Shave Stick Review & Comparison

Hello Shave Stickers: I hope there hasn't been one thread covering this and if so please let me know. I have been "educating" myself on shave sticks in the soap forum... many good insights. I have been mainly a mug/bowl soap and cream face-latherer but I need to try some sticks. I think they would be great for travel and also at home. I've learned a lot and have a couple sticks ordered. From what I can tell from the stick lovers here, it looks like La Toja, Speick, Arko, Palmolive, and Valobra are in everyone's top list with "varying mileage" and IMO slightly differing.

I don't know how to do a poll or rating anaylsis but perhaps experienced "stickers" can enlighten shave stick rookies like me on lather quality, scent description, container, & overall value/quality for:

Arko
D.R. Harris
La Toja
Palmolive
Speick
Valobra
Others

Thanks and enjoy your lather!

Erasmic classic tallow is my go-to stick. Cheap and cheerful, Lathers up a treat. Classic neroli / bergamot barbershop scent.

Arko - great performer if you can get past the commercial floor cleaner scent. Cheap

D R Harris - good all rounder, bit more pricey

Palmolive - like Erasmic but with a weird scent not to everyones liking

Wilkinson Sword - Hard to find and not worth the money or spending time looking for - you can do a lot better for a lot less.

Valobra - overrated and overpriced

Speick - good performer if you like the scent.

My Review For Arko

Lather: You can get that perfect lather very easily.
Scent: Some people hate it, to me it's a simple refreshing lemon scent.
Container: Standard foil, I haven't had any problems with it.
Price: I think mine was $5, very high performance for a low price.

Overall Rating: PERFECT 10!

What do you have on order?

SteveWY said:

Hello Shave Stickers: I hope there hasn't been one thread covering this and if so please let me know. I have been "educating" myself on shave sticks in the soap forum... many good insights. I have been mainly a mug/bowl soap and cream face-latherer but I need to try some sticks. I think they would be great for travel and also at home. I've learned a lot and have a couple sticks ordered. From what I can tell from the stick lovers here, it looks like La Toja, Speick, Arko, Palmolive, and Valobra are in everyone's top list with "varying mileage" and IMO slightly differing.

I don't know how to do a poll or rating anaylsis but perhaps experienced "stickers" can enlighten shave stick rookies like me on lather quality, scent description, container, & overall value/quality for:

Arko
D.R. Harris
La Toja
Palmolive
Speick
Valobra
Others

Thanks and enjoy your lather!

Click to expand...

BeeSeeDub said:

What do you have on order?

Click to expand...

I should have elaborated. I'm waiting on a stick of La Toja and Palmolive off the June specials from Italian Barber.

Toddy said:

Erasmic classic tallow is my go-to stick. Cheap and cheerful, Lathers up a treat. Classic neroli / bergamot barbershop scent.

Arko - great performer if you can get past the commercial floor cleaner scent. Cheap

D R Harris - good all rounder, bit more pricey

Palmolive - like Erasmic but with a weird scent not to everyones liking

Wilkinson Sword - Hard to find and not worth the money or spending time looking for - you can do a lot better for a lot less.

Valobra - overrated and overpriced

Speick - good performer if you like the scent.

Click to expand...

Can you describe the Speick and Valobra scents?

I've only used Arko, Speick, and La Toja thus far although, like you, I'm on a quest to try many more.

Of those, I'd say Arko>Speick>La Toja.

Arko - Best lather of the bunch by far (tallow ftw) and very slick. Love the scent but YMMV of course. No container which is a big gripe of mine but I'll live. Best value:quality ratio for sure at ~$2/stick! And it's very easy to acquire.

Speick - My first shave stick. Also a very slick soap but the lather doesn't perform as well as Arko. I also really like this scent and wish it were stronger personally. No container but it does have a plastic end cap as a base to hold on to. This is a moderately cheap shave stick (~$6) and definitely should be on everyone's list of sticks to try.

La Toja - I was pretty underwhelmed by La Toja. It lathers well and is reasonably slick but I hardly find myself reaching for it. I also don't really care for the scent; it smells like baby powder to me. At least it has a container which I appreciate. This stick is mid-to-high priced at $7.50/stick from WCS or BGS although I think some other online vendors have it for cheaper.

You forgot to mention some others like Tabac, Irisch Moos (discontinued), and Lea for a few.

And don't forget that you can make your own stick, or just cut off a piece of something and use it. I have used a piece of Klar Kabinett cut from the bar as a stick, and just created one from a glue stick and some Klar Kabinett.

Mama Bear's also sells shave sticks, though I haven't tried any myself. Mama Bear's also sells empty shave stick containers, so you can melt or grate any of your favorite soaps into a shave stick. You could probably use one of those to make a container for an Arko or Spieck stick.

Tried "Irisch Moo's" for the first time this morning. Also my first shave stick.

Lather Quality - 8 out of 10. Great lather. Didn't have any problems with it drying or being too thin. Nice and slick as you'd expect tallow to be.

Scent Description - Can't really give it a rating. It definitely has more of a "perfume" and soap smell vs. an organic/raw ingredient smell. It smells similar to Irish Spring soap. Not too overpowering though. I get a fresh, linen, soapy smell from it.

Container - Plastic tube, screw top, push up from bottom to dispense. Seems clean and effective.

Price - Going up. I paid $15 shipped although there were some real deals going around where people scored a stick for $8 and free shipping.

Sticks are to soaps what tubes are to creams. I just don't get the same scent and shaving pleasure with sticks or tubes that I get with pucks or tubs. Having tried sticks of La Toja, Tabac, Harris, QED and Arko, the only stick I found worth replacing was La Toja. Maybe if I traveled more, I'd appreciate them more.

Valobra and the DR Harris are my first choices.

I'm a stick fan and have all the previous mentioned names as well as Tabac, Derby and the raely seem Boots shave stick. Each gets a shave use over nine days. For me they're all good. However price does play a lot. Valobra is expensive and wears very quick, while Boots is a few quid and wears very slow. Palmolive....well it's wouldnt be right not to have one. For me though my favorite stick (sticks) are Arko or Derby. They seem to lather with any kinda water or brush. I've put them both into old soap tubes (erasmic) and they are just great IMHO.

Oh no! You forgot the calani shave sticks... They will blow your mind and make you forget about all others. Ans they are available in a wide range of fragrances. Really... Try them!

At least half of my sticks started out as pucks: cheaper that way, and any good soap is a candidate as long as it is not too soft.

mol81 said:

Oh no! You forgot the calani shave sticks... They will blow your mind and make you forget about all others. Ans they are available in a wide range of fragrances. Really... Try them!

Click to expand...

Probably only available from the Calani web site in Germany?

Irish Moos/Tabac 100g sticks in a push container that can be reused.

Dr Harris good not quite the value or quality of the Irish Moos/Tabac IMO, but the containers are great for reuse, a half puck of AOS for example can be rolled into one.

Arko maybe the best bang for buck, great tallow stick, flimsy foil wrapping.

I generally use sticks when traveling, Kells and D R Harris are my favorites.

D R Harris is nice.

john parker said:

Probably only available from the Calani web site in Germany?

Click to expand...

I bought them from a local vendor in the Netherlands. But I think the best way is to order them from their site. Just order a bunch so the shipping costs will be less of a pita! Really one can not go wrong with any of them. I used all of the above mentioned (still have at least 5 of all left) and since discovering calani sticks I did not use any of them. They are that good!