Haslinger Schafmilch

FrankieG said:
I still have the packaging of a puck of Schafmilch I bought I recently and I can confirm that there is no Tetrasodium Etidronate on the ingredients list.

But who would have thought two apparently innocious products could cause that type of reaction when used together? Now more than ever I'm a firm believer of using as few products as possible to achieve my shaves!
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I am usually of an equally minimalist mind but the Noxzema did make a big difference to shave smoothness and beat pre-shave oils completely.

To maintain a sense of proportion, ammonia is famously powerful-smelling and it takes very little to be noticeable. It may well be that all soaps cause this reaction but only the Haslinger is sufficiently faint-scented to allow the ammonia to be perceived. I've got some scent-free samples in the drawer. I'll make further experiment.

My greater concern is that free ammonia will cause the lather to be extremely alkaline. Skin wants to be slightly acid for best health so long-term alkaline lather has got to be bad for the skin.
 
I haven't used my Schafmilch yet, just opened it to have a sniff but I used the seaweed puck last night and my face felt great afterwards. It's a great little puck of soap.

Not sure whether to stick with the seaweed or just use the schafmilch.

I can confirm there's no tetrasodium EDTA, I was looking at a different soap on the webpage, just double checked.

Been very impressed with the Haslinger soaps so far.

I don't use a preshave due to having oily skin, I prefer to dry my skin out a little before the shave so tend to use a soapy wash beforehand rather than put something on under my lather.
 
globalm said:
Found out what's happening - and it's a bit worrying!

It clicked with me this morning that I could only notice the strange scent when the soap was wet. The dry soap smells quite normal. So I lathered this morning with a deal more observation and less habit.

I have taken recently to using Noxzema as a pre-shave. The unpleasant smell emerges only when the soap and the Noxzema mix together. I made an experimental lather and dropped a 'dod' of Noxzema in. The missus and I both agreed that this caused a clearly noticeable smell of pure ammonia which reduced over a few minutes to a faint 'wet animal' smell.

This is a bit worrying - I have no desire to rub ammonia on my face!

A browse through the Noxzema ingredients list shows ammonium hydroxide. If something in the soap is preferentially binding the hydroxide radical, this could result in the evolution of free, gaseous ammonia, I think.

Is there a chemist out there who can give his views?

In the meantime, I think I'm going back to Prorasso per-shave!!!
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I used to get that when I was using the Castle Forbes pre-shave. On it's own it smelt of nothing, but when the lather hit it there was a rather unpleasant scent released for a short while .

Ian
 
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