Unscented soaps

Sudsy Soapy..hard to beat. Great cushion easy lather and I find it slick
Under the radar for sure

I haven't used their unscented, but I agree Sudsy Soapery soaps are excellent.

I unfortunately suffer from both skin sensitivity and migraines caused by many scents.
It took me a very long time and over 200 soaps to create my rotation.

After covid, my skin sensitivity became a much bigger problem!

I was reacting to nearly every soap and went from 60+ soaps to just 7. Even these sometimes caused issues so I started making my own unscented soap.

I'm so happy I did as I petty much nailed the recipe on the first go! I make a summer edition without butters and winter edition which has a lot of cocoa butter.
(I feel cocoa butter has the most ideal fatty acid composition of all the butters to make up a large percentage of shaving soap)

I use my soap 9/10 times and rotate the 7 scented soaps in-between.

Hello Nav sorry to hear that you found out about the skin reaction and migraines to the scents but in your venture to try and make something more suitable, it's cool that you got into making something yourself. I'd like to see a lather shot of your soap. One of my goals for later this year to get my first few batches of shave soap in just for fun and to try out some ideas. Since you mentioned your comments on cocoa butter, if as you say you make a theoretical batch of shave soap with a high proportion cocoa butter, is there anyway to describe what the general feel of the lather would be? I know its a very usuable fatty acid profile but for some reason, I didn't want to include it in my potential recipes. Thought I remember it being rated C or average in terms of possibly clogging pores. Just an assumption, but doesn't cocoa butter the lather a bit more weight and density? I want to say it provides a bit of greasiness to the soap and gives some contribution to some post shave feel.

Anyways Nav, if you haven't tried or don't have any kokum butter in a soap, feel free to PM and I set you up with some to try out. I bought 5lbs of it last year and am slowly denting my way through it. Cheers

Hello Nav sorry to hear that you found out about the skin reaction and migraines to the scents but in your venture to try and make something more suitable, it's cool that you got into making something yourself. I'd like to see a lather shot of your soap. One of my goals for later this year to get my first few batches of shave soap in just for fun and to try out some ideas. Since you mentioned your comments on cocoa butter, if as you say you make a theoretical batch of shave soap with a high proportion cocoa butter, is there anyway to describe what the general feel of the lather would be? I know its a very usuable fatty acid profile but for some reason, I didn't want to include it in my potential recipes. Thought I remember it being rated C or average in terms of possibly clogging pores. Just an assumption, but doesn't cocoa butter the lather a bit more weight and density? I want to say it provides a bit of greasiness to the soap and gives some contribution to some post shave feel.

Anyways Nav, if you haven't tried or don't have any kokum butter in a soap, feel free to PM and I set you up with some to try out. I bought 5lbs of it last year and am slowly denting my way through it. Cheers

Hey Zac!
Hope you're well!

Since you're getting into soap making, I'll share my (low level) technical info...

The heavy/greasy and skin conditioning feel comes mainly from oleic and linoleic fatty acids.

Kokum butter is nearly 50/50 stearic and oleic.
Shea butter is also high in stearic and oleic.
Both these are good options as they'll add good lathering ability and skin conditioning.

Kokum will contribute to a harder soap and shea will add some softness.

Why I prefer cocoa:
It contributes roughly 1/3rd each of stearic acid, palmitic acid and oleic acid.

I find palmitic around 15-18% and stearic around 50-55% make a great shaving soap!
Cocoa butter also makes a very hard soap.

For the bulk stearic acid content, I use soy wax instead of stearic acid. Why?
Because it is 87% stearic acid and 11% palmitic acid. In addition to this, it releases glycerine whereas stearic acid doesn't and one needs to "make-up" for this by adding glycerine as an additive.

I also prefer 10% coconut oil even though some artisans dropped it in a recent trend but I find this small amount really adds to the ability to infuse air into the lather faster, without causing any skin dryness!

I dropped castor oil altogether. I found it doesn't add anything special enough to the soap and I also feel it takes away from glide of the same recipe without the castor oil. I also don't prefer the type of lather produced when castor oil is in the recipe.

I add some sweet almond oil to bump up the oleic/linoleic acid to a total of around 20-24% of the recipe.

Hemp seed oil (linoleic/linolenic acids) is a great option to add skin conditioning but with less of the heavy feel of oleic acid.

Then there's the whole world of additives but I keep those to a bare minimum by just adding some liquid silk.
I may add lanolin or jojoba oil next time I make a batch.

How does this look to you?
I hope it's clear enough.

Btw thanks for the kokum offer but I'm outside CONUS and luckily I have easy access to all the butters here.

Hello Nav sorry to hear that you found out about the skin reaction and migraines to the scents but in your venture to try and make something more suitable, it's cool that you got into making something yourself. I'd like to see a lather shot of your soap. One of my goals for later this year to get my first few batches of shave soap in just for fun and to try out some ideas. Since you mentioned your comments on cocoa butter, if as you say you make a theoretical batch of shave soap with a high proportion cocoa butter, is there anyway to describe what the general feel of the lather would be? I know its a very usuable fatty acid profile but for some reason, I didn't want to include it in my potential recipes. Thought I remember it being rated C or average in terms of possibly clogging pores. Just an assumption, but doesn't cocoa butter the lather a bit more weight and density? I want to say it provides a bit of greasiness to the soap and gives some contribution to some post shave feel.

Anyways Nav, if you haven't tried or don't have any kokum butter in a soap, feel free to PM and I set you up with some to try out. I bought 5lbs of it last year and am slowly denting my way through it. Cheers

Here's a couple of lather pics as requested:

I spent a long time using the PAA CK6 unscented soap when I went into a mindless shave routine for a year or two and it seemed to be fine. I have Blue Devil Shave soap unscented which was pretty great but it did have a bit of base funk scent to it.
If I were to pick up an unscented soap again I would probably grab something from Stirling.

Sir Henry's No. 13.
Unscented and guaranteed. Tallow based.

Sent from my SM-A716U1 using Tapatalk

Sir Henry's No. 13.
Unscented and guaranteed. Tallow based.

Sent from my SM-A716U1 using Tapatalk

Agreed! This is a soap that continues to both surprise and impress me. I typically rotate a different soap every week, but when #13 was up, I went two weeks! Great stuff, folks, and so reasonably priced!

I use unscented now more than other soaps. My go to's include MWF, Southern Witch Crafts Incorporeal , and Stirling unscented. Allows for more funds to go the splashes and everything else.