Top performing shave soaps with essential oils in place of fragrance

[sarimento1]

I have sensitive skin. In the past 3 years my technique and equipment have reached a level where the only irritation is coming from the soap on my skin. I have tried many different products in my life (shaving and otherwise) and found that the presence of synthetics and/or synthetic "fragrance" in the ingredients list results in irritation. With shave soap, the irritation persists despite the use of high quality pre-shave and aftershave.

The problem is I have been struggling to find a performant natural soap. Badger Balm, for example, makes a shave soap with incredible (organic) ingredients and smell, but zero performance. (It pretends to lather then dries up on your face before you get your razor up. I have even written them to modify their high potential formula but they don't seem to be taking any action.) I haven't found any others with such clean lists.

To relax the search, I'm asking for recommendations for shave soaps that use essential oils in place of synthetic "fragrance" and lifting the requirement of a perfectly clean ingredients list. I figure this will get me close enough to what I need.

(First post.)

Welcome to B&B, Sir ScritchTheItch!

As others have reported with very sensitive skin, the search is largely one of trial-and-error.
Many have said issue is ingredients, others have said residual lye, yet for others it seems to be technique.
I suggest that you look for samples of shave soaps, regardless of essential oil or fragrance oil, and see what works best for you!
Best wishes and enjoy the journey!!

 

[ScritchTheItch]

Thanks gentlemen. A lot of great recommendations I'll have to sort through. Some good points to consider too.

I've been eyeing Stirling for a while but thought they were all fragrance. Very cool that they have that filter. I've been on their site a couple times. I can't believe I didn't see it.

Ethos looks great, but I don't know if I can justify the price. I'd be pretty sore if it doesn't work out.

Mama Bear I read an allusion to while scrolling the forums the other day on an old post ("it's not mama bear"). Wasn't sure if they were still around. Pretty cool to see it here.

The others I've never heard of and will look into.

 

[ScritchTheItch]

Hey Stirling and Mama Bear both have an essential oil bay rum! Mama Bear's is called Marauders.

 

[4pointOh]

Sudsy Soapery post shave feel is top tier imho but scents have been hit and miss with me..... bay rum and citrus is really solid i believe all their stuff is free of fragrance that is not EO

AND they're priced great

 

[borwish]

I regard Hendrix Classics as a very good soap. It's the only unscented soap in my collection. It does contain lanolin which doesn't agree with some people.

 

[steffenapelz]

1) Eufros is my absolute favorite in that category. Very few soap makers are as good as Manuel when it comes to blending EOs into scents. Every soap is a masterpiece IMO.

2) MacDuff makes a few soaps with EO only. Some of the cabin series and some of his other soaps (like Dark Sky Preserve, Kananaskis Explorer and Icefield Parkway) are all EO scents. His scents may not always be as good as Manuel's, but his soap base is one of the best on the market.

3) Laugar is also pretty good. I love the Alvdans scent. The only knock is that the base doesn't perform as well as Eufros or MacDuff.

One word of advice...I also enjoy and even prefer EO based soaps, but in some cases, highly concentrated naturally scented soaps (i.e. soaps that use only one EO) can also be problematic. I found this out from using Kananaskis Explorer (which is all Pine tar resin) and Ragnarok (which is a pure Cedar) and they gave me an itch (even if it didn't burn). Most of the more blended EO soaps do great though.

 

[zifnab]

I have sensitive skin. In the past 3 years my technique and equipment have reached a level where the only irritation is coming from the soap on my skin. I have tried many different products in my life (shaving and otherwise) and found that the presence of synthetics and/or synthetic "fragrance" in the ingredients list results in irritation. With shave soap, the irritation persists despite the use of high quality pre-shave and aftershave.

The problem is I have been struggling to find a performant natural soap. Badger Balm, for example, makes a shave soap with incredible (organic) ingredients and smell, but zero performance. (It pretends to lather then dries up on your face before you get your razor up. I have even written them to modify their high potential formula but they don't seem to be taking any action.) I haven't found any others with such clean lists.

To relax the search, I'm asking for recommendations for shave soaps that use essential oils in place of synthetic "fragrance" and lifting the requirement of a perfectly clean ingredients list. I figure this will get me close enough to what I need.

(First post.)

Martin de Candre and Caties Bubbles for me are top 2, and only soaps I want to shave with now. I have creams I like using, but these are the only two shaving soaps I like right now. Very simple vegan soaps using essential oils.

 

[Darth Scandalous]

I don't think I have particularly fragrance sensitive skin; I do have a mild lanolin sensitivity that's more of an annoyance than anything else, but enough that I don't use soaps with lanolin any more. My nose, on the other hand.... a lot of fragrances tickle my sinuses and sometimes give me headaches, so I usually lean toward essential oils based soaps which generally don't bother me.

Ironically, by far the worst skin reaction I have had so far was from an EO soap. For what it's worth. Stirling Bergamot and Lavender.

I've had good luck with many Stirlings though, besides the lanolin. I've used both MdC Rose and Original with no problems. If you don't mind unscented, Canada is reputed to be pretty similar to MdC. Also Southern Witchcrafts Incorporeal. As well as the various Stirling unscented offerings (Beeswax is the only one I use due to the Lanolin). I guess MdC also has an unscented version.

 

[ScritchTheItch]

Kananaskis Explorer (which is all Pine tar resin)

All pine tar sounds awesome. Must smell great. Yes, too concentrated can also irritate. I've used straight up EO on my skin though and never had a problem.

 

[ScritchTheItch]

Sudsy Soapery post shave feel is top tier imho but scents have been hit and miss with me..... bay rum and citrus is really solid i believe all their stuff is free of fragrance that is not EO

AND they're priced great

They have a lot of different bases. Which types have you tried?

 

[ScritchTheItch]

Their directions look a little off:

HOW TO USE FOR SHAVING
Directions: Place generously on face with a wet shaving brush and shave. Rinse with warm water.

Ingredients on their stuff looks great.

 

[WetShaveVet]

Tallow and Steel

 

[ScritchTheItch]

Tallow and Steel

Wow! Very high quality stuff. Organic ingredients and pasture-raised tallow. Sarspirilla is intruiging.

 

[WetShaveVet]

And they work very, very well.

 

[4pointOh]

They have a lot of different bases. Which types have you tried?

All of them but personally I'd rate the tallow and mango neck and neck maybe the slightest edge to the tallow

The triple butter is good as well though

 

[Old Hippie]

Have you considered making your own? There is a recipe I use for most of my shave soap. I get seven or eight pucks out of it and that lasts me a year or better. I use essential oils -- cedar, peppermint, lemongrass, etc. -- along with tallow, coconut oil, and other good ingredients. Happy to share; pm if interested (it's a Word file that I compiled into a small book) or you can look around for "Silver Fox shaving soap" online.

I also picked up a copy of Carrie Seibert's How to Make Shaving Soap: Charting Your Course to the Land of Lather. She co-founded Soap Commander. Some interesting recipes, hot and cold processes, with and without various ingredients that may cause irritation for some.

I'm coming on to need to make a batch. The Silver Fox recipe is dependable and simple and I like the soap. This makes me leery of investing too much time into Carrie's recipes as they often have more ingredients and more nuanced processes. But if I ain't gonna use it, why did I buy it? A persuasive argument...

I'll wait until I need to decide. Then we'll see!

O.H.