In Praise of Shave Sticks...

Gents, could any of you provide a quick outline of the best method of turning Palmolive sticks into a soap. Do I melt them/grate them/how many to use/best container to keep the finished soap in, etc.

Thanks in advance.
 
Naked Ape said:
... a quick outline of the best method of turning Palmolive sticks into a soap.
Click to expand...
I don't know about "best", but here's what I did. Procure 2 Palmolive sticks, 1 cheese grater and 1 ramekin or similar size receptacle. Remove foil and plastic bit from the soap and grate into a big bowl or similar, using the coarse side of the grater. No matter how good an idea it may seem, do not be tempted to use the parmesan section, and don't ask me how I know this :oops: . Put a thinnish layer of soap into the bottom of your ramekin and ram it down as hard as you can using fingers first and then something like the end of a rolling pin or the base of a jam jar - something will suggest itself no doubt. Repeat. Two sticks will pretty much fill a ramekin. Finally, and optionally, pour a teaspoonful of hot water on top of the soap and smooth the surface with a finger. It won't look completely homogeneous, but it will work fine.
 
Thanks very much, Arrowhead. Perfect. When you say use the coarse side of the grater, do you mean the side with biggest or smallest holes? (Please excuse my stupidity.) Oh, and how long do you leave the soap to set for before use?

Cheers!
 
Biggest holes; ready for use straight away. I should have said that this works well for Palmolive, but other (harder) soaps can be grated finer, and some non-tallow ones can be melted in a double boiler.
 
Isn't a bar of Palmolive the same thing?

Palmolive bath soap is produced in the UK by Colgate-Palmolive (U.K.) Ltd., Surrey.
Ingredients: Sodium Tallowate, Sodium Palm Kernelate, Aqua, Sodium Palmate, Parfum, Sodium Chloride, Glycerin, Titanium Dioxide, Elaeis Guineensis, Olea Europaea, Pentasodium Pentetate, Cellulose Gum, Tetradibutyl Pentaerithrityl Hydroxyhydrocinnamate.
 
No - the ingredient list on the bar is considerably abbreviated compared to the stick. Also there are quite a number of differences.

Palmolive stick: Potassium Hydrogenated Tallowate, Sodium Tallowate, Sodium Cocoate, Aqua, Glycerin, Parfum, Olea Europaea, Elaeis Guineensis, Tetrasodium EDTA, Tetrasodium Etidronate, BHT, Buytlphenyl Methypropional, Citronellol, Coumarin, Hydroxyisohexyl 3-cyclohexene carboxaldehyde, Limonene, Linalool, CI11680, CI12490, CI74260, CI77891
 
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