My own shave soap journey so far

[badar94]

I got into DE shaving in 2016 thanks to coming across this forum. I did start off with a cost saving shave;a muhle R89 with sharpedge yellow blades and a £2 Wilkinson sword soap that was bad as i learned later.

After 1.5 years i was comfortable and tried the tallow Tabac, which I loved. It was an amazing upgrade over the Wilkinson. I had cheap £0.75 Palmolive shave sticks along the way which were great too. In 2021 my Tabac got discontinued; but tabac refills and the palmolive kept me going for a while

Recently as I have gotten settled, I decided to try a few soaps, a lot of new blades and razors all at once. This year I tried the MWF which was an amazing soap for me. Tried Stirling barbershop (very moisturising post shave feeling and a cushioned shave) and A&E amber rose (great lather and good scent) which made me super impressed with artisans.

Stirling Barbershop was so good i ordered a Boat drinks and a deep blue sea to go along with it. The scent on the boat drinks was horrendous and not half as moisturising post shave as the barbershop. The Deep Blue sea, while amazing; its scent doesn't dissipate, it stays for a long time and gave me a headache. It was too perfumey for me; which I dont mind on weekends occasionally, but I could not tolerate that daily. Then I got a HAGS tarocchi which felt terrible and has had only 1 use.

Honestly, tallow Tabac and the tallow MWF (I bought backup pucks for now) do feel more like daily drivers than however many new ones I try. This is just my experience and I'm sure others enjoy a lot of artisans in rotation. Other than the Stirling and A&E i bought; I do not have any desire to try new artisans anymore.

I can not fathom buying soap after soap and it being disappointing. Although I may have to try some replacements when I'm done with my current stockpile as I'm only 29.

Sorry for a long ranty post. Every soap I seem to like disappears from the market.

I would love to know your experiences and thoughts.

 

[Jakebullet]

That original Tabac is very hard to beat, it was a steal at the price, performed amazingly, had a great scent and lasted forever.
Probably the best all round soap I’ve ever used.
What a shame they don’t make it to the original recipe anymore.
I’m using Mitchell’s as a daily soap though I’ve just tried a stick of Arko and have to say I love it. Excellent stuff.

 

[filedog]

I always try samples first, if possible. I've been really happy with the artisan soaps I've bought,
as long as I tried a sample beforehand.

 

[badar94]

I always try samples first, if possible. I've been really happy with the artisan soaps I've bought,
as long as I tried a sample beforehand.

I am definitely going to be doing that when I'm interested in newer soaps from now on. I have enjoyed artisans a lot too. Its just that my recent buying hasn't been that great; whereas the classics seemed to be great options consistently.
However it has been an amazing change overall and my skin is much better because of switching to DE shaving.

 

[Curkio]

Concur regarding the old Tabac. Faultless. I've moved on to Goodfellas Smile now and Noble Otter. Both brilliant.

 

[Jakebullet]

I’ve only got around to trying an Arko stick recently and have to say I’m tremendously impressed.
It’s big, inexpensive, has a great soapy scent and when loaded heavily into the beard, produces a lather to rival Tabac.
Plus I find it extremely slick to the point I don’t really have to relather for a touch up pass, I could just wet my face and shave on the residual slickness.
Though I do use a straight razor and they give extremely mild shaves.
For a few pounds on eBay I’d definitely recommend trying one if you haven’t already.

 

[Lockback]

It's funny how our mileages can vary. My batch of Stirling's Deep Blue Sea for me has literally no scent at all so it's disappointed me.
My favorites are:
1) Stirling Soap Barbershop
2) Tabac (not sure if it's the old or new)
3) Proraso Green
4) Stirling Soap Bay Rum

 

[Hawkeye_90]

I like arko and Williams. I too liked the artisans. Now I’m into a new Turkish soap that I think out performs arko.

 

[RxNestEgg]

I have tried quite a number of different soaps over the years. Many are excellent and many are very pleasant and workable. Rare for me to have a shave soap that consistently fails. I will say that from a value perspective there none so far that beat Arko. There are better soaps/creams for sure but they cost 3-10x as much and they don't perform 3-10x better. Arko is slightly more expensive now that it was a few years ago but it's still very low cost for what you get.

 

[gdawg55]

If you want to try some great performing and smelling soaps that won’t cost you an arm and a leg check out Ogallala. Lots of scents to choose from and they are all great….but you better like bay rum as they all have that in them mixed with other scents. I love the stuff.

 

[Hawkeye_90]

A lot of people have recommended that soap. I haven’t tried it, but it is very popular.

 

[Hawkeye_90]

I got to thinking about this thread. I realized I have never had a soap that was bad regardless if it was Williams, arko, col conk, or any other more expensive soaps they all worked well. It’s almost like do you drive a ford or a Chevy. It’s a blessing that there are so many good soaps out there, and with the internet we aren’t even limited by local supply (I used to buy Williams from the grocery store for 1.92 before it got discontinued). It’s more a question now of how much you want to spend.

 

[badar94]

Will definitely have Ogallala on my try list.

Arko is amazing; if only it didn’t have that smell

Performance wise most soaps have been good for me too. The only terrible one i had was the old blue wilkinson sword tub.

 

[Curkio]

I got to thinking about this thread. I realized I have never had a soap that was bad regardless if it was Williams, arko, col conk, or any other more expensive soaps they all worked well. It’s almost like do you drive a ford or a Chevy. It’s a blessing that there are so many good soaps out there, and with the internet we aren’t even limited by local supply (I used to buy Williams from the grocery store for 1.92 before it got discontinued). It’s more a question now of how much you want to spend.

Agree. I am yet to experience a bad soap. Creams on the other hand...I find them less reliable than soaps.

 

[musicman1951]

I've never tried a bad soap, but I'm not a gambler and only try soaps that forum members like. There are really a lot of fine soaps out there. I always recommend reading a few "5 favorite soaps" posts and the like.

Scents are another thing all together. We all have different noses and what smells great to me might just be stinky for you. Samples are a great idea when available.

 

[Jonn]

went on a year long soap binge: SV Dolomiti and 70th edition, MDC rose and fougere, ABC, Boellis Panama. They are all great. At this point SV may be my favorite. BUT, Tabac is also great, So is Stirling Beeswax and Sheep, and Mike's, and A &E and B & M, and Haslingers, etc. Only bad soap I ever had was my last puck of MWF.

 

[BigJ]

Interesting thread!!

And, I had a WONDERFUL shave this am with ‘tallow’ MWF!!

(Wish I had another back-up.)

 

[Lane101]

I got into DE shaving in 2016 thanks to coming across this forum. I did start off with a cost saving shave;a muhle R89 with sharpedge yellow blades and a £2 Wilkinson sword soap that was bad as i learned later.

After 1.5 years i was comfortable and tried the tallow Tabac, which I loved. It was an amazing upgrade over the Wilkinson. I had cheap £0.75 Palmolive shave sticks along the way which were great too. In 2021 my Tabac got discontinued; but tabac refills and the palmolive kept me going for a while

Recently as I have gotten settled, I decided to try a few soaps, a lot of new blades and razors all at once. This year I tried the MWF which was an amazing soap for me. Tried Stirling barbershop (very moisturising post shave feeling and a cushioned shave) and A&E amber rose (great lather and good scent) which made me super impressed with artisans.

Stirling Barbershop was so good i ordered a Boat drinks and a deep blue sea to go along with it. The scent on the boat drinks was horrendous and not half as moisturising post shave as the barbershop. The Deep Blue sea, while amazing; its scent doesn't dissipate, it stays for a long time and gave me a headache. It was too perfumey for me; which I dont mind on weekends occasionally, but I could not tolerate that daily. Then I got a HAGS tarocchi which felt terrible and has had only 1 use.

Honestly, tallow Tabac and the tallow MWF (I bought backup pucks for now) do feel more like daily drivers than however many new ones I try. This is just my experience and I'm sure others enjoy a lot of artisans in rotation. Other than the Stirling and A&E i bought; I do not have any desire to try new artisans anymore.

I can not fathom buying soap after soap and it being disappointing. Although I may have to try some replacements when I'm done with my current stockpile as I'm only 29.

Sorry for a long ranty post. Every soap I seem to like disappears from the market.

I would love to know your experiences and thoughts.

Great overview, thank you! Similar in many respects to my shaving soap journey here in the U.S.A. where I started with Williams and Van Der Hagen upon returning to DE shaving four years ago. Settled on custom blends of the two that delivered excellent core shaving performance and then explored other options around two years ago when Williams was discontinued. Like you I focused my explorations on quality commercial off-the-shelf soaps and creams like MWF, Tabac (new formuation), Cyril R. Salter, D.R. Harris, Razorock What-the-Puck and Arko. Also some LEA and Cyril R. Salter Creams. Many of these via great deals last fall from Connaught Shaving when the British Pound exchange rate with the U.S. dollar collapsed temporarily. The most I've paid for what is a reasonably robust assortment of shaving soaps and creams is around $10 U.S. each with most in the $3-$8 range.

I get great shaves with all of the above with MWF (like you) and Cyril R. Salter shaving soaps delivering some of my best shaves. Also find the new formula Tabac to be excellent. Interestingly I've also continued to hone my custom Van Der Williams blends (now with some Dove Men+Care, Ivory, Arko and Proraso also added) to deliver core shaving performance (lather quality and ease of lathering) as good as my best commercial shaving soaps.

At this point I'm settled with plenty of reserve stocks and see no need to further explore though I understand why some prefer certain artisan soaps for their scents, artwork or extreme ease of lathering.

One key learning over the past two years is that one can generate good lather from any well formulated shaving soap or cream, both tallow and non-tallow, by figuring out how best to dial it in. Variables include type of brush, loading time and levels of moisture, etc. Some soaps work best with a wet lather while in other cases more product needs to be loaded with less moisture to provide the needed glide.

Down the road, as your reserve stocks run out, you will need to settle on alternatives to the tallow MWF and Tabac since those have been discontinued. The Cyril R. Salter soap, that is still tallow based with the same base as D.R. Harris, may be one option for consideration. Enjoy your ongoing shaving soap journey!

.

 

[Lane101]

I got to thinking about this thread. I realized I have never had a soap that was bad regardless if it was Williams, arko, col conk, or any other more expensive soaps they all worked well. It’s almost like do you drive a ford or a Chevy. It’s a blessing that there are so many good soaps out there, and with the internet we aren’t even limited by local supply (I used to buy Williams from the grocery store for 1.92 before it got discontinued). It’s more a question now of how much you want to spend.

Similar for me with one exception. Van Der Hagen Deluxe 2.5 oz. pucks that sell for around $2 -$2.50 each. In spite of many positive reviews I found that while it lathered easily its slickness was just OK - especially compared to the Williams I was also using when I first started DE shaving. Did some digging that I posted on years ago and found that the VDH Deluxe formula was changed from what had generated so many positive reviews.

Got the idea of combining the two and found that the result was excellent with the blend delivering VDHs ease of lathering combined with Williams slickness.

Still use VDH Deluxe for my blends at around 1/3 of the total since as a melt and pour it acts as an excellent binder for holding all the ingredients (that must be grated as they are not melt and pour) in a cohesive puck while enabling easy lather generation.

Note that the VDH Luxury 3.5 oz. pucks, that sell for around $4-$5 each, deliver far superior performance thanks to added glycerine that is not in the Deluxe puck. VDH Luxury works well as a stand alone shaving soap and today is the VDH product found in most retail stores.

 

[Tomo]

I went on a massive soap binge when I started. You name it, I’ve tried it. In the end I wound up with more soap than I knew what to do with. Lots of great products but way too much clutter.

These days I’ve paired it right back. I keep the following soaps on my shelf on that’s it.

Aqua di Parma
Castle Forbes Lavender
DR Harris Arlington
Laugar Skogsrå
Martin di Candre
Santa Maria Novella
Truefitt & Hill 1805

Having a 100+ soaps to choose from was overwhelming. It didn’t make my shaves any better.