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Soaps without tallow... Recommendations?

rxonmymind not sure if you have been following ItalianBarber March Madness update but I noticed you recommended Tcheon Fung Sing soaps. The new line of Soaps that RazoRock is bringing to market are the Tcheon Fung Sing Soaps. They are being made by TFS and branded with the RazoRock label for the North American market. Read the thread starting about page 10 and that will give you the best information.


Thank you!
 
Don't fear the tallow-unless you are allergic.

I have VERY oily skin and use tallow soaps all the time-they provide me with some of my best shaves. The only soap so far that gives me the same smooth feel is MdC (which is non tallow and expensive and worth it!)


marty
 
I would not worry about the tallow. There is no actual tallow remaining in the final product- it has been fully saponified. It should not affect your oily skin. Just my two cents :001_smile

Thanks Matthew for the insight. I was under the impression that a tallow soap would clog my skin, but after your post I've been reading up on the saponification process and it's shed some light on exactly what a tallow soap contains.

Thanks to all for the rec's and insight as well. It gives me a little more incentive to try some of these tallow soaps ive been depriving myself of, and if tallow ends up being not for me I have some options to consider.
 
Don't fear the tallow-unless you are allergic.

I have VERY oily skin and use tallow soaps all the time-they provide me with some of my best shaves. The only soap so far that gives me the same smooth feel is MdC (which is non tallow and expensive and worth it!)


marty


+1 I have the same type of skin and use tallow soaps all the time ... an allergic reaction would be a reason NOT to use one.
 
Hello All,

I am not one for big intro's and have to admit I hate those intro pages on forums as I enjoy reading peoples opinions and expertise on many subjects.

I have been a lurker to B&B for a while and am truly amazed on the dedication (almost obsession) that some people have to the simple yet highly personalized area that is a persons face. Too all I do enjoy your opinions. Thank you. I really also hate Emoticons/smily faces which I am sure I will see a million of them after this post.

I have always wondered about the objections to tallow soaps and I believed naively about the nature of such things. I believe that animal cruelty is a horrible thing and believe that anyone whom wishes to make a choice between being a vegetarian or not; is a deeply personnel choice based on many experiences/philosophies. I am not a vegetarian, but I eat very little meat and certainly enjoy a good "vegetarian meal" because I enjoy them ;and also a good slab of meat cooked on the barbie.

What stands in my mind is a certain Nigella Lawson episode where she condemned people who wont touch meat as the feel sick about it being raw etc but am still happy eat it. I feel this is the same for my initial tallow based rejection of soaps until I thought about that particular episode (love you Nigella). I am happy to eat an animal; but not put a processed and scented by product on my face. I like to maintain a level of grooming and I find it relaxing taking pride in my appearance (even though I am ugly as sin). I use no other "products" such as moisturizers/toners (apart from after shave balm) I had made my mind up and tried a tallow based soap. All is well and I do like them, as I like a glycerine based soap. I find the MWF very nice.

Give yourself a break. As for the non tallow based I do like the Edward Jaguar Sandalwood subtle yet the scent stays for a while.
 
Soap without tallow is but the ruin of the soul. However, with an oily skin, La Toja tallowless sticks are interesting (a little dry on the skin, very good lather).
 
Honeybee Soaps has a selection of nice shave sticks, all of the melt and pour type. They do come in a deodorant-type container so they are larger than most shave sticks on the market. I don't have any problem getting lather from the stick in my medicine cabinet.
 
Don't forget Klar Kabinette! One of the finest bargains out there.

Indeed, a fine and very under rated soap. It does require a somewhat firm-ish brush (both my boars do well here, as does the big Turkish #1 when I'm feeling decadent) $brushes4.JPG
 
Hello All,

I am not one for big intro's and have to admit I hate those intro pages on forums as I enjoy reading peoples opinions and expertise on many subjects.

I have been a lurker to B&B for a while and am truly amazed on the dedication (almost obsession) that some people have to the simple yet highly personalized area that is a persons face. Too all I do enjoy your opinions. Thank you. I really also hate Emoticons/smily faces which I am sure I will see a million of them after this post.

I have always wondered about the objections to tallow soaps and I believed naively about the nature of such things. I believe that animal cruelty is a horrible thing and believe that anyone whom wishes to make a choice between being a vegetarian or not; is a deeply personnel choice based on many experiences/philosophies. I am not a vegetarian, but I eat very little meat and certainly enjoy a good "vegetarian meal" because I enjoy them ;and also a good slab of meat cooked on the barbie.

What stands in my mind is a certain Nigella Lawson episode where she condemned people who wont touch meat as the feel sick about it being raw etc but am still happy eat it. I feel this is the same for my initial tallow based rejection of soaps until I thought about that particular episode (love you Nigella). I am happy to eat an animal; but not put a processed and scented by product on my face. I like to maintain a level of grooming and I find it relaxing taking pride in my appearance (even though I am ugly as sin). I use no other "products" such as moisturizers/toners (apart from after shave balm) I had made my mind up and tried a tallow based soap. All is well and I do like them, as I like a glycerine based soap. I find the MWF very nice.

Give yourself a break. As for the non tallow based I do like the Edward Jaguar Sandalwood subtle yet the scent stays for a while.

^^ Welcome to B&B!

I had good luck with Pre de Provence, Saint Charles Shave, and Ogallala soaps. However, my favorite is Mitchell's Wool Fat.
 
Hello All,

I am not one for big intro's and have to admit I hate those intro pages on forums as I enjoy reading peoples opinions and expertise on many subjects.

I have been a lurker to B&B for a while and am truly amazed on the dedication (almost obsession) that some people have to the simple yet highly personalized area that is a persons face. Too all I do enjoy your opinions. Thank you. I really also hate Emoticons/smily faces which I am sure I will see a million of them after this post.

I have always wondered about the objections to tallow soaps and I believed naively about the nature of such things. I believe that animal cruelty is a horrible thing and believe that anyone whom wishes to make a choice between being a vegetarian or not; is a deeply personnel choice based on many experiences/philosophies. I am not a vegetarian, but I eat very little meat and certainly enjoy a good "vegetarian meal" because I enjoy them ;and also a good slab of meat cooked on the barbie.

What stands in my mind is a certain Nigella Lawson episode where she condemned people who wont touch meat as the feel sick about it being raw etc but am still happy eat it. I feel this is the same for my initial tallow based rejection of soaps until I thought about that particular episode (love you Nigella). I am happy to eat an animal; but not put a processed and scented by product on my face. I like to maintain a level of grooming and I find it relaxing taking pride in my appearance (even though I am ugly as sin). I use no other "products" such as moisturizers/toners (apart from after shave balm) I had made my mind up and tried a tallow based soap. All is well and I do like them, as I like a glycerine based soap. I find the MWF very nice.

Give yourself a break. As for the non tallow based I do like the Edward Jaguar Sandalwood subtle yet the scent stays for a while.

Welcome to B&B.

You are welcome to your opinion, and I respect your right to your own opinion. From my perspective, however, the ideas expressed in your post are internally inconsistent. In order to eat the meat, the animal has to be killed. Parts of that animal who sacrificed its life for our meat are discarded and put to no use. My own opinion is that if we are going to ask an animal to give up its life, the least we can do is make the most possible use out of that animal. That would mean, for example, using the tallow to make a nice shaving soap rather than discarding it. If you think about it, doesn't that make sense? I feel like, if anything, we are paying respect to the animal by putting all of it to its best uses; and, conversely, we would be almost desecrating the animal to not utilize as much of it as possible.

Of course, this is only my opinion.
 
Welcome to B&B.

You are welcome to your opinion, and I respect your right to your own opinion. From my perspective, however, the ideas expressed in your post are internally inconsistent. In order to eat the meat, the animal has to be killed. Parts of that animal who sacrificed its life for our meat are discarded and put to no use. My own opinion is that if we are going to ask an animal to give up its life, the least we can do is make the most possible use out of that animal. That would mean, for example, using the tallow to make a nice shaving soap rather than discarding it. If you think about it, doesn't that make sense? I feel like, if anything, we are paying respect to the animal by putting all of it to its best uses; and, conversely, we would be almost desecrating the animal to not utilize as much of it as possible.

Of course, this is only my opinion.

+1. This. I don't eat red meat, but I happily use tallow-based soaps. As you've said, the animal's been killed for its meat anyway, so why not use as much of it as possible?
 

Marco

B&B's Man in Italy
In my opinion there are many vegetable soaps that perform at the same high level of the best tallow ones. My favourite veggie soaps are:

Martin de Candre
La Toja Manantiales
La Toja stick
RazoRock La Famiglia
RazoRock King Louis

The Cade is a very good soap, too.
 
+1. This. I don't eat red meat, but I happily use tallow-based soaps. As you've said, the animal's been killed for its meat anyway, so why not use as much of it as possible?


[devils advocate] By purchasing the secondary/by-products, you help make economically feasible to continue killing the animal in the first place. If the slaughterhouse didn't get extra revenue from the byproducts, the price of meat would rise such that fewer people would eat red meat and fewer animals would be killed. [/devils advocate]
 
Interesting argument, but unlikely under current circumstances. World beef production continues to increase, while tallow production is on the decline. This is partly because the beef market now demands leaner meat products, and because demand for tallow is also declining there is no downside to raising leaner animals. This was not always true: go back to the 19th century and tallow and hides were at least as important as beef. The situation might change again if tallow becomes an important feedstock for biodiesel, but I remain skeptical about that.

Getting back to shaving... I like some vegetable soaps, but I think avoiding tallow is misguided because the alternatives are not really any more ethical. Palm oil production is terrible for rainforest habitats.
 
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