Fifth Soap – Salt Bar # 1

This was a type of soap that I was particularly looking forward to making.  I had read a lot of good things about Salt Bars before, looked in to what made them so special and was eager to try it out for myself.

An average soap will not lather in salt water – the salt saturates the water and inhibits the way that the bubbles are formed.   With that in mind, it seems strange to add salt to a soap.

Salt bars counter this issue by Continue Reading…

Fourth Soap – Lard # 1

Almost there, catching up on things that I have already made.  The trouble is, I’m still making things as I write the blog so the finish line keeps on getting further and further away!  But seeing as talking or writing about soap is very high on my list of pastimes, this is certainly no bad thing.

This soap was a collection of new things for me.  As it was my fourth soap, that is not hard to imagine.  But it was the first time using lard, the first time using oats and the first time using Hot Process.  I will post about the different process (hot and cold) at a later point, but as a wee introduction it means that I heated the soap batter in a slow cooker until it was completely soap and then I put in the essential oils and moulded it all up.  In Cold Process, the soap batter becomes soap in the mould and requires more time.

In the olden days, before vegetable based oils were widely available and affordable, people made soap with animal fats.  Lard is from pig fat while Tallow comes Continue Reading…

Third Soap – Castile # 1

The third soap that I made (on the 6th January 2014) is a Castile soap, another one that has a particular purpose – it is a soap made with only one oil, Olive Oil. It’s named after the Castile region of Spain where it was originally produced using the same techniques as with Aleppo soap but without the Laurel oil which makes an Aleppo what it is. As laurel oil wasn’t easy to get hold of so far west, soap was just made with the abundant olive oil. A Castile has no other oil than olive – some people market soap with mostly olive oil as Castile but it is actually Bastile, a soap with Continue Reading…

Second Soap – Pine Tar # 1

Getting back to soaps, but still catching up on soaps made before the blog started, today I want to talk about the second soap that I made on the 14th December 2013 – a nice Pine Tar soap.

This type of soap is one of the reasons why I started this whole thing. It’s a classic recipe, used from the 1800s through to early 1900s. It fell out of fashion somewhat, as many of the things I make have. This was mainly due to the carcinogenic properties of Creosote that often ended up in Pine Tar products. But a good Pine Tar Continue Reading…

Previously, on “The Efficacious Gentleman”…………

So, I am rather late with starting this blog.

It was supposed to be a place to capture the journey through the world of soaping, but to be honest I was rather too busy researching and making soap.  At this particular stage I have made 3 different types of soap, a pre-shave oil, Bay Rum cologne and a moisturising bar (under the brand of The Admirable Lady) but we’ll look at these in more detail in the coming posts.

Whilst that may not sound like much, there is a certain complication on top of the many complications that arise from soaping in general – Continue Reading…