Melt and Pour Shaving Soap
You want to start experimenting with shaving soap, but you’re feeling a little overwhelmed. Locating, buying, and handling lye and a myriad of oils can be confusing. If you just want to experiment with different fragrances and/or superfats, melt and pour soap can be a great way to go. In this post, I’m going to…
6 Reasons to Make Your Own Homemade Shaving Soap
If you've already read a few posts here on Shaver Soaper, you might have asked yourself why you should bother making homemade shaving soap at all. After all, there are plenty of artisans out there selling great soaps already. What if you don't do it right? Won't it be expensive? What should you do with the…
How to Make Shaving Soap with a Great Lather
Lather is the most important thing about a shaving soap. It's got to be rich, long-lasting, slick, and moisturizing - and it can't dry or irritate skin. If you've been looking into how to make shaving soap, you've probably heard some off-putting numbers about how many recipe variations people have gone through to get a…
What Is Triple Milled Shaving Soap? Is It Better?
Have you ever seen a fancy looking soap that boasts 'triple-milled!' and wondered if it's actually better, or just a buzzword? Maybe you make your own soap, and you've wondered about the process of triple milling soap and whether it's worth your time? (more…)
Cold Process or Hot Process Shaving Soap?
Hello, shavers & soapers! In this post we're going to discuss the two predominant methods of small-scale soap making: cold process and hot process. As you'd guess, the difference between the two is the temperature the fat and lye react at. We're going to cover the differences between hot process and cold process, the benefits of each, and which…
NaOH vs KOH: Ratios & Discounts (Superfatting)
Last time, we discussed the basic process of making soap, and talked about how a lye solution and fat react during the saponification process. This time, we're going to go beyond the basics (ha!) of lye. Remember, there are two types of lye used in soap making: sodium (NaOH) and potassium (KOH) hydroxide. These two alkali…
Soap Making: A Beginner’s 10-Step Guide
Hey, shavers & soapers! Today I want to talk about the process of soap making itself. It's a bit of basic information we'll need to know in order to progress to more in-depth topics like the role of different fats, alkalis, and other finer points of shaving soap. This is a great place to start for…