Soap & Body Care

How to Make Shaving Soap

A melt-and-pour shaving soap skips lye entirely: melt a butter-rich base, work in kaolin clay and glycerin for slip and lather, scent it, and pour. This recipe makes a creamy bar with optional charcoal moustache embeds.

Two cream soap bars with black charcoal moustache embeds on a wood vanity beside a towel, sage, and candle

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Lone Star Candle Supply

Last edited

Read time

7 min read

A melt-and-pour shaving soap is the friendly way into shaving bars: there is no lye to handle and no long cure to wait out. You melt a finished soap base, work in the two ingredients that make it a shaving soap, and pour. The base does the cleaning, the kaolin clay adds the slip a razor needs, and glycerin keeps the bar from drying out skin. This recipe uses a butter-rich base for a creamy lather and adds optional charcoal moustache embeds for a bar that looks the part.

The FDA reserves the word soap for products whose cleaning action comes from the alkali salts of fatty acids, the material formed when fats or oils combine with an alkali such as lye[1]. A melt-and-pour base arrives already saponified, so you get true soap without measuring lye yourself.

What You'll Need

What You'll Need

Check items off as you gather them

Supplies

  • Butter-Rich M&P Soap Base about 35 oz; the Stephenson Triple Butter base gives a creamy, conditioning lather. Browse the full melt and pour soap bases selection
  • Kaolin Clay 2 tablespoons; the slip-and-lather ingredient
  • Vegetable Glycerine 1 tablespoon; loosens the clay and conditions skin
  • Soap-Safe Fragrance Oil about 1 oz; over 275 fragrance oils list soap compatibility on the product page
  • Rubbing Alcohol in a spray bottle, to pop surface bubbles and bond layers
  • Clear M&P Soap Base optional about 18 oz for the moustache embeds (Stephenson Standard Transparent M&P Soap Base)
  • Cosmetic-Grade Charcoal optional 3 tablespoons, to color the embeds

Tools & Equipment

  • Soap Bar Mold a silicone bar mold releases cleanly (silicone molds)
  • Microwave-Safe Container for melting the base in short bursts
  • Knife or Soap Cutter and Cutting Board to cube the base
  • Stirring Utensil a spatula, whisk, or spoon
  • Moustache Cookie Cutter optional to cut the charcoal embeds

Skip ahead to the step-by-step guide

Why Kaolin Clay and Glycerin

A plain soap base lathers, but it does not glide. The two additions below are what turn it into a shaving bar, and they are the difference makers in any melt-and-pour shaving soap recipe.

The Two Shaving-Soap Ingredients

Kaolin Clay

A fine hydrated aluminum silicate that adds slip so the razor glides instead of dragging, and gives the lather more body. It also lightly absorbs excess oil from skin[2]. Two tablespoons per pound or two of base is plenty.

Glycerin

A humectant that draws and holds moisture against skin, so the bar cleans without feeling stripping[3]. It doubles as the carrier that loosens the clay into a smooth paste, so the clay disperses evenly instead of clumping.

The Step-by-Step Process

The recipe pours in two parts: first the charcoal embeds, then the butter base around them. If you are skipping the moustaches, jump to the butter base at step 5 and pour a plain bar.

How to Make Melt & Pour Shaving Soap

  1. 1

    Melt the clear base for the embeds

    Cube about 18 oz of clear soap base and melt it in a microwave-safe container, heating in short bursts until fully liquid. Adjust the amount to your mold size.

    Purple-gloved hand placing white soap base cubes into a glass measuring bowl on a wooden cutting board
  2. 2

    Mix the charcoal colorant

    Stir 3 tablespoons of cosmetic-grade charcoal into 1 tablespoon of rubbing alcohol until smooth. The alcohol wets the powder so it disperses without clumps.

    Blue-gloved hand pouring liquid from a white bottle onto black charcoal powder in a dotted bowl
  3. 3

    Color the clear base

    Stir the charcoal paste into the melted clear base until the color is even and fully black.

    Blue-gloved hand stirring black-dyed melted soap in a glass measuring jug with a white spatula
  4. 4

    Pour a thin embed slab

    Spray a flat silicone mold with rubbing alcohol, pour the black base about a quarter inch deep, spray the surface again to clear bubbles, and leave it to set for about half an hour.

    Blue-gloved hands pouring black melted soap from a glass jug into a red square silicone moldRed square silicone mold filled with smooth black soap, blue-gloved hand pointing nearby
  5. 5

    Melt the butter base

    While the slab sets, cube about 35 oz of the butter-rich base and melt it in short bursts, stirring between each, until completely liquid.

    Blue-gloved hand sliding wavy-cut white soap cubes off a wooden board into a glass jug
  6. 6

    Make the clay-and-glycerin paste

    Stir 2 tablespoons of kaolin clay into 1 tablespoon of glycerin until you have a smooth, lump-free paste. Mixing the clay into the glycerin first keeps it from clumping in the melted base.

    Blue-gloved hands mixing a creamy white paste in a small dotted bowl on a cutting board
  7. 7

    Cut the moustache embeds

    Once the black slab is set but still slightly soft, flex it out of the mold and press out moustache shapes with the cookie cutters. Set the embeds aside.

    Blue-gloved hands peeling a set black soap slab out of a flexible red silicone moldBlue-gloved hands cutting moustache shapes from black soap with metal cutters on a wooden board
  8. 8

    Scent and clay the butter base

    Stir the clay-and-glycerin paste and about 1 oz of soap-safe fragrance oil into the melted butter base. Let the base cool toward setting before adding fragrance so less scent is lost to heat. It is safe to add fragrance to warm base; the precaution is keeping the oil away from open flames[4].

    Blue-gloved hands straining white melted soap through a dotted bowl into a glass jug, black moustaches alongside
  9. 9

    Pour the bar base

    Spray the bar mold with rubbing alcohol, fill it about three-quarters full with the butter base, spray the surface again, and let it set for about an hour.

    Blue-gloved hand pouring pink-tinted white melted soap into a small red rectangular silicone mold
  10. 10

    Set the embed and top off

    Once that layer is set, spray it with rubbing alcohol and lay a moustache embed on top. Pour a thin layer of butter base around the embed, taking care not to bury it, then spray once more and let the bar set completely.

    Blue-gloved hand pressing white soap into a small red mold, a black moustache shape on the boardBlue-gloved hand pouring white melted soap over a black moustache embed in a red rectangular mold

Curing, Wrapping, and Using

Melt-and-pour bars firm up enough to unmold in a few hours, and they skip the long cure that cold-process soap needs. Give the bars a day or two to harden fully so they last longer in the shower, then wrap them once they are completely cool to limit the beads of glycerin dew that humid air pulls to the surface.

To shave, wet the bar and a shaving brush, then load the brush by swirling it across the soap until it builds a lather. The kaolin clay carries that lather into a slick cushion the razor can glide over. When you want a different look or scent, the same method works with any butter or clear base from our melt and pour soap bases. For the plain melt-and-pour method without the clay and embeds, our How to Make Melt & Pour Hand Soap walks the basic bar from cube to unmold, and our Melt & Pour Soap Recipes collects more projects to try.

Sources

  1. Frequently Asked Questions on Soap U.S. Food & Drug Administration ↩
  2. Comprehensive assessment of the efficacy and safety of a clay mask in oily and acne skin Skin Research and Technology, 2023 ↩
  3. The Role of Moisturizers in Addressing Various Kinds of Dermatitis: A Review Clinical Medicine & Research, 2017 ↩
  4. 29 CFR 1910.106 — Flammable liquids (definition of flashpoint) U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration ↩

Frequently Asked Questions

Is melt-and-pour shaving soap real soap?

It depends on the base. The FDA reserves the word soap for products whose cleaning comes from alkali salts of fatty acids, the material made when fats or oils combine with an alkali such as lye. A true melt-and-pour soap base is already saponified, so you get real soap without handling lye yourself. Synthetic-detergent bases clean too but are regulated as cosmetics rather than soap.

What does kaolin clay do in shaving soap?

Kaolin clay is a fine hydrated aluminum silicate that adds slip, so the razor glides instead of dragging, and gives the lather more body. It also lightly absorbs excess oil from skin. Two tablespoons of clay loosened with a tablespoon of glycerin blends smoothly into a pound or two of melted base.

Why add glycerin to the recipe?

Glycerin is a humectant that draws and holds moisture against skin, which keeps a shaving bar from feeling stripping. In this recipe it also loosens the kaolin clay into a smooth paste so the clay disperses evenly instead of clumping in the melted base.

How long does melt-and-pour shaving soap take to set and cure?

The bars firm up enough to unmold in a few hours at room temperature. Melt-and-pour does not need the long cure that cold-process soap does, but giving the bars a day or two to fully harden makes them last longer in the shower. Wrap them once they are completely cool to limit glycerin dew.

What fragrance can I use in shaving soap?

Use a soap-safe fragrance oil at the maximum usage level on its IFRA certificate, since this is a leave-near-skin product. One ounce per pound of base is a common load. Add it once the base has cooled to just above setting so less fragrance is lost to heat, and stir well before pouring.

Can I make shaving soap without the moustache embeds?

Yes. The charcoal moustache embeds are decorative. Skip the transparent-base layer and the cookie cutters entirely, mix the clay, glycerin, and fragrance into the butter base, and pour a plain bar. The shaving performance comes from the base, clay, and glycerin, not the embed.

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