Useful How to make Shaving-Soap

no. 572. how to make shaving-soap.
(from Six Hundred Miscellaneous Valuable Receipts Worth Their Weight in Gold, by John Marquart, 1860)

Ingredients:

2 lbs. best white bar soap​

1 lb. good common bar soap​

1 quart of soft water​

1 pint alcohol​

1 gill beef's gall​

1 gill spirits of turpentine​

oil of sassafras -- for flavor​

fine vermilion -- for color​

Instructions:

Take 2 pounds best white bar soap, and 1 pound good common bar soap, cut them up fine so that they will dissolve readily. Put the soap into a copper kettle with 1 quart of soft water: let it stand over the fire, and when it is dissolved by boiling, add 1 pint alcohol, 1 gill beef's gall, 1 gill spirits of turpentine; boil all these together for five minutes, stir while boiling; while it is cooling, flavour it with oil of sassafras to suit, and colour it with fine vermilion. This soap makes a rich lather, softens the face, and can be made cheap.​