How to Make Shaving Soap in a Mug for DIY Gifts

DIY Shaving Soap in a Mug

Ready to create a fabulous homemade gift for Dad? This shaving soap recipe is made by rebatching existing soap bars, soap slivers, or a shredded soap base to create a wonderful way to care for skin. These easy DIY is similar to how to make hand-milled soap. While it works best with cold process soap, it will also work with any soap you have on hand.

Keep reading for my easy shaving soap in a mug recipe. This hand milled or rebatch soap DIY instructs you on how to create personalized DIY Father’s Day gifts for Dad.

Rebatch Shaving Soap Recipe

To make this DIY shaving soap in a mug, you simply rebatch the shredded soap and mix it with other ingredients to create a new soap with additional or differing skin care properties. The final soap will look similar to hot process soap and have that rustic appearance. However, by mixing the existing soap with new ingredients, you can make it more conditioning for skin.

Ingredients

These are the ingredients you will need to recreate this easy, rebatched shaving soap recipe:

• 4 oz. of soap or shredded soap base — I used a bar of my unscented Banana Oatmeal Soap
• 3 Tablespoons milk
• 5 drops fragrance oil, optional (approximately 2% of the soap recipe)

Supplies and Materials

These are the and materials you will need when learning how to make homemade shaving soap in a mug:

• A clean, empty mug – I used a handmade mug from LaPella Pottery
• A small amount of essential oil or fragrance oil of your choice – Mountain Rose Herbs is a great source for organic essential oils
• A shaving brush

How to Make Shaving Soap in a Mug

Follow these simple steps to make this rebatch soap recipe:

1. Grate your bar of handmade soap or leftover soap slivers into a saucepan.

Your grated soap should look like the above photograph. There’s no need to grate it as fine as possible.

2. Stir in 3 Tablespoons of milk. Turn the eye on the stove to medium heat.

TIP: Alternately you may use distilled water to rebatch the soap. However, I think milk works best. Plus, the fats present in milk give the soap skin conditioning properties.

3. Stir the soap occasionally until fully melted.

4. Once melted, you can in your choice of essential oil or fragrance oil. Then mix well. Sandalwood is a great choice for a masculine scented essential oil as is a combination of cedar and sage essential oils.

TIP: Generally you’ll want to use about 1-2% of essential oil per your total soap weight or 2-5% in fragrance oils. But always refer to manufacturer guidelines on how much fragrance or essential oil should be used. I used a fragrance oil called Edward’s Temptation for this soap which is a fragrance blend of Bergamot, Rosemary, Moss, Sandalwood, Mint, and Amber.

5. Spoon the melted soap into your clean mug. Then allow the mixture to cool and harden. The soap is ready to be used as soon as it has hardened and all excess liquid has evaporated from the soap.

5. Now pair your mug of shaving soap with a shaving brush gift for Dad!

Alternately this method of soapmaking, which is commonly referred to as hand-milling or rebatching soap, can be used with any leftover handmade soap to create new soaps with a fragrance outside of a mug. In this instance, rather than pouring the soap into mugs, simply pour it into molds. Then remove the hand milled soap once it has hardened.

Note hand milled or rebatched soap will shrink slightly as the excess liquid evaporates. This makes them easier to remove from the molds. You can also wait for the melted soap to cool and roll the soap into balls as illustrated in this tutorial on making aloe vera soap balls.

Packaging your homemade soaps is then as easy as wrapping them with waxed paper and a ribbon! You can also explore other ways to package soap with this collection of soap packaging ideas.

More Ways to Make Shaving Soap

Another easy way to use soap for shaving is to make this DIY shaving cream. This natural shaving cream recipe is made using liquid Castile soap as a base. Additional ingredients are then added for their skin conditioning properties. This moisturizing, homemade shaving cream contains skin soothing aloe vera gel to help hydrate skin and reduce your chance of razor burn. Plus, It’s an ideal solution for sensitive skin.

This recipe for shaving cream is stored in a container with a lid. Therefore, it can either be applied to skin by hand or used in a similar manner as shaving soap in a mug. All that’s needed is a brush!

Cold Process Shaving Soap Recipes

While these recipes for shaving soap don’t call for a mug, you can use one! Simply pour the cold process soap batter into individual mugs. Then allow to set up as usual. They will be ready to use after curing for 4 to 6 weeks. Alternately, you can also make these as homemade soap bars.

• Natural Shaving Soap Recipe: Learn how to make a skin hydrating natural shaving soap for a smooth, eco-friendly shave — even if you have sensitive skin! A wonderful addition to your natural skin care routine, this homemade shaving soap recipe is made with skin conditioning shea butter and lanolin, a humectant, to help lock in moisture and aid in glide.
• DIY Lanolin Shaving Soap: This natural lanolin shaving soap recipe combines natural moisturizing ingredients to help prevent skin from drying out even with repeated shavings while at the same time giving you a rich, creamy lather to help prevent nicks and razor burn. The end result of this recipe is a nice, hard bar of soap that is lightly scented.
• Glycerin Shaving Soap Recipe: This homemade cold process glycerin shaving soap recipe includes extra vegetable glycerin that’s added to the regular soapmaking oils during the soapmaking process. Typically this is usually only done for shaving soaps as the extra glycerin contributes to the bar’s humectant properties. As glycerin is naturally created as a byproduct of the saponification process, there’s already some level of glycerin in every bar of cold process soap. This glycerin shaving soap recipe simply expands on that.
• Vanilla Fig Cold Process Shaving Soap: This simple homemade shaving soap recipe is great for beginner soapmakers still getting their feet wet. It combines some pretty basic oils along with lanolin and marshmallow root powder for that extra slip. It’s then scented with a dreamy vanilla and fig fragrance oil.

I hope you enjoyed my tutorial on how to make shaving soap. And that you take the time to explore my cold process recipes for making homemade soap for a smooth shave. For more ways to make soap, be sure to check out my other soap recipes here.