptions are correct it will become more lofty as it cures, and when I use a brush. Pretty excited to lather it up in a day or two. For now the consistency as it has been cooling is sort of a talcy soft bar. It was almost like I was spooning bread dough into the dishes.
I didn't think to take any pictures of the process as I didn't think I would be making a post about it, but I may as well. The only pictures I have are of the batch cooking in the crock after I had mixed everything in. I'll add the picture tomorrow, as well as take some pictures of what it looks like in the dishes, and the resultant lather. Regardless of how it turns out, I'm pretty excited to have jumped from cartridge shaving with the occasional straight shave, to owning a travel gillette tech and a 2013 Muhle R41, to being so indecisive about which soap to buy next (I own proraso red, vdh luxury and deluxe (don't like the deluxe)) that I started making my own shave soaps, all in about 3-4 weeks. It's been a big February.
I didn't think to take any pictures of the process as I didn't think I would be making a post about it, but I may as well. The only pictures I have are of the batch cooking in the crock after I had mixed everything in. I'll add the picture tomorrow, as well as take some pictures of what it looks like in the dishes, and the resultant lather. Regardless of how it turns out, I'm pretty excited to have jumped from cartridge shaving with the occasional straight shave, to owning a travel gillette tech and a 2013 Muhle R41, to being so indecisive about which soap to buy next (I own proraso red, vdh luxury and deluxe (don't like the deluxe)) that I started making my own shave soaps, all in about 3-4 weeks. It's been a big February.
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