One of the most important challenges when experimenting with very old recipes is remembering that they had very different ideas of what constitute safe levels of potentially allergen containing ingredients. These days, any cosmetic manufacturer is strongly advised (and in many areas of the world, legally obliged) to calculate the percentages of a number of key allergens present in the ingredients they use, and to label the product accordingly and adjust the formula if they exceed certain amounts deemed safe by the various regulatory bodies.
Our Victorian counterparts didn't have these restrictions, and tended to formulate their commercial recipes based a) on what smelt nice, and b) on what was most cost effective. Quite often point b appears to have been the most important one.
Today, this means that I spend a fair bit of my research time poring over spreadsheet calculations and cross referencing them to things like the IFRA website which lists, amongst other things, internationally accepted codes of practice for safety in cosmetic ingredients. Not being particularly mathematically minded, nor a qualified chemist, this tends to result in a mixture of me being fascinated and learning a lot, and my head hurting, badly.
When I find a recipe that I think I might want to attempt a reconstruction of, I then have two choices to make. Do I make it precisely as written even if my calculations show that it wouldn't be considered an acceptable recipe today, or do I tweak any problematic ingredients to result in something I can at least use safely?
Usually what happens is that if I feel I can learn something from making the original, I make it as closely to the original formulation as I possibly can, mimicing the ingredient types, qualities, method and even the equipment as far as realistically possible. This is the sort of experiment that gives valuable insights into what Victorian soap looked, smelt, felt and behaved like, and also gives me a chance to examine shelf life and what happens in different conditions.
Having made an accurate experimental batch, if the soap appears to have qualities that I think might appeal to a modern user, I recrunch the figures and make small adjustments to bring any problematic ingredients to within modern aceptable levels whilst not losing the overall character of the original. This often just means reducing the amount of fragrancing oils used slightly, but sometimes I may also rebalance the base oils to allow the use of more ethically acceptable ingredients by today's standards. Whale oil products for example are unlikely to go down well with a modern buyer and I think very few people would question my decision to substitute other base fats, but there are also environmental issues with things such as palm oil which I have to weigh up carefully, and decide whether a substitution for something a little easier to source ethically can be justified when weighed against the desire to offer as accurate an interpretation of the original recipe as possible.
Its always a delicate balance, and often I'll calculate then try out half a dozen or more minor variations on a promising looking recipe before I settle on a version that I feel reflects the original well without compromising on modern considerations.
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