This DIY shaving bar is our fave way to shave!

Your sensitive skin will love this recipe

If you have sensitive skin, shaving is probably not the most enjoyable part of your day. After all, shaving is an epidermal assault, so of course your skin can become irritated and inflamed. Luckily, we have a homemade shaving bar that will make the experience a lot more pleasant… so much more that it may well become your Fave Shave!

We’ve gathered together comforting, healing, and revitalizing ingredients to soften the shaving experience, along with ingredients that provide lather and glide—key features of any shaving product. With just these few ingredients, you can make a shaving bar that your sensitive skin will thank you for! 

And what about people who don’t suffer from sensitive skin? This shaving bar recipe will treat your skin right too! After all, your skin also deserves a Fave Shave.

How to make a shaving bar

Before you begin

• SCI (sodium cocoyl isethionate) can irritate your respiratory tract, so it must be handled with caution. Work in a well-ventilated space, wear a dust mask, or both.

• In this recipe, you can reduce the SCI to a powder to help it melt more quickly. If you choose to use a coffee grinder to do so, be sure to rinse your grinder out thoroughly afterwards; going forward, reserve that coffee grinder for cosmetic uses and do not use it for food. Alternatively, you can choose not to reduce the SCI to a powder, but you’ll have to melt it as much as possible on the double boiler in step 2. Do note that if you don’t powder the SCI, the final product will have a less smooth appearance, but it will be just as effective!

• To make this shaving bar, you’ll be handling an ingredient with an extreme pH in its pure state. Coco glucoside has a pH of 11–12, so you must wear safety gear throughout the whole process. But don’t worry; the pH of the final product is perfectly safe.

Ingredients

• 19.5 g (19.5%) demineralized water
• 40 g (40%) SCI
• 4 g (4%) coco glucoside
• 2.5 g (2.5%) St. John’s Wort maceration
• 0.5 g (0.5%) agar-agar gum
• 31 g (31%) white clay
• 1 g (1%) aloe gel
• 1.5 g (1.5%) patchouli essential oil

Tools

• 1 small stainless steel bowl
• Components to make a double boiler
• 1 small silicone spatula
• 1 scale, accurate to 0.1 g
• A few pipettes
• 2 ramekins
• Oval silicone mold
• 1 coffee grinder or mortar and pestle
• An oven hood or dust mask
• Protective gear

Good to know!

• SCI is the foaming agent in this shaving bar recipe.
• Coco glucoside adds creaminess and lather. 
• The St. John’s Wort maceration has comforting, restorative, and softening properties. 
• The agar-agar gum provides a slippery feel to the final product. 
• White clay has comforting and purifying properties.
• The aloe is healing. 
• Patchouli essential oil has healing and revitalizing properties.

Steps to follow

1. Prepare and disinfect your equipment and workspace.
2. Grind the SCI into a powder using a mortar and pestle or a coffee grinder, then pour it into a bowl. Add the water and agar-agar gum and melt on the double boiler.
3. While the mixture is melting, weigh the coco glucoside and the St. John’s Wort maceration in a ramekin. Weigh the clay, aloe gel, and essential oil in a second ramekin.
4. When the SCI has melted, remove the mixture from the heat. Add the St. John’s Wort maceration and coco glucoside. Stir gently with the spatula so that the product does not foam up.
5. Add the clay, aloe gel, and essential oil. Stir gently with the spatula until you obtain a homogeneous paste.
6. Transfer to the mold and pack down firmly. Leave your DIY shaving bar to dry for 24 hours, and then it’s ready to use!

Use and conservation

This homemade shaving bar is formulated for both face and body use. To use it, just moisten it and apply to wet skin. You can also rub your shaving bar between your hands to form a lather and apply that to the area you want to shave. Then just shave and rinse! You don’t need to wash your skin with soap afterwards. Apply a hydrating cream after shaving.

Let your shaving bar dry out fully between each use. When made in optimal sanitary conditions, it will keep for at least six months.