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Old shaving soap: powder.

I recently converted a friend into DE shaving. He likes it very much. Everytime I visit him, we talk about it. Recently, he mentionned having a shave at the barber each week long time ago. Needless to say he is of a golden age ;-))

The soap the barber used came in powder. He remembers the brand too: “La Corbeille Royale”. It was package in a big rond container much like some brands of whiskey are packaged. And as large too. On the outside were big stripped colors across, blue, white and probably red, he said. The barber added a spoon of the stuff to water and made a wonderfull foam.

On the net, I couldn’t find anything. Now I wonder, did anybody know about this kind of soap? Anybody has some information about this? I suppose it doesn’t exist anymore. Maybe there were other brands too? Does it help saying that I'm from Belgium?
 
I remember seeing a can of the Colgate shaving powder at my grandparents home when I was a boy.

Clayton

I seem to remember an add showing that Williams made some sort of shaving flakes as well. I think things like this were quite common back in the day (1920's-1930's).
 
I seem to remember an add showing that Williams made some sort of shaving flakes as well. I think things like this were quite common back in the day (1920's-1930's).

John, I remember seeing that ad. I wished that I had that Colgate Shaving Powder can.

Clayton
 
Like this ad from 1916:
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My grandfather used soap powder many years ago. I don't remember what brand it was but it came in a metal container similar to the ones posted by theVez2 above. He would shake about 1/2 a teaspoon out in a mug and add some very hot water to it. He would then whip the brush in the mug to make very thick lather. He always wanted to have enough to shave - and put on my face, too.
 
Well, it seems on the other side of the pond, you fellows also had the soap powder. Anybody out there still has something left to try it out?
 
Oh, and I forgot to thank TheVez2 for posting some very nice pictures. Now I'm getting very curious. Adding just some powder to water making a fine lather, looks to me as a very simple routine.
 
Odd this just came up...

I was in Walmart with the wife yesterday doing some much dreaded Christmas shopping. I try to escape as often as possible, and ended up in the shave aisle, where I noticed containers of Shave Powder. I was tempted to pick it up, but I just have no more room for soap storage! :crying:
 

Mike H

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I think all the shave powders you will find in Walmart are hair removal (Depilatory) powders.
 
I suppose there isn't shaving soap in powder anymore.

Here in Portugal there was one powder made from Ach Brito (Musgo Real manufacturer) that was used in barbers here in Portugal.

I was lucky to meet an old employee that worked in Ach Brito factory and he kindly gave me a sealed package of this powder. I've been used it very rarely, I don't want to waste it.
 
I suppose there isn't shaving soap in powder anymore.

Here in Portugal there was one powder made from Ach Brito (Musgo Real manufacturer) that was used in barbers here in Portugal.

I was lucky to meet an old employee that worked in Ach Brito factory and he kindly gave me a sealed package of this powder. I've been used it very rarely, I don't want to waste it.

I would go ahead and use it. Soaps have a good shelf life in general, but grinding one into a powder seems certain to make it age more quickly.
 
The only shaving soap i've seen around here is in powder form. I used it once, for me first ever DE shave, with a feather. I didn't really know what the lather should be like. The way it turned out was clearly not correct, but i'm tempted to give it another try.
 
Thanks everybody for all the information. I guess there is no powder shaving soap available anymore. At one time in history there was an abundance. Any particular reason why this disappeared?

To Bluebriz from Japan: let me know how this works for you. And how you would describe your shave. You actually have access to powder shaving soap? An old stash or from recent date?
 
By coincidence, someone on another shaving forum just posted this video on youtube. They have a vintage Colgate shaving powder tin that is full and is 90-100 years old. They tried it out and here is the result.

 
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