I like this soap a lot, too, but I agree with you that the scent is pretty bad. I have been using it in superlathers to boost the lather of some samples I had that smell great but don't make a rich enough lather for my taste. It works well for this purpose.

I also have some essential oils sitting around so I can add a few drops to the lather once I've run through these great-smelling but otherwise inadequate soap samples.

Thank you for this interesting read. That scent profile sounds fantastic!

Tallow beta 1.1 (no coconut oil)



I only loaded for 20 seconds this time and the brush was full. It's funny how things can change over the months because I distinctly remember this being difficult to lather and a lot of us laughing about getting tendonitis trying the lather this. It may have helped me pressing this into the bottom of the jar rather than trying to lather off the puck.




Slickness 8.5/10 this soap requires a tremendous amount of water or it gets extremely sticky and tacky. Just by looking at the ingredients you would have seen it takes a lot of water but double up your assumption and then add a couple drops more.

Residual slickness 9/10 way better than I remember last time. I did almost an entire pass across the grain with just water!

Cushion 9/10

Moisturizing 7.5/10 this really lets me down especially when I look at the ingredients. I know exactly what caused the reduced moisturizing and it has to do with making soap in stages rather than all at one time. I will save the in-depth explanation for later on in this thread. Lesson learned.

Scent 7/10 a very synthetic Bleu de Chanel cologne and not nearly strong enough to mask the overwhelming amount of Tallow this has. Still it was a great experiment for my first coconut oil free soap and I'm glad I Revisited it many months later.

Overall 8.5/10

I highly encourage those of you looking to make a soap without coconut oil to try this recipe as well as some of the MdC clones with reduced coconut oil. After you try this a few times you will know if your face likes it or not. The Tallow provides all the slickness you want but getting the moisturizing where you need it will take some tweaks to the recipe which I will show later on as I progress through the Soaps.

And just so you all don't think that soap making is all roses and rainbows tomorrow I will review beta 1.2 which was so bad I haven't used it since the very first use. This stuff was so bad, and I mean soooo bad it will make your eyes burn haha

This was my first huge disaster, beta 1.2 with the suede leather scent. It is so synthetic, so overpowering, so horribly mixed with bentonite clay and sheep fat that just opening the container makes me sick. To make things worse the soap has a tinge of green.






Only a 20 second load is needed and I run it very wet. If you run this dry you will get the same problems as the previous soap, a sticky tacky shave.

Slickness 9/10

Residual sickness 9.2/10

Cushion 9/10

Moisturizing 8.5/10

Scent 0/10

Overall 9/10

This was my first really good recipe. I started to dial in the ingredients by looking at other recipes online where shea butter took the primary super fat roll and things like avocado oil not nearly as high as 5%. Avocado oil and castor oil over the 5% mark create a soap that is sticky.

All in all this would be a solid step in the right direction except for the scent. If scent was factored into the overall score this would be a 2/10

I question the vacuum process: Did you happen to evacuate while the soap was hot? If so, you might have better success if you evacuate, then slowly apply heat.

Glad to hear that I wasn't the only one who really, really didn't like the scent of that soap. I disliked it so much, in fact, that I only shaved with it once. It was really hard for me to evaluate the soap on its own merits because the scent was so distasteful. I honestly can't even remember if it was a good lather or if it provided good cushion or slickness.

Of the samples the leather scent was also my least favorite. I didn't care for the performance either, however I may have been running it too dry.

Great read Rockclimber. I make my own hand soap/shampoo bars using the hot pressed method and find it really rewarding. I might have to try shaving soap next......

I shaved with one of the samples this morning. I had labelled it "tallow 1.2." It has a blue-green color that is very strange. It smells like cologne (perhaps the Bleu de Chanel scent?).

I bloomed it with a small amount of water while I showered. Lathered it with a synthetic brush.

Loading was slow, but the protolather was rich (not bubbly or airy at all). The lather required a lot of working in the bowl and several additions of water before it got where I wanted it, but once there, it was a beautiful, dense, rich lather.

Slickness was good, protection was good. Post-shave face feel off the charts good, although I know some guys probably wouldn't like it because it almost feels like you can't rinse it off your face no matter how many times you rinse. But it's a layer of residual slickness and softness that I actually enjoy. I think this might be a great soap for midwinter, because it doesn't feel like it could dry your face if it tried; almost feels like it is actually ADDING moisture to your face.

The scent? So-so, but not horrible.

Overall, this soap is actually unlike any commercial soap I've ever tried. The differences between this soap and commercially available soaps are mostly good; the only downside is the amount of time it takes to get it to its best lather.

I may put this one away until the dead of winter and then use it a lot.

Fascinating thread. I will definitely be keeping an eye out for updates to this one. I find the soap making process vet interesting. I just don't have the patience for it myself. Good luck with your experiments. Is the ultimate goal to sell the soap or are you just trying top find the perfect soap for you?

I pulled a vacuum while the soap was at full heat. I think your idea of slowly letting it heat while under vacuum is a great idea! Hopefully I can create a glass like slab of soap in a dish. I have used this vacuum for many other things in the past so I am confident I can make this work eventually.

The clay created a great slickness but yeah, getting past that scent is impossible. I am going to trash the soap as its not even suitable for shower duty.

It takes over 20ml of water which is on the extreme side. Most of the super thirsty soaps take between 10-15ml of water. I was definitely superfatting these too much which required them to take way more water than people were ready for. The good news is that they are very moisturizing, the bad news is that many times the slickness suffers for it. It is all about achieving a good balance and that takes dozens of batches to achieve. For me the MdC clones are too drying (Stearic acid, coconut oil, water and fragrance) but my 20% superfatted soaps were way too moisturizing. I'll post my beta 1.7 batch later on in this thread where I seem to have found a happy medium and my coworkers seem to agree as it was all given out and used already. I need to make another batch of that 1.7 with a different scent.

You should definitely do it! Are you a veggie fan or a tallow fan? The veggie soap recipe is super easy and cheap to get started in. If you do make some lets swap soaps, I would love to try yours!

Sounds like beta 1.3 with the Blue de Chanel scent that was overpowered by the tallow and butters. Great review and spot on about the superfatted butters, there is a tremendous amount of them. I can't imagine using the beta 1.3 in the summer but I am excited to try it out again soon now that it has some age on it. I thought it had CO in it but perhaps not? I guess I will be using that tonight actually just so I can remember what I made and what went wrong with it. Too many soaps and not enough days in the year to shave!

Just having fun, I don't see a market to sell into as the shave soap market is very crowded as it is and my full time job as a Registered Investment Advisor takes priority. Making soap really only takes me around 30 minutes of work, the rest of the time is just waiting for the butters to melt or for the hot process to finish. I never stand over the soap for 2 hours, I set it up and leave it for 20 minutes while I go on to kids homework, etc. Come back 20 minutes later and add lye or stir etc. I actually spend more time testing and posting about it than the actual making of soap. I think in another life I could make commercial soap but I would first like to be a commercial ammunition manufacturer so my soap making life will have to wait for my 3rd or 4th reincarnation lol Edit: I also would like to own a bar in another life as well so that pushes soap down another few notches. Its too bad humans have to sleep 6-8 hours a night and we only live 80-100 years. There is just so much fun in the world and so little time!

I almost want to skip reviewing tallow beta 1.3 and 1.4 for now and go straight to tallow beta 1.5 which is an I Coloniali clone. That is the first soap that my coworkers actually liked enough to shave with every day. I am going to hold off however and suffer through the next few reviews since I haven't touched them in months and really need to review them again now that my experience level has improved. That and I just gave some 1.3 to a member on here and he may need this thread as a reference to what he likes/dislikes about certain ingredients.

Over at B&B I think I reviewed tallow version 1.4 which had coconut oil and glycerin added to the 1.3 Blue de Chanel recipe. Around 15% coconut oil and 11% glycerin. That batch went quickly as well and I actually dont have at my house to review now that I think about it, I will have to hit up a coworker to get ahold of some of that.

Initially I was going to make beta 1.5 the same recipe as beta 1.4 with clay and lanolin added. but instead went after I Coloniali Mango instead.

I Coloniali Mango Ingredients: Aqua (water), stearic acid, palmitic acid, cocos nucifera (coconut) oil, myristic acid, glycerin, potassium hydroxide, isostearic acid, sodium hydroxide, parfum (fragrance), mangifera indica (mango) seed oil, boric acid, menthol, propylene glycol, benzyl salicylate, lauric acid, tetrasodium edta, ci 47005 (yellow 10), ci 16035 (red 40), ci 42090 (blue 1)

Beta 1.5 ingredients: Water, Stearic Acid, Palm oil, coconut oil, glycerin, potassium hydroxide, sodium hydroxide, essential oils, mango seed oil, boric acid, menthol, EDTA.

Interesting.

I actually sent you a PM over at B&B asking you why so many people make MdC clones but nobody clones I Coloniali, and I sent the recipe, as well. Interesting to see that you had apparently already come up with the idea. You know what they say: Great minds think alike. Curiously, so do ours. ;-)

I loves me some I Coloniali. I wouldn't mind it if it were available in different scents. Were you able to get a soap that approximated it in performance?

I've reversed engineered
Stirling
B&M
iC
CRSW
MdC
Tabac
Etc.

As to how close it is I really couldn't say as I've only shaved with I Coloniali one time and absolutely loved it. I'll make another batch this week and send you a tin, let me know what you think and we'll just go from there bro. I.e. more or less CO, more or less butters etc. You know the drill

The only thing I deliberately changed was reducing the amount of boric acid in my version as they actually had more boric acid than Menthol which to me is crazy. I did add boric acid but my next batch I'm going to remove it entirely. Also my scent was not even close to what they had in terms of deep spicy incense and Amber. That stuff just smells incredible!

Awesome. Happy to participate.

I wonder what the purpose of the boric acid is in the soap formula? I know it kills cockroaches, but aside from that I'm drawing blanks on what boric acid is used for.

If you've reverse engineered all those soaps already, you've been keeping pretty busy on the soap-making front. I'm impressed!

I have been making around 1 recipe a week but couldn't really post on Badger and blade because it was deemed self promotion. You can't say "this is a Tabac clone" and then hand it out to friends

I even stopped using circular soap molds at one point and just poured them into small bread pans so they look like little bars of gold.

Continuing on the progression of soaps I'm at beta 1.3



The soap is aging nicely it now has a nice gold color and seems more homogeneous. I get a wet brush and load for 30 seconds exactly.





I add exactly 20 milliliters of water which proved to be a tad too much. 15 milliliters or 1 tablespoon would have been perfect.

I need to test this with a more aggressive razor but it seems like 50% stearic and 24 oleic is a great base and very creamy. In fact it scores 68 on creaminess and only 8 on bubbly. I don't feel like at the time this was a huge step in my soap making knowledge but it was just another step.

Slickness 8.5/10.
Residual slickness 8.8/10
Cushion 9/10
Moisturizing 9/10
Scent 4/10
Overall 8.8/10

Since the I Coloniali itself was discontinued according to the rumors, it's very good that somebody succeeded to produce a clone of it