I've been washing my face with a Glycerin soap to clean my face and I have noticed it makes a lot of foam (and a thick foam) not one that can be used for shaving, but I couldn't stop wondering if this could be used to make lather. I am curious, What makes a shaving soap (Glycerin) differ from a bath soap (Glycerin) ? What is that thing that makes a soap a *shaving* soap ? :ashamed001. I ask 'cause I saw a store that sells a lot ob products for the shower and they had a nice selection of Gly-Soaps it might be a bit less expensive for me to buy those locally than importing them from the US but before asking for the price I wanna know if there's a difference 'cause if they are as different as mules and horses then I won't bother to ask for the prices hehe. Not that getting the VDH is really expensive... well they cost me around 4$ each once they're here and I still have 9 pucks, but I thought it wouldn't hurt to find a way to save some bucks ------- EDIT I thought I rather extend this question for all the shaving soaps. I've seen bath soaps as low as 0.40$ and if they do the job as good as a shaving soap then I could save some serious bucks when the time to purchase more soap arrives
I'm sure a soap maker will add more detail, but I'll give my simple take: Different oils used to make soaps form different types of lather. While not really critical for cleaning properties, most people want hand, facial, and body soaps to make lots of lather and don't care to much how thick that lathers is. But, shave soaps need to form a thick, rich lather with very small bubbles. So the oils and the amounts of different oils used for shave soap are selected differently. "Glycerine" soaps are then made by adding glycerin and clarifying agents, such as alcohol and sugar, to the soap. These additives change the lather somewhat. Depending on what oils are used at the start, and what additives are used to clarify the soap you'll get different types of lather. In most cases, soaps not formulated with shaving in mind make terrible shaving lather. You might find a rare exception, but the only one I've heard of is Ivory soap, which is considered barely usable according to those who've reported on it.
OOOOhhhh... then there is a significative difference! It might be ironic but I think i didn't thought that Shaving soap task was to make lather :ashamed001 somehow it slipped my mind. I think I have it clear now bath soap makes lame lather. thanx for the help
I'd say only about 1/2 of them unless you include very small vendors like those that sell only on Etsy. I've found those with clay are with few exceptions much better.
interesting...that may be why I like Micah's soaps....ooops, I mean, Uncle Albert's soaps...so much, he uses clay in his concoctions, very nice shaves
You pretty much covered it! The only thing I might add is that you would want to look for ingredients like Sodium Stearate or Sodium Palmitate which are sodium salts (soaps) of Stearic Acid and Palmitic Acid. These two are higher chain fatty acids which are hard at room temperature and make a soap which is hard and doesn't melt that easily. The other benefit from using these is that they produce a lather that is much "creamier" than soaps made from the lower fatty chain acids which works beautifully for a shaving soap. Knowing the ingredients in a product can help predict whether it will work well for it's intended purpose! I hope this helps you!
Interesting question. I've used Pears (glycerin) bath soap in conjunction with a brush to shave with and it worked well IMO. But I don't ordinarily use glycerin soaps, bath or shave. On the topic of ordinary opaque soaps, obviously there is fair difference between the bath variety and the shave.
Pears Soap... I just finished shaving with a bar of Pears shaving soap. Excellent shave. My face is silky smooth. I bought four bars from The Dollar Tree and one puck of VDH Glycerin shaving soap. I want to try that in the near future to do a comparison. I can't imagine the two being vastly different, but I've been wrong before and I'll certainly be wrong again. If anyone here has tried it, please leave your input. Mine is that it shaves great, smells nice, but if you have any sores on your face they will sting a little. Didn't use any aftershave but applied plenty of cold water w/ a washcloth. Face stills feels tingly and refreshed. Read over on Badger & Blade that Pears soap use to mention how it could be used for shaving, and a person over there mentioned it's as good as any soap he's tried. Of course, that's just one person's opinion.
I don't know much about this topic, but I think I read somewhere that Nuetrogena glycerin face bars make an ok shave in a pinch. YMMV.
The last Glycerin bar I bought, which was from a UK supermarket called Waitrose contained SLS - the cheap foaming agent :angry037.
I am not sure if this still the existing ingredients list: Ingredients: TEA-Stearate, Triethanolamine, Sodium Tallowate, Glycerin, Purified Water, Sodium Cocoate, Sodium Ricinoleate, TEA-Oleate, Cocamide DEA, Fragrance, Tocopherol. But its full of tallowy goodness (artistic licence)
As others have pointed out the mixture of oils and additives in a shaving soap are designed to provide desirable lather, skin protection and razor slip. A bath soap is designed to cleanse the skin. A co-worker of mine uses Nutragena and Pears to shave with. I gave him a puck of the shaving soap that I made on Saturday to try. We'll see how he likes it. Diamondtim
