Who is your favorite artisan maker based on both scent and performance?

Catie's LVP is the funkiest scent I've come across with exceptional performance. RR XXX & The Freedburg, Maggards Lime & Bergamot as well..

RazoRock is my fav followed by Synergy

My favorite soap for perfomance and scent is Razorock. Especially The Freedberg.

I have some Cold River Soap on my Christmas list so I'm really looking forward to trying that since I have read great things about it.

B&M, Razorock, QCS, and Stirling....you cannot go wrong with any of them.

Catie's Bubbles LPV - great scent and performance.

Queen Charlotte Soaps

I have tried all but 4 rustic (but have ordered all their scents). And I love them!

Yup, a newbie...

I happen to find Forge and Foundry (Wilmington, N.C.) listed as a vendor used by the Wet Shave Club (research, research, research) and ordered the limited Vanilla AllSpice.

Great scent, lathers well. but a newbie's $.02..

Lots of good advice ITT. The four that stand out for me are B&M, LASSC, PPF and Stirling. All are really outstanding. B&M has great performance and some unique scents (Hallows, Adagio and Seville are my favorites). LASSC and PPF shine especially well in hard water. (LASSC's Bespoke #1 and Myrkvior are excellent; PPF's Ciderhouse 5 and Coconut are, too). Stirling is terrific for trying many different scents because they offer such a wide palate of options, and their samples are generous. They are also super slick, if slickness is really important to you. (Ozark Mtn, MITA, and Port-au-Prince are really nice, as is the Glacial line if you enjoy menthol.)

Nothing can beat Mike's Barbershop

I tried several recently (Mike's, Stirling, Barrister and Mann, Mystic Waters, and a couple others). B&M came out on top for me. Mike's a close second.

Artisan soap......Stirling. Great scents - Ozark Mountain & Clean and I also love the Glacial line-up.

That being said, I just started in on my first puck of Mitchell's Wool Fat and it has absolutely rocked my shaving world.

Tiki - Spice Islands
Soap Commander - Love
HTGAM - Bay Rum

Barrister & Mann
Al's Shaving Products
Seifenglatt
Strop Shoppe
Hudson Made
Wickham
Catie's Bubbles

If I could only buy one Artisan soap it would be Mike's.

Gonna have to go with Barrister and Mann on this one. Top notch in every aspect.

I would be more than happy with just Mama Bear and Benton Clay soaps. Sue's stuff works very well for me and I love the scent options, and Dave makes fewer scents but has a product that takes a backseat to nobody in my book.

I just received some artisan soaps in the mail and am in the process of evaluating them. So far the standouts are:

Strop Shoppe Special Edition Baker Street. I like the scent and I think it's growing on me, but the performance is the best of any soap I've tried. I think aftershave is optional with this soap. This stuff is just amazing!

RazoRock Mudder Focker. Great scent and the performance is close to the top too.

Stirling Anise. The performance is great, maybe better than RR MF, but the fragrance is just OK. Anise is closely associated with sweet in my brain so I think I might like this better as the days get colder.

RazoRock XXX. Good performance and great scent but probably more suited to warmer weather.

Queen Charlotte Soaps - Queen Charlotte Scent (puck). Probably my favorite fragrance of any soap I've tried so far. I am still making up my mind on the performance factor but it's looking pretty good at this point.

Cold River and Strop Shoppe. Pick a scent that sounds good. The performance is unbeatable.

Martin de Candre original.