ShavingUniverse.com

Register a free account now!

If you are registered, you get access to the members only section, can participate in the buy & sell second hand forum and last but not least you can reserve your preferred username before someone else takes it.

How to add Menthol to a shaving soap

shelob

Well-Known Member
In summer I am a friend of menthol-containing shaving soaps. These days arrived 500g Dusy Cabinet shaving soap and I had the idea to add a part of it with menthol. There is a nice way to grind menthol crystals into the mug using a spice mill. But this is not very practical for me.
So yesterday I mixed a few soap flakes with a gram of menthol crystals in a soap box and then added some water. The whole thing was then quite muddy and whether all crystals are properly dissolved, was not to be seen. The result this morning was a well working shaving soap with a slight cooling effect.
Today I thought to myself, do this a little more exact.

For this I took the following things:
IMG_8409.jpg

- A precision balance
- A beaker
- menthol crystals
- soap grater
- Cosmetic base water
- Soap box


I dissolved the menthol crystals in cosmetic base water, in my case 1g menthol with 10g base water. Menthol dissolves very fast in alcohol, in principle you can simply take pure alcohol, the base water has additional panthenol and was just there. I grated the soap, here a palmostick (50g), and then added it to the dissolved menthol in the beaker. I mixed the whole thing well with a fork, so that all soap flakes could come into contact with the menthol liquid. The ratio of 10g alcohol and 50g soap looks usable.
IMG_8410.jpg
IMG_8411.jpg
IMG_8412.jpg


I then filled the mix into the final container and pressed it down as usual.
Now simply leave the soap dish open so that the alcohol can evaporate. After 3-4 hours the consistency is already quite firm and the soap can be used. But I leave it open overnight to make it even firmer.
IMG_8413.jpg
IMG_8414.jpg

Actually I wanted to do this with an ARKO stick, but unfortunately there is none available at the moment. The next time I'm at the Turkish supermarket, I'll probably pack a few. The cost factor is negligible when it comes to finding the perfect amount of menthol. But Palmo Stick also works as an alternative. ;)


Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator
 
Thanks for the info! Not that I'm personally going to use it (I would rather know how to extract menthol from a soap) but I'm sure plenty of people will find this interesting. I know Hans "The King" has his own method of adding menthol to soap, maybe he will also post it.
 
I tried the chill mill method as well, but I notice a lot of bigger particles remain in the soap. Not that nice when applying lather to the face, at least thats what i think.
Another method i’ve seen is adding menthol crystals to a bottle of glycerine. The crystals dissolve well in glycerine as opposed to water. Add a few drops of mentholated glycerine to your lather or onto your brush and Bob’s your uncle.
 
I've never practiced Shelob's method myself.

Just like @kit described above, I once bought the menthol bomb from The Shave Den.
This was a liquid with a quantity of menthol which you could add during the lathering process.

Because of this I have since filled a separate bottle with glycerine and a lot of menthol crystals.

I have wisely done this in steps until with the addition of a drop or 10 some cooling occurred. I drip this solution into the shaving bowl before lathering up the shaving soap.

The advantage is that not all of the shaving soap is mentholated but you can adjust the cooling - by adding more or less drops to your shaving soap - for example to the weather or your mood.

I also have the menthol mill but the Glycerine/menthol solution works better for me.

With several glycerine shavingsoaps from Mama Bears I added extra menthol to the melting process.
This is usually a 3 to 4% menthol if the soap is already provided with menthol from MB.
Would you do more here then it has a detrimental effect on the quality of the foam as far as I'm concerned, for me, 10% of menthol is the maxium.
 
Nice to follow this experiment.:daumenhoch

With this ratio it is possible to indicate the cooling that the soap gives?
Just say that of a Lea Classic, Stirling Chill or for example a Proraso green or white.
 
I have never been a big fan of menthol. Seems that it reacts to my skin like a thousand needles poking my face at the same time. Odd, however that the synthetic menthol does not affect me as much. Still, this is a very good thread as it shows other members ingenuity in resolving a common problem. goodjob!
 
Today I did 3 Mixtures with Arko, 1, 1,5 and 2/50. I will tell you about my feelings with it.

Nice to follow this experiment.:daumenhoch

With this ratio it is possible to indicate the cooling that the soap gives?
Just say that of a Lea Classic, Stirling Chill or for example a Proraso green or white.
I am probably not the No 1 to do this, but I will try ;)
I can compare to some mentholated soaps, Proraso is one of them. Will keep you informed. :D
 
Back
Top