Feedback on natural vegetable shaving soap

Yes...that would be more desirable but not ideal. You want the lather to be stable but contain as much water as possible not just creamed soap. Even shave creams need to be hydrated otherwise shavers would just use neat hand cream to shave with.

The beard require's hydration to soften so it is crucial that the lather doesn't break down. I actually used two soaps during your'e soap trial, Tabac and Palmolive both lasted at least 30 mins but I actually forgot about one until the Mrs complained and that was on the tile for about 4 hours and almost perfectly intact.

Can I make a suggestion? If you really want to understand what a good lather feels like, practice building lather yourself from scratch, it doesn't matter whether you use it or not but you will be able to "feel" the phases a good lather has to go through in order to achieve full hydration and slickness.

Try it with something like a Palmolive stick and a cheap brush and you will see what I mean, if you can produce a soap that can nearly produce the lather quality of a Palmolive stick coupled with the good qualities your'e soap already has then you would really have something.

Apparently there is a good hard soap lathering tutorial on here somewhere :roll: or have a look at this...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dd7Aj9vwrtc[/youtube]
 
I have a bad news and good news report.
I took the plunge and ordered a 200g stainless steel bowl of the woody spice. At £6 a bit less than the £43 my wife has paid for 170g of Martin de Cadre (Ill write about that after Xmas)

It arrived yesterday in the same post as my new Semogue 2000. I put them both to immediate use. Lathered, lathered and lathered........... A bit puzzled at what I was getting. It was like no other I have tried so far. I'd call it fluffy. Every which way it simply refused to turn into the sort of firm creamy texture that I have been conditioned to expect. I applied some to my face and I had the same experience as those described above. The lather quickly broke up and refused to form a stable cream.

So today, particularly after reading this thread, I was not too optimistic as I prepared for my morning shave. But what the hell, I gave it a go.
I spent a good 30 seconds plus working the lather into my brush and face lathered. As best as I could. The same characteristics were there. The lather quickly breaking up and appearing to dry out out. Undeterred, I proceeded to shave. My usual up down and across three pass routine. All the the while I felt as though it was a race against time to beat the disappearing lather. Job done. Rinse, alum and moisturiser. Put things away.

And guess what? Total comfort and a softness in my skin at least as good as any of the 15 plus soaps and creams I have already tried!

So if judged on the basis of the final result, the soap is a winner.

So then we get back to the issue of how much we care about how we achieve our goals.
I play golf. If I hit a slice into the woods and it bounces back onto the fairway, then hit one all along the ground to the green and hole the put I'm in heaven. I don't care how I get my birdies.

But shaving is different. Most people here treat it as a ritual to be enjoyed every step of the way.

We want a pleasant scent.
A nice creamy or at least stable lather that is a pleasure to create and apply.
A pleasant relaxing experience.
And of course a nice comfortable feel after the shave.

So my verdict is this. The woody spice got me to my destination. But I didn't really like the journey. And the scent. Oh dear, I just didn't like it. It reminded me of some sort of polish I've used. Not really what I want for a shave.

So, added ingredients to produce a creamy stable lather and a more pleasant scent and there may be a future.
Meanwhile I think I will try using this in combination with creams to create super lathers. Who knows we may then have the best of all worlds.
 
Hi Fido,
Well.....at least you managed to get a decent shave, albeit at breakneck speed. As regards the smell, again I can only say that it is very popular with people who get the opportunity to smell it before they buy. I do the same scent in a bar soap as well. Having said that both cedarwood and lavender are common in furniture polishes, so obviously it's triggered an unfortunate memory association in your case. :) It's a problem with buying products where scent is important when buying on the internet.
I hope at least you can combine it with a cream and thereby salvage it. Ditto Stitch and Antdad. However, obviously I appreciate that it is supposed to work as a stand alone product.
In the meantime I am working on reformulating....if anyone knows where I can get Kokum butter for less than £50 a kg, let me know.
 
I have to admit, I found this thread a bit strange really. As a wet shaver for almost 30 years, I've tried just about every soap, cream and foam made (in the UK, US and Europe) at some point. When I first ordered a bowl of shaving soap from SA, it arrived quickly and I was entranced by the poured look and the fine smell. I have a very course beard that really could do with 2 shaves a day although I usually only shave once because of time. I ordered this soap because over the years I've developed all kinds of skin allergies to proprietary shaving soaps and also, my rigidly held belief that no animal need suffer just for me to have a shave, which SA confirmed her soap was animal friendly. I prefer a more watery lather to soften the stubble pre shave. I then beat up a thicker lather and apply before each pass of the razor (straight or safety), I mentally divide my face into 5 sections, both cheeks and neck (in line), The chin and neck, the upper lip/ moustache area and the lower lip and sides of mouth. I lather these sections prior to a pass of the razor no matter which soap I use (a habit of many years.) I do that until I have shaved all the stubble in the direction of growth. I then repeat it shaving against the direction of growth. This sounds like a bit of a palaver but it takes only a few minutes and gives me the closest shave. SA's soap foamed well for me and leaves my skin feeling wonderful. I still moisturise of course afterwards because all soaps can dry the skin. I have now had 3 bowls of soap in 'Mango', 'Cedarwood' and 'Red Spice' which I also have in a tiny 'hiker's pot' with lid. I also buy her soaps for washing in and haven't bought any other soaps since I started getting it from Soapalchemist because I've finally found someone who makes soap I really like that smells great and makes me feel good...If you're a real shaving buff, you'll know what I mean about that!
 
"SA's soap foamed well for me and leaves my skin feeling wonderful"

It did that for me too.
And my skin still feels wonderful several hours later.

That's why I will look forward to seeing if the lather can be made more stable and creamier. But that may not suit fatmanicwop! C'est la vie.
 
Soap with bits of dead animal floating it it, applied using the fur of another dead animal and scraped off with a piece of sharpened steel is the only way to shave.

Tried some of these new age soaps before and as others have said - they didn't even get as far as touching my face.

Anyone making them should shave with them - but I'm guessing they will still use some kind of gel.
 
Nice to hear from someone endorsing Soapalchemist's soap, but sadly this may have backfired as it looks too much of a coincidence that this wop chappy just appeared out of nowhere to endorse it. Perhaps it wasn't his intention but it might have been worth hearing back from some other recipients first.

I haven't tried a sample but would agree that lather doesn't have to be thick and long-staying for it to give a decent shave, but it helps. This is a subjective subject :) and I'm sure that other guys here will also have there opinions on the soap. I am currently using Henk's sample and will report back in a few days. I do hope others also respond to give a variety of opinions.

In the meantime, perhaps fatmanicwop would like to introduce himself in the welcome forum so that we can welcome him and get to know him a bit better? :D
 
Thanks Fido,
The good skin feel is what my customers tell me.
Fatman, I did a response to you that now seems to have disappeared into cyberspace. Thanks for the feedback, and I know already that my soap works for you. Suffice to say that the new formulation should if all goes to plan improve on lubrication and hydrating ability, as well as skin feel afterwards, as well as having a creamier (rather than too fluffy) lather that should hopefully be more stable as well.
Antdad, I recognise Fatmanicwop as one of my regular customers on Ebay, where he uses the same username.
Joe McClaine - I don't share your view that soap is best with bits of dead animals in it. However, I use neither shaving soap nor shaving gel myself......
Pigcat, no doubt if Fatman checks back, he will take up your invitation to introduce himself on the welcome forum.
 
Gents, put your conspiracy theory books away for a minute - FMW's been registered here for a month... let's hear what else he has to say before you assassinate him :lol:

Soap making and appreciation are both broad churches - you'll never be able to make soap that pleases all the people all the time... mostly because tastes are like posteriors, we all have one, they're all different and some are less attractive than others.
 
antdad said:
Fatmanicwop, your'e first post is a product endorsement now there's a coincidence. :lol: :lol: :lol:
Click to expand...

Sopalchemist sells on E-Bay under username of "beadpallette"

If you look at the feedback, fatmanicwop bought soap from her in May and for which he did post good feedback, if FMW wants to share that feedback on here...what’s the problem ......? :roll: :?

If sopalchemists current formulation is not working for some then maybe some changes are needed to improve it, but if you check the feedback on e-bay it's nice to see people have enjoyed the Soaps.

At least sopalchemist has supplied samples to test and is listening to all feedback positive and negative and is willing to try and make improvements.

I for one am willing to be a guinea pig to test this Soap out and provide feedback for improvement, I like the idea of some handmade soap being sold on here, and when we get more positive test results shall be putting in an order..

Steve
 
Well done Steve

I see bp has 100% feedback from 474 since 2002 with all positives for shaving soap sales. Just goes to show. That's a pretty good record. Just so happens that some of us are looking for different things. I'm looking forward to seeing how this develops because I really hope that a new formulation is a big winner for her and for us.
 
Thanks Sunburyboy and Fido; just made a test batch of new formulation, so can hardly restrain myself from checking it, but at this stage it would just pour out of the mould, so must wait a day or two. It may still need a lot of variations to it, but we will see.
 
interesting reading chaps

without having tried a sample i can't definitively add to this discussion but from Tony's pictures and the discriptions it sounds like this soap performs like the Olivia's stuff

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very slick, good lubrication and skincare but not the type of long lasting creamy lather you get with the usual suspects, which seems to be what your target market wants.

a little tinkering should yield the desired results ;)
 
sorry if i've missed any earlier posts but what's your ingredient list, and is it the inclusion of the clay that kills the lather?
 
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