I just tried some newly acquired soap, from The Village Soapsmith, off of ETSY. This is a fresh batch of Old Spice (Type). This is a very hard soap, with a good scent. I had to heat it, to form it into a container I use. When forming it to the container, and rinsing my hands off, after, I noticed this is a very, very slick soap. So, onto the shave. It seemed to lather well, but the Lather dissipated quickly. No worries, because it was slicker than snot. I'm into performance, not fluff. Well, halfway through the first pass, I noticed a little tingling on my face, that didn't stop, until the entire shave was over, and the face was rinsed many times. It was like the slickness wouldn't come off easily. That could be a good thing, but not in this case. I have had this feeling, many times, when messing with chemicals, and getting some on my fingers, also with Clorox Bleach. Chemical residue. I rinsed well, and applied my aftershave, which burned like fire. Not typical. So, My thought is that the chemical reaction to convert the Tallow, with the Lye, wasn't complete, and some residual Lye was left over. Any thoughts on this matter?? Also, I will let it sit for a couple of months, after I have mixed it with water good, and reformed it into the container, without a lid on. Hopefully this could help mellow the stuff out. I've had this happen, once before, and it did help, with another soap, years ago. Thoughts, and comments are definitely welcome.
Scott: sodium hydroxide, NAOH and potassium hydroxide KOH will both leave a slippery feeling on the skin and cause damage at the same time. You may be onto something with an incomplete reaction, leaving residual lye. It might be interesting to see what the pH of the soap is.
Sounds lye heavy to me. Depending upon your sense of adventure you could try the old "zap test" (or use pH strips or red cabbage).
Chris @americanshamrock knows about shaving creams. There's also Kathleen @Salty Belle and Irena @soapbuddy.
I agree that unreacted lye is a plausible explanation. The other (perhaps less likely) is an allergy to the scent oils.
Not yet. But, I'm not sure what that will accomplish. I'm not looking for a refund. But, giving them a heads up on the situation might be warranted.
They made the soap. They'd have a better idea of what's going on. If you aren't looking for a refund, including that in the message to the soapmaker is most likely to be appreciated. It sounds like a lye clump in the soap to me, since the zap test was negative.
I just sent the owner, Bonnie, a message on the matter. I am not looking for a refund, and I told her so. I just gave her a heads up, and asked for her opinion on this. Any idea, if letting it sit for a while, will allow the soap to mellow out??
I did mix it well with tap water, and reform it into the container. So, this will not help? What can be done, if anything, to solve the problem, aside from tossing it?
If it were my soap, I'd probably try melting it down in a double boiler, stir to make sure there are no clumps, add a bit of oil for any unreacted lye to react with, then pour it into a container, and let it sit for a few weeks. But then again, I'd probably find that not worth the hassle for a $6 soap. Just adding water, if there isn't fat/oil for the unreacted lye to react with, isn't going to do anything to help the situation.
Ok. . I spoke with Bonnie, of Village Soapsmith. She said she had experimented with a duel lye recipe, and hadn't expected that. She advised to stop using it, and send some back for her to test. She is also going to replace, and send other samples to test.
Hey, I got a similar problem with my largely vegan formula (only silk seems to be non-vegan in the ingredients) from the Village Soapsmith and my face got a little burning/irritation that forces me to do only 1 pass each shave. The lather breaks up quick just like you describe and the slickness is pretty amazing just like you describe. The scent is also fantastic for use with Old Spice IMO (about as good an after-market scent as I've tried so far). I'm wondering if you could let me know if Bonnie manages to perfect a shave soap with this scent as it's awesome smelling and although not 'exactly' like Old Spice, it shares many similarities to the scent and is a fantastic pairing with Old Spice scented products. I think The Village Soapsmith's version is a tad more cinnamon'ish than real Old Spice and it's missing the Old Spice floral elements, but just about 70% of what makes Old Spice's dry down smell good is in this knock-off scent. So, it works really well with Old Spice without messing up or clashing with the Old Spice scent. This is the formula/soap that I bought: Is that the same stuff you bought? If so, it doesn't list any tallow. If you check my Old Spice shave kit link in my signature you can read a full review of this soap and I tried to warn people that I could only get 1-pass on my shave due to any further passes giving me some burning sensation. The only reason I use this soap is due to the excellent scent and that I can get away with 1-pass on these (mostly) Sunday shaves using my Red-Tip Superspeed.
Sorry to hear you had the same problem. Yes, your soap, and mine are the same, except I bought mine a week or so ago. I don't think the scent is as strong as Stirling Spice version.