Home Made Soap - cast your vote!

I've used the bay rum a few times and I'm very happy with it. Easy to lather, had enough cushion & glide for me & I've tried it with an OC and an SE, both were fine. Not tried with a straight yet.

I do some odd things now & again and I did a test lather before trying a shave the following day. After I'd got a nice lather, I decided to slap it onto my face for no reason that I can explain. I did get a little bit of irritation, but put that down to putting soap onto a dry face. I certainly haven't had anything like that since, but just thought it was worth mentioning.

Hope the holiday went well & that napper isn't too burnt. Did you have to use a cartridge? The La Toja is very nice. Did you pick up any of their AS to go with it?
 
Celtic67 said:
I've used the bay rum a few times and I'm very happy with it. Easy to lather, had enough cushion & glide for me & I've tried it with an OC and an SE, both were fine. Not tried with a straight yet.

I do some odd things now & again and I did a test lather before trying a shave the following day. After I'd got a nice lather, I decided to slap it onto my face for no reason that I can explain. I did get a little bit of irritation, but put that down to putting soap onto a dry face. I certainly haven't had anything like that since, but just thought it was worth mentioning.

Hope the holiday went well & that napper isn't too burnt. Did you have to use a cartridge? The La Toja is very nice. Did you pick up any of their AS to go with it?
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The holiday was amazing thanks (apart from being stung by a jelly fish, and threatened by locals, but in ways that was kind of fun too). I didn't see any AS I'm afraid though.

Still waiting on some parts for the milling machine some TIG welding gas to arrive, but once they do a large trial will take place and hopefully we can see if the process makes any difference. At the very least, it should help remove any voids that seem to be present in the soap no matter what i try, and any visual imperfections.
 
Ok ladies and gents, who wants an update?

The first milling trial just took place. Only made a small batch of soap, just to see if it would actually go through the machine, but it did so quickly, easily, and smoothly.

Tomorrow, a slightly larger batch will go through three times and will be properly formed into a bar of soap. Come to think of it, I'll feel like a bit of a tit (excuse my language) if it all goes through and looks fine, only to not make any difference to the soap. But we will see.

Can you tell I'm excited?
 
Good news! Is the machine noisy? I'd be kinda disappointed if it was quiet. Big clanking machinery, that's what's needed! Wake the neighbours & have them rounding up a mob with pitchforks.
 
Uncle Bertie said:
I'm excited too. It's weird but your home made soap is the standard I'm setting my commercial soaps against - and many are falling short.
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Kind words indeed - thanks!

I agree, it would be cool to have it clanging and banging and be some kind of super machine, but i'm going to have to disappoint you. It's a very simple, quiet, hand operated (and slow) process. Mind you, I have a spare 1.3litre motorbike engine just laying around so maybe I could hook that up to it somehow ( just kidding, that would be a disaster!)

Sharon (have I got your name right?) no, the glycerine didn't ooze out. Not that I could tell anyway. I have no clue how the big boys in the industry do it, but I would imagine the soap goes through many processes, not just milling. Therefore, I don't really know at what stage the glycerine is supposed to separate out! At this stage, I'm just effectively mashing the soap together. Once I'm comfortable with his stage, more research can be undertaken to see what other processes they actually do to their soap. Understandably, they seem to keep it very hush, and not much is available on the internet (from my research, at least).
 
I think you have to use brine to extract the glycerine. I was getting confused as I always associate milled soap with soap that has had the glycerine removed. I think they grate it into noodles, boil in brine, then press it back together? I could be wrong about that.
 
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