Haslinger Schafmilch

globalm

globalm

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I've been trying this out recently. It's a very good soap. The lather leaps out to meet the brush and it's very protective BUT, the question is, can I really smell a very faint, unpleasant odour of wet sheepskin from this soap or is the power of suggestion playing trick on me?
 
I thought I could smell baby powder but not much else... Regardless, I find it an excellent soap and a great alternative to Michell's Wool Fat for anyone who has trouble lathering MWF (both tallow + lanolin soaps).
 
Ordered couple of Haslinger soaps yesterday (sandalwood and the calendula) - interested to see how they perform. I used to really rate MWF when I was living in Manchester, but now I'm using Thames water I'm not liking the stuff. May have to offload my stock.
 
I have some haslinger soaps, not the Schafmilch, and i can say even the regular ones are really great soaps. So the Schafmilch should be even better. In some forums they say its equal to MWF, or at least really close to it.
 
Opened my puck last night and had a sniff, smells quite soapy and pleasant.

didn't think of sheep when I had a sniff. Not used this particular puck yet but the seaweed puck is very good and doesn't really smell of the sea either.
 
I was going to post some justification for my views that this smells of sheep but decided to aks SWMBO for her views. She condemns my nose utterly and she smells faint baby-powder.

It's just me!

Just as Galileo said 'Eppur si muove!', so I say, 'Yet it smells of sheep!'

:icon_cheesygrin:
 
Yep mine smells soapy similar to MWF to me. Can't say I've been close enough to a sheep to give it a sniff to be honest...

It performs very well though. But I'm sticking with The Fat at the moment..
 
FrankieG said:
I thought I could smell baby powder but not much else... Regardless, I find it an excellent soap and a great alternative to Michell's Wool Fat for anyone who has trouble lathering MWF (both tallow + lanolin soaps).
Click to expand...

I couldn't place it but my god, yes, it smells of baby powder to me as well.
 
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!!!
 
Well just having a chat to the fella next to me at work who did chemistry at uni, and says any ingredient that can release hydrogen would subsequently negate the hydroxide and therefore release ammonia gas, as you state. The usual suspects for this would be an acid based ingredient, of which there are of course in a soap, he also wondered about the salt crystals which could also trigger something (sort of like a smelling salts type thing)

So, yes, it's very possible the soap could be reacting with the pre-shave you were using and releasing a gas.

He also took one look at the ingredients in the soap, pulled a face and goes "some harsh things in there" without really explaining it to me, although the Tetrasodium Etidronate isn't a great ingredient (preservative I think).

sure there maybe one of the guys in the forum who could give you a more accurate explanation.

He also mentioned that the ammonium hydroxide is an antiseptic agent and wondered why you would want that in a pre-shave ???? Personally I use Wright's coal tar soap to wash my face before a shave and one of the reasons I use that is because the coal tar is a natural antiseptic, although this has now been replaced by tea tree oil as the antiseptic agent, and I find this very pleasant for my face.
 
Thanks for that. I suspect that one should view the Noxzema as the guilty party here!

The soap has the following ingredients according to what i can find.

potassium stearate, sodium stearate, potassium tallowate,aqua, lac powder, parfum, sheep milk, arachis hypoaea, lanolin, potassium cocoate, sodium tallowate, sodium cocoate, glycerine, potassium hydroxide, sodium hydroxide, alpha-isomethyl ionone, hydroxisohexyl 3-cyclo-hexene carboxaldehyd, CI 77891

The only recognised 'baddy' I can see here is alpha-isomethyl ionone, which is 'powdery' scent but is now banned from fragrances although it can be used in soap etc. The rest would be a fairly normal soap. There is no Tetrasodium Etidronate on my ingredients list - strange.

I suspect we are seeing a reaction between sodium/potassium salts and the ammonium hydroxide to form sodium/potassium hydroxide + ammonia.

Bottom line is that Noxzema + this soap (and maybe others) is NOT a recommended combination!
 
globalm said:
Thanks for that. I suspect that one should view the Noxzema as the guilty party here!

The soap has the following ingredients according to what i can find.

potassium stearate, sodium stearate, potassium tallowate,aqua, lac powder, parfum, sheep milk, arachis hypoaea, lanolin, potassium cocoate, sodium tallowate, sodium cocoate, glycerine, potassium hydroxide, sodium hydroxide, alpha-isomethyl ionone, hydroxisohexyl 3-cyclo-hexene carboxaldehyd, CI 77891

The only recognised 'baddy' I can see here is alpha-isomethyl ionone, which is 'powdery' scent but is now banned from fragrances although it can be used in soap etc. The rest would be a fairly normal soap. There is no Tetrasodium Etidronate on my ingredients list - strange.

I suspect we are seeing a reaction between sodium/potassium salts and the ammonium hydroxide to form sodium/potassium hydroxide + ammonia.

Bottom line is that Noxzema + this soap (and maybe others) is NOT a recommended combination!
Click to expand...

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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