Teach Soap

I've looked at various recipes for shave soap and they all seem to contain some type of clay. I'm wondering why clay is necessary, or whether it is at all? I'm wondering if I can make a good shave soap with a melt and pour base plus some combination of olive, coconut, and/or grapeseed oils?

The clay gives it the slip, not sure about melt and pour soaps, sounds like doing what you suggested would be nice but not give it the slip that makes them stand out as shaving soaps, so I think anyway.

_________________
Four Seasons Fine Handcrafted Soaps
& Specialties, Inc.
Laugh, Love, Live!

Yep, the clay really helps the razor glide... Adding oils is fine, but will cut down on the lather. My shave soaps are all for guys doing the old-fashioned brush-&-mug shaves, so big lather's essential. If you're using it more for legs, then the decreased lather might not be as much of an issue.

_________________
Please visit my Etsy shop!

My shaving guys love the lather, so I add only minimum of an oil or butter.

_________________
Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

If I am not mistaken, I believe that BB has a shaving soap. Yes, I just checked!!

http://www.brambleberry.com/Shaving-Mel ... P4384.aspx

Thanks everyone! I'll go ahead and order some clay... am I right to go with kaolin instead of bentonite? I saw in Rebecca Ittner's "Soapmaking the Natural Way" that she recommends bentonite, but I've found a lot of ideas in that book to be a bit, er, skewed (like the fact that she calls her recipes natural ). Anyway, thank you all again for the advice, it's much appreciated!