Papillon Vitabath Memories shaving Soap

A number of years ago, I was browsing the internet for shaving soap and I found Papillon's website. Papillon shaving soap is glycerin-based, much like Mama Bear or Honeybee Spa. I bought some and, although the lather was rich, I found it to be drying for my face.
A few months ago, I decided to give Papillon another try and I called Ethel, the owner and soap maker, to tell her about my past experience with her soap. She replied that she would make me some special soap in which she would add Vitamin E, mango butter and silk to the glycerin base. I ordered the soap with the Vitabath Memories fragrance. It is this new soap that I am reviewing; the one with added vitamin E, mango butter and silk.
This past summer, early in my membership in B&B, I found a new shaving soap on the internet and reviewed it after only one use. The lather of that soap turned out to be weak runny and my review unreliable. Accordingly, my review of Papillon soap is based on using the soap every day for one week with each of three shaving brushes; Plisson #16 HMW, Simpson T3 and Simpson Chubby 3.

Price: This soap does not come in a jar or a puck. Ethel makes it in PVC pipe. After the soap is cooled, she removes it from the pipe and cuts it in thirds. In order to use the soap, you cut off a chunk and melt it in the microwave for about a minute in some kind of holder such as a wide-mouth and shallow plastic jar or a 3-inch ramekin. The price is $16 per pound, including shipping, quite a bit lower than any glycerin-based soap I have seen reviewed on B&B.

Quality: The quality is easily as good as any glycerin-based soap I have used, regardless of price. The soap gives excellent slip and glide to the razor and I found my shaves to be very comfortable, even with three passes.

Scent:The scent is very clean; not at all "perfumy". The soap also comes in other fragrances such as Bayrum and Spicy Lime, and I am sure that Ethel can make other fragrances, if you ask. For example, she offered to make me soap using pink grapefruit. I found the scent to be a little weaker after I melted the soap in my ramekin. Perhaps that was because I melted it on too high a microwave setting.

Lather:Because ot the added vitamin E, mango butter and silk, I found the soap to be a bit harder to lather than without the additions. Once I lathered it up, however, it was very thick, rich and provided great glide to my razor.

Efficacy:It gives me excellent shaves. I have six other shaving soaps in my collection, including four triple-milled soaps and two glycerin-based soaps from one of the most often praised soap makers on B&B. Papillon has become my go-to shaving soap.

Moisturizing:This is the most moisturizing soap I have used. I can still feel the moisturizing effect of the soap after I rinse off the soap at the end of my shave. During these winter months, I still use an after-shave balm for extra moisture, but I suspect that I will not have to use an after-shave moisturizer every day during the summer.

Papillon's website's URL for shaving soap is http://store.fastcommerce.com/cat_Papillonsoap-ff80818117b037f80117b3d022e809d1.htmlI have provided this direct URL because the website is somewhat difficult to navigate. If you decide to buy Papillon soap, I STRONGLY suggest that you either email Ethel at [email protected], or call her at (713) 820-1869 and ask her make you soap that includes vitamin E, mango butter and silk, just like she made for Bob.

Thanks for your comment, Biomesh. I, too, had some problems with Papillon soaps a few years ago. That is why I called Ethel and asked her to make her soap more moisturizing and "slick". As I said in my review, she made me a special shaving soap that contains vitamin E, mango butter and silk. This NEW soap is as good as any glycerin soap I have used including Mama Bear and Honeybee Spa.

I bought a few of her soaps and while not too strong and fairly moisturizing, I had some problems with certain scents giving me a burning sensation.

I went ahead and have been using these soaps as bath soaps, and they are really nice. I just have too many other great soaps in my rotation to worry about any soaps giving me any irritation.

If you are looking for a good soap, and want to try new scents, I'd say go ahead and try these. Ethel sells smaller soaps (~1 oz) that are relatively inexpensive, so you don't have to spend a fortune to try these soaps out.