Making shaving soap – getting started

Making shaving soap is a craft of its own. This article helps you prepare and choose a detailed tutorial. It is not a complete recipe with interchangeable ingredients.

What a shaving soap needs to do

Soapmaking reacts fats and oils with an alkali. A shaving soap needs to lather with a brush and provide a lubricating film. An arbitrary body-soap recipe is therefore not automatically a suitable shaving soap. See Soap types and Ingredients.

Before the first batch

Choose a fully documented recipe covering the fats, alkali type, purity, water quantity and method. Do not adjust these by guesswork. Sodium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide are different substances; their quantities cannot simply be exchanged. Use suitable measuring equipment and dedicated utensils.

Both hydroxides are corrosive. Prepare an uncluttered, ventilated workspace and use suitable eye protection and chemical-resistant gloves as specified by the safety data sheet. Keep children and pets away. Read the tutorial and chemical supplier's safety instructions completely before starting.

Choosing a tutorial

The Soap Queen tutorial linked below demonstrates a specific shaving-soap project. Read its ingredient list, process and precautions in full instead of borrowing isolated quantities. If you are unfamiliar with handling alkalis, a supervised course is a useful first step.

Record the recipe, batch date and observations. Evaluate the soap only after the prescribed finishing and curing process. An unchecked batch should not be used on the face. For the later lathering step, see Building lather.

Sources and further reading

Sources checked on 9 October 2026. Find soap makers in the link collection.