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[skinsationalscents]

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[naturalhandcraftedsoap]

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[yaahdyinc]

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[mistimstar]

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[nuevonoiruk]

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[themuskcompany]

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[agxxb]

Greaser .𖥔 ݁ ˖

dean winchester x f!reader

summary: your boyfriend is working on his car. if only he wasn’t so attractive.

warnings: soft smut. clit rubbing. pet names (sweetheart, baby). praise. dean is sweaty and has greasy hands. [1.5k]

The sunshine brought infinite hues of green, a palate of nature kissing creation alive. The light flowed, poppling like the water of a river, and the heat brought a day best for the dreaming of new poetry.

The world was quiet, the only noise being the sound of metal clanging as Dean Winchester worked on his car. Beads of sweat had formed on his hairline, dripping down his temples and catching on the short stubble of his beard. His biceps flexed as he gripped the wrench within his grease-covered hand, jaw clenching as he focused.

A quiet grunt left his mouth when he finally stood up straight, a slight ache in his back from how long he had been hunched over the car bonnet. His eyebrows furrowed slightly as he glanced around the salvage yard belonging to Bobby, green eyes piercing through the waves of heat surrounding him.

You looked out at him, subtly biting your lip as you watched your boyfriend’s back muscles ripple beneath his grey shirt. You had spent the last fifteen or so minutes making fresh lemonade, pouring a glass for the younger Winchester before pouring another two.

Walking out the back door, the heat hit you like a truck. Condensation had already began forming on the outer side of the two glasses in your hands, dampening the pads of your fingertips. Your eyes squinted slightly, trying to see through the sun shining directly into them.

“Hey, Sweetheart,” Dean greeted as you approached him, the man turning around and leaning against his car. He held a rag, wiping his hands free of the grease covering them.

You held out one of the glasses, smiling as he took it. “Made some lemonade, thought you could do with it.” He took a sip, closing his eyes as his mouth no longer felt dry. “You’ve been out here for hours.”

“This is good,” Dean complimented, taking another sip. You copied him, bringing your own glass up to your lips. “How’d you make this?”

However, his question fell upon deaf ears. Despite him being the one talking to you, you were too focus on Dean. His plump lips puckering slightly as he sipped his drink, tongue peaking out to lick them; His eyes, green enough to have an entire forest inside them; The freckles that danced across his cheeks and nose, almost as though they were lovers entwined in a waltz or leaves dancing in the wind; And his hands, veins visible as he clutched the glass between his calloused fingers.

Dean followed your eye-line, a smirk threatening to break out on his face when he realised what you were staring at.

“Sweetheart?” You hummed, reluctantly looking away from his fingers and back up to his face. “I asked you a question.”

“I, um…” You thought back to what he had asked, trying to remember what you’d last heard him say. “Just lemons and a bit of sugar.”

It was Dean’s turn to hum, though his was in amusement. He knew you had a thing for his hands, he just didn’t realise you’d like them even more with oil covering them. He placed his glass down on the side table holding his tools, and walked closer to you, gently taking your drink from your hand and placing it beside his.

You glanced up at him, your boyfriend towering over your frame. He saw the need hidden in your eyes, the want you had for him. Dean’s hand lifted, palm resting against your cheek before it moved down to your neck. He pulled you closer to him, watching your eyes widen in desire at his show of dominance.

“You think you’re so sly,” he teasingly said before leaning down and capturing your lips with his.

You moaned into the kiss, hands going to his torso. You gently squeezed, feeling the muscles you been appreciating not so long ago.All thoughts that weren’t Dean had left your mind, your only focus being your boyfriend.

The heat between you both had become more sultry than the blazing sun. The kiss quickly deepened, both as desperate for one another as the day you had first met.

You momentarily pulled back just to tell him that you needed him. In fact, you craved him. Your hands moved under his shirt, feeling his abs beneath your fingers and gently scratching with your nails.

“Yeah, Baby?”

Baby? In the years you and Dean had been together, he had never called you ‘baby’. Baby was his car, not anyone else — not even you. You blinked, the man seemingly realising the effect that word had on you.

You licked your bottom lip, gently pushing him back to sit in the driver’s seat of his car. You placed your hands on his knees, spreading his legs just enough for you to slot your body in between them.

His breath hitched when your hand brushed against his hardened bulge and you raised your eyes to his as you unzipped his jeans, pulling them down his thighs with some help. His cock bounced against his stomach, and he hissed in pleasure as you grasped him in your hand.

He squeezed his eyes shut when you spread the precum over his head, letting out a low grown. You licked a stripe up the underside of his cock, his eyes nearly bulging out of their sockets as he looked down at you. You swirled your tongue around the head before taking more into your mouth.

"Fuck, Baby.”

You moaned around him, his hand coming to rest at back of your head. You breathed slowly out of your nose as you moved down, wrapping a hand around what you couldn't fit in your mouth. You started bobbing your head, hollowing out your cheeks as your lover trembled beneath you.

"Good girl.”

You fastened your movements, though Dean stopped you a few moments later. He grinned, wrapping an arm around your waist and pulling you up onto his lap, a leg either side of his waist. You wouldn’t be surprised if he could feel how wet you were, soaked through your underwear.

Dean didn’t even bother with pulling down, simply moving them to the side in his desperation. Quiet moans escaped you as the head of his cock met your slick entrance, always proving his preparation irrelevant.

"Christ, Sweetheart... This worked up over me?" His smug smile eventually turned into a bitten lip as he eased himself into you, his lack of self control overrunning any wit to him he had left. "That's it..."

With your hands on his shoulders and his on your waist, your movements had to be second nature by now. His stubble dragged across your neck, making you shudder with pleasure as he left kisses along your collarbone.

You moaned as you lifted up only to sit back down on him. His cock hit that spot inside you perfectly, your head thrown back in ecstasy, and your legs slightly shook as the pleasure rippled through your body, toes curling.

"Good girl," Dean praised, voice deep and raspy from his sybaritism. He let out a moan of his own as he felt you clench around him, clearly enjoying yourself. "You like that?"

"Mhm," you nodded, a whimper leaving you as you sped up. "Fuck."

He reciprocated the sound, biting his lip as he stared down at where you both were joined. He could see your slick coating him, a white ring around the base. Dean always loved to watch you take him, especially when he could sit back and watch you ride him.

"Gonna cum," you told him, nails digging into his shoulders. At this, Dean grabbed your hips tighter and began pounding up into you.

Your mouth was open as a constant stream of moans and whimpers left unashamedly. One of his hands moved down, the pad of his thumb rubbing against your bundle of nerves, and a sharp gasp left your lips.

Everything went quiet as white hot pleasure rolled through your body, your orgasm crashing over you in waves. You clung onto him for dear life, legs shaking around his thick thighs.

"Where?" Dean asked through gritted teeth.

"Inside. Cum inside me. Please.”

You knew it wasn't exactly smart, seeing as he wasn't wearing any protection, but you needed to feel him. He kept the same pace, no longer caring about your pleasure and simply chasing his own high.

"God damn-!" Dean groaned, slamming into you one final time. His orgasm triggered another for you, squeezing around him tightly.

After a moment, you sighed, laying your head on his shoulder whilst still feeling him pulse inside of you. Your chest rose and fell against his own, heavy breaths being traded between the two of you.

You lifted slightly as Dean pulled out, though you stayed on his lap, in his arms. His hand moved to your waist, thumb gently rubbing it as he kissed your forehead.

"Ah, son of a bitch,” he suddenly said, gaining your attention. You lifted your head from his shoulder, eyebrows furrowing slightly in silent question. “I didn’t finish my lemonade.”

[icycoldninja]

FLUFFCEMBER DAY#25: (Raiden x Reader)

Spending Christmas together headcannons

-If you're planning a quiet Christmas with just the two of you, prepare to see Raiden's goofy side.

-The nanomachines responsible for his digestion will be unable to keep up with the amounts of spiked egg nogg that he consumes, leaving him heavily drunk for a while.

-Naturally, this results in eccentric behavior, from slurred jokes to really weird robotic dancing that usually ends in him tripping over something and falling over.

-Because of his drunken state, Raiden's behavior will be unpredictable and he will temporarily lose control of his bladder. It's best to keep him away from alcohol and confined to the bathroom until the nanomachines catch up.

-Now, if you decide you want to spend Christmas with your family, things will be very, very different.

-Raiden gets really never out around other people because he worries that other people will hate or judge him for being a cyborg. He's also afraid people will poke and prod him since they'll undoubtedly be curious about his metal body parts.

-He may or may not get along with your family, depending on their personalities and how they treat him. Of course, he won't be acting like some jerk, he'll try to make a good impression too.

-You could swear he started sweating when you formally introduced him to your parents. Odd, because he doesn't have sweat glands. There's always the possibility that he's leaking machine oil, but if that's true, he needs to be taken to Doktor, pronto.

-Because nanomachines regulate his digestion, he can eat as many cookies as he wants and not regret it a few hours later.

-Gets really emotional (on the inside, of course) whenever someone gives him a gift because it's not something he's used to.

-He does want to being something for your family too, but he will need your help to pick out gifts beforehand.

-In the end, he ends up enjoying the festivities, but he won't want to stay for too long because he, like most introverts, get nervous around crowds of people.

-Will decorate himself to look like a robot Santa, minus the beard and the round belly...and a jolly looking face...but still, it's the thought that counts!

[esta-elavaris]

OKAY so I genuinely cannot start writing this in earnest without a hell of a lot of planning, buuuuut...I wrote part one in the meantime. Just to get a feel of the thing (🤡🤡🤡) so bone apple tea! Only posting it on here, I won't post it on AO3 until I'm fully ready to go.

Credit goes to @bumblingbriars for giving me the idea of "wait, what if James was the modern one and Theodora was the character in the movies?" -- thank you for this but also how dare you.

Dividers by cafekitsune.

As It Was

None of the tales ever spoke of the fear. Why did they never speak of the fear?

It was a stupid question. Theodora knew why. Because it didn’t make for a very good story, did it? People wanted to hear of the bold heroes who defeated the monsters with little more than a smile and the strength of their own two arms. Who wanted to be regaled with stories of stupid women on suicide missions for philandering pirates? No, she wasn’t the hero of this story. She was a cautionary tale. That was all her death would amount to.

Clenching her teeth against furious tears, she doused Jack’s hands in the oil from the lamp, and then held firm to the shackles as he slid his hands free of them. They were the only two left aboard the Pearl…and it was looking like they’d be going down with it.

“You shouldn’t have stayed, darlin’,” he said.

There was a mournfulness to his dark eyes that she’d never seen before. Even now, here, at the end, he couldn’t pretend any more than she could that her death mightn’t be a waste. That it was anything more than an idiot dying for the sake of an unrequited crush.

“Too late now,” she ground out, following it up with a very forced, very strained laugh.

Because if she stopped clenching her jaw, she would definitely begin to sob. And that was the only thing here that could be more pathetic.

“Too late now,” Jack agreed, a bitter smile on his face.

Each second seemed to stretch into an eternity – was that natural, when death was certain and unavoidable? It was supposed to come with a sense of peace, was it not? Of calm? Her father had always said…god, her father. How would he even find out, back in Port Royal? He’d never forgive her for this. It was that thought that had her vision blurring.

Around them, deceptively soft splashes sounded here and there, out of place with how the water usually lapped at the sides of the ship, followed by stomach-churning slick noises…that of the kraken’s appendages. Theo took a deep, shuddering breath in. Too late now.

When she looked at Jack again, searching for words – although she knew not which ones, exactly – she found him forcing a smile. Then, instead of stepping back as she’d expected, he stepped forward. Her eyes closed on instinct as he kissed her, time slowed further still, and she felt…she felt nothing. No breathlessness, no swelling in her chest, no weakness in her knees. Nothing like Elizabeth ever described when it came to Will. Only the scratch of his moustache, the way the beads in his beard clacked against her chin, and the discomfort at the awkward angle of how she’d leaned in.

They parted, and when she opened her eyes, she found Jack watching her, that sadness back on his face again. No joking admonishments at her lack of any reaction, no over-the-top exaggerations at how his prowess had just gone clearly unappreciated. Nothing. Just sorrow. But it was quickly covered by yet another forced smile.

“Come on, darlin,” he drew his sword. “Best have a bit of flair about it, eh?”

Well. She could agree with that, at least. Theo drew her own sword, and took a deep breath in.

There were many things that James actually enjoyed about living with his younger sister…although admitting that to her would be nothing short of a fatality. But Phoebe was a rather good flatmate. She picked up after herself, she didn’t throw parties, and she added life to a flat that would otherwise be rather dead during the times when he was actually in it.

One habit of hers, however, that he could do without was her burning desire to watch the same films over and over again, with scarcely an hour between repeats. It was cyclical, more often than not. Winter belonged to Middle-earth, spring to whatever was newly landed on her radar, and summer – which they were suffering through now – was Pirates of the Caribbean territory. One month in, and he was just about ready to set about his eyeballs with a spoon. Anything to make it stop.

At present, she sat on the sofa across the other side of the room while he pottered about the kitchen, watching enraptured as the redhead on screen turned with teary eyes, side-by-side with Jack Sparrow, to face the kraken that would soon devour them both, the music swelling dramatically as they lifted their swords.

“What I don’t understand is why she had to die,” he said unthinkingly.

And instantly regretted it when Phoebe turned with a grin.

“Ha! You’re getting into it now!”

“If you’re going to insist on watching the damn things ten times a week, I can’t be blamed for noticing bits of them,” he replied sourly, leaning on the countertop. “But they bring him back in the next film, don’t they? Why not her, too?”

“The movie-verse explanation is that she was at peace.”

“Dying for a man who could barely pat her on the head in thanks? Oh, yes, very peaceful. Positively euphoric.”

Curiosity sated, albeit not in a particularly satisfying manner, he straightened and resumed the arduous process of deciding whether he’d be having cereal or real food for dinner.

“Yes. Well,” Phoebe turned her face back to the television, distractedly watching as the kraken devoured the Black Pearl, “the boring explanation is that the actress had a nasty accident just before filming started for the next one, and her bones wouldn’t heal in time for all of the stunts and so on. They had to write her out.”

That made marginally more sense, at least.

“…Much to your disappointment, I suspect,” she added smugly.

“Excuse me?” he raised an eyebrow at her.

“I saw you googling her earlier.”

“I thought I recognised her from something else.”

The fact that his cheeks blazed almost immediately did little to help his argument, but he took some comfort in knowing she was one of the few who could wrench such a reaction from him. If any of his brothers-in-arms could see it, they’d never let him hear the end of it.

“If you say so,” came her smug response.

“And she…emotes rather impressively,” he added.

“Is that what they call it these days?”

James scoffed his disgust…and then he settled on cereal. That would get him out from his sister’s far too knowing gaze much more quickly. But he’d miss it, he knew, next time he deployed.

[catscidr]

«grip on your top is so tight you think he might even rip it, god knows the last time he had to trim his nails» 😭😭❤️‍🔥

I've always wondered how Zandik's hygiene is. I'm sure he doesn't give a shit about it. The only thing he cares about is the mechanisms. And how do you think 500 years ago students washed at sumeru?

you’ve come to the right person nonnie i love elaborating about seemingly boring and mundane details lemme ramble for a hot second (￣^￣ )ゞ

-> i talked about what i think his shaving habits would be like a couple of weeks ago (here). i think he would be less inclined to shave as an akademiya student than when he’s “Prime” because he just has.... so much to do, so little time. as a young adult he does grow a decent amount of facial hair (not enough for a full beard though i think), and as much as he dislikes having it, he doesn’t really bother to shave it unless it starts to get on his nerves. like, if he’s head-first into machinery and he keeps rubbing his stubble on the metal...... he’ll get back to his dorm room and quickly shave off the annoying stubble lol. but he doesn't shave it regularly, no. he doesn't gaf about his appearance, really, so doesn't care enough to have a routine

(naturally i like to think there's dorms in the akademiya LOL a shame genshin doesn't expand on living spaces other than just a couple of houses here and there sadge ˙◠˙ )

-> i like to think he’s a heavy nail biter to make up for having barely ever touched a nail file/clipper in his life. it helps him focus sometimes when he's locked tf in. some of his nails are less affected than others, like his pinky fingernails. even though they're all mostly dull, cracked or bitten off there’s definitely potential for him to scratch someone if he truly wanted to. and i'm sure he’d just rips his nails off when they got in the way of whatever research he's doing..

-> but boy oh BOY best for last. i think that they would maybe handwash their clothes in a tub/basin with soap, or if they don't have anything of the sort they could go up north to sumeru city and wash their clothes in the river.

.......but at the same time they did have akasha terminals (going off dottore's vague lore timeline because greater lord rukkhadevata created the akasha system and died around 500 years ago, so im assuming maybe dottore would have been in the akademiya when she died? but my brain hurts thinking about the possibilities so lets assume they all had akasha systems when he was enrolled lol)....... so maybe they had the technology to create basic washing machines (maybe something like this?)

though i'm sure he wouldn't bother himself with a proper hygiene routine, probably only washing himself and his uniform when it got dirty enough (which was probably often anyways) (and i'm sure the akademiya would basically just dresscode him if he showed up to class with soot and oil all over him, too)

and i like to think that maybe the akademiya dorms would have communal bathrooms/"showers" as well. but at the same time it's a super prestigious school so they could have individual bathrooms for each dorm room...... but at the same time² we're talking about 500 years ago........ so............. hmm..............................

in general he's more focused on research and conducting experiments n getting results, so being spotless would be the least of his worries. if he ended up getting sick as a result of his less-than-socially-acceptable hygiene he'd probably just use it as learning experience and use that knowledge for future experiments, like on his eleazar patients in that abandoned hospital. he'd do the bare minimum to Not get sick, has to dedicate as much time as he can in the akademiya to study forbidden knowledge. can't be bedridden with a fever, that's for pussies and he's Not a pussy... probably his daily affirmation. "i'm not a pussy, i am better than everyone. they all suck ass and i'm an alpha". yeah anyways

but WHATEVER!!!!!! tl;dr: he's a grimy little guy and reeks of blood sometimes but its ok we love him either way♡

[titan-desuu]

SHOWER TIME:

The AoT characters and their bath and skincare routine 🫧

Eren: He wouldn't admit it but he uses 3in1 products but keeps telling others that he doesn't. He brushes his teeth in the shower. Eren is always in a hurry, so he might not use skincare as often as he'd like.

Mikasa: Mikasa loves to take quick shower but her products - Lord heavens! She knows how to take care of her body. She mainly uses products to be more in touch with her origins.

Armin: Armin knows his products! He cares about cruelty-free and environmentally friendly products. He takes his time with his bath. After his shower, he takes the time to moisturise with Vanilia Coconut Body Lotion. His skincare routine always includes moisturiser and sunscreen, depending on the time of day.

Jean: Oh Jean might be not very familiar with products, he would buy overpriced products and wondering why they don't work or give him a rash. He invests nowadays more time in his routines since the girls keep saying how attractive guys can be if they do skin care! (He clips his toenails in the shower)

Connie: Connie would do his skincare before going to shower. Sometimes he doesn't do skin care but somehow his skin is flawless - Connie tell us your secret! He loves to use a loafer to scratch his back better.

Sasha: Sasha loves bathing more than showering because she can eat snacks and wash her hair. Her products wouldn't have a particular smell: as long as they keep her body moisturised, it's all good! But after the shower, she loves to do her hair while she to dances in the bathroom.

Levi: Our lovely Captain is known for being a clean freak! His work is always meticulous - even when he takes a shower! He takes his time to clean every inch of his body. He is a big fan of using soaps instead of liquid shampoo. Did you know that he even massages his scalp to relax after a hard day's work as a captain? Somehow his bathroom smells like lavender.

Erwin: He works while taking a bath. I mean it. He is always looking at his documents, planning the next expedition or approving Hange's experiments. Nobody really respects his privacy as he's the commander and has to be alert all the time…poor Erwin.

Hange: ah Hange may not shower often, but when they do - oh oh. They don't really care what products they use - don't wonder why they have dish soap in their bathroom… Hange love to mix their products to create new ones. They have special plants to mix in their bathroom - but I don't know how they get the rose petals and aloe vera to smell so bad… Their face is sometimes very dry, but they refuse to moisturise their face - "our bodies produce oil!" - Yes of course Hange…

Moblit: Moblit is very romantic when it comes to showering: classical music, a good-smelling bathroom and quiet music in the background. He knows that good natural products smell good. As he likes to spend more time in the shower, Hange always interrupts him, so his shower lasts max. 10 minutes.

Mike: I don't know how this man knows which product to use but he knows them damn well!. He knows the best oils for his hair and his beard. Sometimes he uses Hanges rose petals to keep the mood up.

Ymir: Ymir loves a quick shower! Thanks to Historia for using her products. Even though Historia tells her not to brush her wet hair, she still does.

Historia: Let's be honest: Historia is the reason why the girls use skincare! She always recommends the best products individually. (She is better than skincare TikTok). She loves the 7 steps of skin care. She knows how to clean herself and smell good! She is the IT girl!

Reiner: Reiner is always asking Historia about good smelling products and what would suit him. He takes a shower twice a day because he can get so sweaty sometimes.

Bertholdt: Bertholdt loves to play in the bath. He has probably over 50 rubber ducks and hides them after showering (his favourite is the pirate one). He uses perfume in the hope of getting compliments from Reiner (and Annie).

Annie: Bath time is perhaps the only time when no one disturbs Annie. She always locks her bathroom and listens to music on her headphones. She uses Hitch's products all the time.

[batfranciscobooth]

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[titleleaf]

Experiments In Early Victorian Skincare: Shaving Soap, Part One

- And how does it feel, not being fetched for drops nor drawers? - Miserable, sir. That is my job you are shaving away. (AMC's The Terror, s01e07, "Horrible From Supper")

(Crossposted to Wordpress as usual)

We have some great period resources describing contemporary techniques for shaving and grooming, and they shed a little light on how landsmen, at least, were taking care of their facial hair. (If you're only interested in maritime personal care, this post gets a bit into the weeds on terrestrial soap manufacture, so be warned.) From The gentleman's companion to the toilet, or a treatise on shaving, credited to "a London hair-dresser" in 1844:

There are many soaps which are puffed off as "the best article manufactured for shaving" -- a "beautiful preparation for softening the beard," &c. &c.; but some of them are utterly worthless. All soaps are to be avoided which contain any considerable portion of alkalie; they make a light frothy lather that will not stand on the face, and they will much annoy you by those irritating pains, which are frequently felt after shaving with a bad razor. The soap which I have invariably found to be the best is Naples soap; it produces a beautifully mild creamy lather that will soften the beard, and will render shaving an agreeable operation, and is best calculated to allay those smarting sensations which an indifferent razor produces on a tender skin. There is a great deal of white honey used in the manufacture of Naples soap, and I need not say that there is nothing of a more mild and soothing nature.

Writing in the tail end of the previous century, Benjamin Kingsbury says exactly the opposite in his Treatise On Razors:

[...] Naples soap, so much admired by some persons, on account of the strength of it’s lather, is extremely defective. Of all the shaving soaps in present use, there is not one whose component parts are so irritating and injurious as the soap which is called by this name. It is the most caustic, and, of course, the most destructive to the skin, of all soaps and, in truth, to the production of a needless quantity of lather from a small portion of it, the soundness of the skin of the person using it is completely, and necessarily, sacrificed. [...] the best soap for the purpose of shaving which I have yet made, and which I always use, is the Olive-Soap, composed, in great part, of olive oil, and uniting the advantage of a durable lather with the power of softening and healing, rather than irritating, the skin of the person using it.

(What a drama queen.) Great, cool, but wtf is Naples soap? Thomas Webster's 1844 Encyclopaedia of Domestic Economy describes it as a "strong soft soap, scented; it comes to us in pots. In this era it's still an imported good, so recipes for imitation Naples soaps appear in contemporary books aimed at individual household consumers rather than commercial soapmakers. (Accordingly, these recipes generally seem to involve re-milling or otherwise rebatching existing soaps to add fragrance or combine the qualities of component commercially-available soaps.) Particularly among these imitation recipes, authentic Naples soap seems to be associated with the fragrances of rhodium, ambergris, and musk.

(from the 1844 Illustrated London News, Vol 4, Issue 95. Curious about the disreputable inferior-quality soaps touched on here!)

An 1835 chemical analysis suggests at least one variety used mutton fat as a base fat and potash as its saponifying agent, which is in line with what our London hair-dresser says about lye soaps' insufficient lather. (The existence of this analysis really amuses me -- it seems like people in the US and UK were curious about what really went into this particular import.)

From William Brande's 1848 Manual of Chemistry:

The soaps of potassa are distinguished from  those  of  soda by remaining soft; common soft  soap is frequently  made  with fish  oil.  Naples soap is a perfumed potassa soap made with lard.

Interestingly, I'm not seeing anyone else mention the "white honey" that our London hair-dresser attributes to the ingredients list here, but honey is a pretty common additive in natural soapmaking, so I'm not about to write it off entirely.

Soft Naples soap isn't the only soap used for shaving in this era -- any number of toilet soaps seem to have been in use, and at least some of these used regular soda lye. Rather than jump right in with potash lye, I wanted to make one of these first.

Shaving Soaps: Take One

Modern home soapmakers have a huge range of tools available to them that even commercial soap manufacturers of the 1840s did not -- digital scales, laser thermometers, Crockpots, electric stoves -- so in this case rather than reconstructing period methods I'm going to try and translate those techniques to a modern toolset.

First, I made a batch of tallow shaving soaps with soda lye/sodium hydroxide -- apart from the use of tallow, this was a thoroughly modern recipe, incorporating a range of vegetable oils to fine-tune the consistency and conditioning powers of the resulting bar. I used equal parts coconut oil and beef tallow, supplemented with sunflower oil, castor oil, olive oil pomace, and unrefined cocoa butter; the only other notable ingredient was powdered clay, both for cleansing powers and increased slip. (You could use white kaolin clay or off-white bentonite clay for a lighter-colored bar; I worked with French green clay because that's what I have on hand most of the time, so my bars ended up a pretty attractive sage-green color. Some people claim that the inclusion of clay dulls their razor blades, but I don’t know that I’m using any given razor blade for long enough for that to matter, and I didn't find it to be a problem when using.)

[Here's where I'd put a photo of these bars in the mold... IF I HAD ONE... so you'll have to settle for this store link.]

What's this bar like to shave with? I'm going to be honest: it's really nice, to the point where I'm considering using it as basically a leave-on mask. I shave with a safety razor and  occasionally a wet-dry electric razor, but I don't use a brush to lather up, so I just used my hands with this bar on damp skin; there wasn't a really fluffy voluminous lather, but it made for a really sleek and easy-to-navigate shaving surface and a pretty damn close shave without much friction. The clay component adds a little satisfying tooth to the shaving experience while leaving my face feeling really clean and non-greasy after.

So clearly I like it ,and I've gotten nice feedback from others. But it's not a Naples soap. It's not made with potash lye. What might a more authentic Naples shaving soap look like? If there are other modern takes on a soap like this, I'm having a hell of a time finding them under the search engine optimized-shadow of the Florida-based Naples Soap Company.

What makes a Naples soap?

So to review we're looking for: soft soap, scented soap, animal fat base, and critically, that potash lye mentioned earlier. Potassium hydroxide is an entirely new beast to me -- in soapmaking, it can be used alone or in tandem with sodium hydroxide to create a softer soap, up to and including straight-up liquid soaps.  I felt like a horse's ass putting together that, yeah, "potash" really does just come from "pot ash", and "potassium" is just halfassed Latin for the same. If your mental image of old-timey soap making is Almanzo Wilder in the Little House books you're on the right track -- making soft soap was an annual thing for many homesteaders, and the potash was sourced from the previous year's collection of wood ashes.The resulting jelly-like soap got stored in a barrel and doled out as needed. Common salt or table salt could be added to the soaping process for hardness, but in a Colonial American or homesteading context I can't imagine that was always economically feasible.

The barrel approach is in line with what I'm seeing modern soapmakers describe with soft olive oil-based Castile soaps -- you can dilute your soap goo right out of the gate to the consistency of a Dr. Bronner's-type liquid soap (though Dr. Bronner's 18-in-1 soaps are made with coconut and palm kernel oil to supplement their olive oil content these days) but more water means more potential for spoilage, so keeping around a jar of goo and diluting it as needed is a more shelf-stable option.

Period soap recipes are made at scale -- measuring ingredients in pounds, not ounces,  and in particular testing the strength of lye solutions by measuring their density against that of a fresh hen's egg. (This method apparently goes back to the sixteenth century and can be used as a rough-and-ready test for a number of different solutions -- for more, check out this post by Homestead Laboratory or this historical overview of the egg test's use in brewing and mead-making from A Booke Of Secretes.

I'm not making my own lye, whether soda or potash, and in fact I prefer to fuck around with lye as little as possible. (Over the course of this project I had the revelation that this is 100% because of the chemical burn scene in the movie Fight Club.) But it behooves me to get familiar with potash lye soaping.

(from The Critic, Vol. XIII, No. 322, 1854)

Shaving Soaps: Preparing For Take Two

So what am I making for my second round here? Instead of a soap cut from a bar or popped out of a mold, I want to make the equivalent of a soap in a pot -- something soft-textured that can be lathered in its container but that's also portable. The descriptions of shaving soap as "soft" don't do me a lot of good -- *how* soft are we talking? Are we talking soft like jelly, like the OG Colonial-style soft soap made with exclusively potash, or just not rock-hard? It's possible to strike a balance between rock-hard and goo-soft by combining both types of lye (what the SoapMaker tool calls a "cream" soap) but I'll need to dig into industrial soap writing from our era to get a sense of whether that was a contemporary historical practice on the initial processing level rather than by rebatching together lye soap and potash soap later.

I’m going to hit up tools like SoapCalc and Soapee's lye calculator for guidance even as I experiment, since soap I'll be sharing with friends isn't a place I want to fuck around with caustic material. Potash lye by itself  apparently makes a great soft soap with a consistency I've seen compared to Vaseline (or more bluntly, lumpy goo) but in modern soapmaking terms it's a hot process (HP) soap. Instead of undergoing the saponification process over time as it rests in the mold, hot process soap saponifies while being steadily heated in a vessel like a slow cooker; it still needs to cure afterward, but there's no need for zap-testing and in theory it's usable right out of the gate. HP soaping is new to me as well, and it means I had to get my hands on an estate sale Crock-Pot.

Which fats do I want to use? 100% beef tallow will make a stable and extremely hard soap (even when made with potash) but not with a lot of conditioning or cleansing power; so would 100% palm oil, for that matter. (I did get my hands on some sustainably-sourced palm oil for soaping, but I'm planning on holding off on using it for now.) Olive oil-based soft soaps are gentle and conditioning but don't generate a lot of lather. All these distinct properties of various fats are pretty much how soaps made with oil blends came to be, and those multi-oil soaps are attested elsewhere in the Early Victorian era; one recipe for imitation/homemade Naples soap

I want to put together a scent blend that approximates or is inspired by the notes listed above: rhodium, ambergris, musk. Only problem: What the fuck is rhodium? Later in the Victorian era, George William Septimus Piesse describes it as follows in his Art Of Perfumery:

When rose-wood, the lignum of the Convolvulus scoparius is distilled, a sweet-smelling oil is procured, resembling in some slight degree the fragrance of the rose, and hence its name. At one time -- that is, prior to the cultivation of the rose-leaf geranium -- the distillates from rose-wood and from the root of the Genista canariensis (Canary rose-wood) were principally drawn for the adulteration of real otto of roses; but as the geranium oil answers so much better, the oil of rhodium has fallen into disuse, hence its comparative scarcity in the market at the present day, though our grandfathers knew it well. One cwt. of wood yields about three ounces of oil.

So yeah, for an adult man in 1879, rhodium as a rose-adjacent fragrancing element must have seemed pretty retro. Perfect for this guy's hypothetical grandfather, though. The equivalent listing for rose-leaf geranium describes it similarly as an adulterant or potential alternative for rose otto. The bad news is, rose otto is still wildly expensive, and rosewood itself is now under substantial environmental protection restrictions... as is ambergris. I've got two options in my back pocket here -- fragrancing soap with rose geranium, maybe paired with botanical musk or a synthetic ambergris, or finding myself a nice modern fragrance oil. I... would rather do the former than the latter, but eh, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

What qualities am I looking for in the soap itself? What makes a good shaving soap? People have different preferences when it comes to soap lather consistency, especially if you're used to an aerosolized shaving cream. We're looking to strike a balance; lather that’s mild and creamy but not slimy, conditioning and lubricating but not leaving a residue behind. Given my druthers I'd like to make a couple test batches, looking to fine-tune these various qualities, but just how that's going to work out for me will remain to be seen.

So, yeah, soap. Shaving soap. What about the actual process of shaving with it? What's the razor situation? What about the daily ablutions of officers and average seamen? What about muttonchop maintenance? What about the wild world of Early Victorian shaving literature? More on that soon as I document my cold boy hot process soaping. Tune in next time for: goo.

[drdybakalyani]

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[ardentguilt]

On the topic of matress protectors bamboo ones are SO NICE.

I’m a guy who runs hot, especially at night and I found since I put a bamboo protector on it’s definitely cooler.

A bare home feels cold and uninviting, nobody likes that. Display your Knick knacks or whatever. It personalises your space with what you like and can even create a talking point with guests. You’re allowed to enjoy things. If you have an interest in something show it off.

Sheets can be expensive but trust me, do some research and learn some of the pros and cons of various materials and thread counts, take the time to decide what you feel you’d enjoy best and buy that. Dont just buy the cheapest bedding you find, that stuff isn’t likely to be comfortable OR last long. Buy a good set and you’ll have comfort AND longevity (which in the long run buying a good set from the start may save you $$$ because you won’t be buying cheaper sets so often the expense piles up)

Moisturise. If your skin is feeling dry or flaky moisturise it. Moisturised skin is healthier. It’s nourished and will bounce back better from damage. This is why I was told to moisturise my chest in the month leading up to chest surgery because moisturised and well hydrated skin will heal better.

For guys with facial hair, particularly beards get some beard shampoo and maybe even some beard oil. Beard shampoo is generally lighter weight than head shampoo so won’t be so harsh on your hairs.

The beard oil will nourish the hairs, roots and underlying skin so you’ll have stronger, softer hairs less likely to break and drop out and it’ll help you avoid beard itch and dandruff.

If you get acne see if you can find a product called PHisohex. It’s a face wash with Triclosan and is balanced to the skin’s natural PH. I use this and find it really helped me get my acne under control when it was bad a couple years back.

If you’re someone who has pretty oily skin I can recommend L’Oréal Men Expert Pure Carbon Anti Imperfection Daily Face Wash. this stuff cleans my face better than anything has before as in while I was it off my face is LITERALLY squeaky clean. A little goes a long way so it lasts. AND it’s got a cooling effect so it’s heaven after a hot day.

Deodorant isn’t scary. USE IT.

If you wear cologne 1-2 SPRAYS ONLY. We don’t need to be able to smell you a week before we see you.

Dudes shouldn't have to prove themselves by having spartan greyscale homes with dollar store rubber shower curtains and a mattress on the floor. Do you know what life is like with linen

[socialindalo]

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Stimulates Healthy Beard Growth Indalo Beard Oil Growth is packed with Vitamin E and Jojoba Oil, two proven ingredients that strengthen the beard’s roots and fill patchy spots, leading to a fuller, more even beard over time. By nourishing follicles at their source, this formula encourages new hair to sprout and existing hairs to grow stronger and thicker.

Softens and Conditions Facial Hair The addition of Aloe Vera Oil (Musabbar Vera Oil) and CCTG (a blend of coconut-derived triglycerides and glycerin) ensures your beard remains soft and tangle-free. Instead of feeling rough or spiky, your facial hair will be smooth and manageable—eliminating the “scratchy” look that can happen during growth.

Deeply Moisturizes Underlying Skin Beard oil isn’t just for hair—it’s also critical for keeping the skin beneath hydrated. Indalo combines Jojoba Oil with IPM (Isopropyl Myristate) to lock in moisture under your beard, preventing dryness, flakes, irritation, and redness. This means no more itchy, brittle skin under all that new facial hair.

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Potential Beard Oil Side Effects

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Frequency: Apply 2–3 drops once or twice daily. Gently massage into beard and skin until fully absorbed.

Duration: Visible improvements generally appear in as little as 3–4 weeks, though most men notice a significantly fuller beard by week 8 if used consistently.