50+ soaps reviewed by a new DE shaver.

rockclimber · Mar 15, 2016

I have been DE shaving for only a month and have tried only a few soaps and creams so far. This will be my way of keeping track of all the soaps I have tried. I hope this thread will also help out new DE shavers like me in the future.

So far I have:
Stirling:

Sharp Dressed Man
Barbershop
Ozark Mountain
Executive Man.
Bay Rum.
Margaritas in the Arctic
Sandalwood
Coniferous.
Frozen Tundra.
Orange Chill
Gin & Tonic
Bay Lime Test #1

Wet Shaving Products:
All 13 samples they offer.

Soap Commander:
All 9 samples they offer.

Mystic waters:
Have not placed the order yet but my cart is currently at 14 samples.

Tiki:
Have not even looked into what I will sample here but it will likely be another 10 to 15 samples.

There is also a miscellaneous category that will include most of the popular soaps that the forum has suggested and my honest opinions about them such as Tabac, MWF, etc.

My goal is to try each soap for three to five days before moving on to the next one so I can have a good understanding of what I'm reviewing rather than just doing one shave and moving on to the next sample.

Just an FYI, I have to do all of this from my phone because work will not allow and my time is limited when I get home with wife and kids so I hope you understand any grammatical or spelling errors.

Here's the BIG list....

rockclimber said:
I can't edit my first post, is there any way a mod can edit this into the first post so new members will know what I am reviewing?

Mystic Waters:
Frankincense & Myrrh
Barbershop
bay rum
Cedar & Sage
Coconut Lime Verben
Irish Traveller
Jeff's Lavender
Lily of the Valley
Maestrale
Marrakesh
Vanilla Sandalwood
Prospect Creek
Vetiver & Oakmoss
Viola di Bosco
Windjammer

Stirling:
Sharp Dressed Man
Barbershop
Ozark Mountain
Executive Man.
Bay Rum.
Margaritas in the Arctic
Sandalwood
Coniferous.
Frozen Tundra.
Orange Chill
Gin & Tonic

Soap Commander:
Confidence
Courage
Endurance
Inspiration
Love
Passion
Respect
Vision
Reflection

Barrister & Mann White Label:
Bay Rum
Cheshire
Seville
Lavanille
Vetyver Santal

Barrister & Mann Latha:
Lavanda
Original
Limon
Oceana
Taiga
Sandalwood

Tiki:
Land Locked
Fougere
The Captain
North Shore
Salty Air

Wet Shaving Products:
Barbershop
Blackbeard
Black Amber Vanille
Black Orchid
Fougere Noire
Gaelic Tweed
Lavenderwood
Mahogany
Matterhorn
Sandalwood
Tobacco
Vetiver
Starbucks

PannaCrema Shaving Soap:
PannaCrema Lavandotto
PannaCrema Namaste

Saponificio Varesino:
Saponificio Varesino Dolomiti
Saponificio Varesino Aromatic Fern

Haslinger Schafmilch Rasierseife:
Haslinger Unscented
Haslinger Sandalwood

Dr. Jons:
1803
Savannah Sunrise
Hydra
Aphrodite
Classic
Anne Bonny
Black Label
Gold Label

Cold River Soap Works v.2:
Citrus
Vétiver Moderne

Col Conk:
Amber
Lime
Almond
Bay Rum

Misc:
Proraso Green
Arko
Tabac
Truefitt & Hill Sandalwood
Modern Williams
Van Der Hagen
Pre de Provence
Mitchells Wool Fat
RazoRock XXX
Henry Cavendish Lavender

BSAGuy · Mar 15, 2016

JayTris07 · Mar 15, 2016

Stirling is excellent. I like them all, but I love the Ozark Mountain.

Cksnffr · Mar 15, 2016

rockclimber said:
My goal is to try each soap for three to five days before moving on to the next one

You must have a lot more patience than I do.

matwho · Mar 15, 2016

Thank you for your efforts, I'll be interested in your thoughts on these products.

mdevine · Mar 15, 2016

This looks very interesting and I'll be watching closely. Don't discount the "brand name" soaps. To me, it seems we sometimes judge them more harshly than we do the artisan soaps. For my money, D.R. Harris, Martin de Candre, Tabac and Arko are all excellent, and Art of Shaving shave soaps (the now discontinued tallow formulation) outperform everything else I've tried.

Enjoy your journey. If I were to make one suggestion, keep track of your top four or five, and revisit them once you're more experienced. That way, you can get a good idea of how they compare. Like I said, AoS is my favorite, but I'm interested in hearing what your final opinion is.

countrydirt · Mar 15, 2016

Good luck! I'll be watching with great interest.

doofus · Mar 15, 2016

my kind of thread totally.

Greglam · Mar 15, 2016

I don't see Williams on that list.

rockclimber · Mar 15, 2016

Williams will be tested in the miscellaneous category along with Arko, Proraso, etc. Price will not be figured into this equation because price/performance would only have a few winners like williams, VDH, Arko, etc. speaking of Arko...

This stuff is so good for the price I went ahead and bought 24 for my bunker. I have shaved with it over 5 times now so here is my last test before moving on. I added a picture of my face so you would understand the conditions I'm facing. My skin is not overly dry or overly oily I would say it is average and my beard growth is average as well. In this picture I let the Arco dry for seven minutes trying to figure out how to take a selfie, I guess I've never done a selfie before, kind of sad LOL I relathered for the shave as this became way too dry.

Slickness 5/10 average and absolutely amazing for the price.
Cushion 4/10 average again, I am face lathering so if I scuttle lather maybe I can do better.
Moisturizing 4/10 average but can be somewhat drying.
Smell 4/10 wife says 2/10 smell is a mix of oven cleaner and Pine-Sol, I don't find it offensive nor Pleasant just different. My wife finds it offensive.
Overall 4/10. For the price a solid 9/10 that is why I am ignoring price.

Glaze3 · Mar 15, 2016

Don't count out a soap after only shaving for a month. There's plenty of soaps I didn't like then revisited after a couple of years and loved them. The lather on your above pic is need of some work.

JimmyKing · Mar 15, 2016

As a new shaver myself I can't wait to read your reviews. Thank you for sharing your experience.

rockclimber · Mar 15, 2016

Arko gave me a BBS shave after 3 passes.
To make it fair for everyone and so I remember what I was using during the testing my setup will remain the same for every single shave. Merkur barberpole and feather blades with same badger brush every time.

rockclimber · Mar 15, 2016

Glaze3 said:
Don't count out a soap after only shaving for a month. There's plenty of soaps I didn't like then revisited after a couple of years and loved them. The lather on your above pic is need of some work.

I totally agree, and I have enough soap that I'll have to revisit it several times over the next few years and rate it again. I agree that the lather is horrible, it was pretty good originally on par with what I get from TOBS creme but then fooling around with this camera trying to take a selfie let it dry out for a solid 7 minutes. I'll take a picture of my next one quicker to show you all how I'm lathering and to get your feedback. Thanks!

gfaulknor · Mar 15, 2016

I applaud this undertaking and look forward to your reviews.

Glaze3 · Mar 15, 2016

rockclimber said:
I totally agree, and I have enough soap that I'll have to revisit it several times over the next few years and rate it again. I agree that the lather is horrible, it was pretty good originally on par with what I get from TOBS creme but then fooling around with this camera trying to take a selfie let it dry out for a solid 7 minutes. I'll take a picture of my next one quicker to show you all how I'm lathering and to get your feedback. Thanks!

Nice work!

Cigar Guy · Mar 15, 2016

Do you realize how long it will take to use 24 sticks of Arko? I understand your eagerness but you might want to take it easy on your quantities. Samples I can understand, but once you try the old standbys like MWF, Tabac, Haslinger, DR, etc...you will be unloading the Arko on the BST. Just trying to look out for ya.

AJ123 · Mar 15, 2016

I spent over a year trying 25+ artisan/premium soaps. I tried at least two scents from each. You really need to try a soap multiple times and then come back to it after trying others. The specific technique and variations to bring out the best in a soap is something you need to experiment with. Many soaps suds up too quickly if you add too much water too early. If you find your sweet spot with experimentation, every one of the soaps would be perfectly good. I started this thinking I would find which soaps I wanted to repurchase. I ended up realizing that technique matters more. With so many on my repurchase list (and I bought a lot more than two scents from some of them), I may have my lifetime of soap purchases.

Czech & Speake
Mike's Natural Soaps
Mystic Water
Martin de Candre
Strop Shoppe LLC
Antica Barbieria Colla (one scent only)
Haslinger
Barrister & Mann
XPEC
Cold River Soap Works
Boellis Panama 1924 (one scent only)
PannaCrema
D.R. Harris
Shaver Heaven
Stirling
Tcheon Fung Sing
Phoenix Artisan
Mickey Lee
Cella (one scent only)
RazoRock
Dr Jon's
KnockOut
Chiseled Face
Bufflehead
Creed (one scent only)
Floris
Valobro
Rustic T (the tallow ones)
Long Rifle
Saponificio Varesino
Penhaligons
New York Shaving
Castle Forbes

snowman · Mar 15, 2016

To cover more ground you might want to consider fewer duplicates from the same manufacturer. For example, I think you will find that for the most part all of the Sterling soaps perform the same with of course scent being the distinguishing factor. Same is true for most manufacturers. Once you find a few high performing soaps you like, you can go back and explore the various scent options that manufacturer provides.

dabrock · Mar 15, 2016

mdevine said:
This looks very interesting and I'll be watching closely. Don't discount the "brand name" soaps. To me, it seems we sometimes judge them more harshly than we do the artisan soaps. For my money, D.R. Harris, Martin de Candre, Tabac and Arko are all excellent, and Art of Shaving shave soaps (the now discontinued tallow formulation) outperform everything else I've tried.

Enjoy your journey. If I were to make one suggestion, keep track of your top four or five, and revisit them once you're more experienced. That way, you can get a good idea of how they compare. Like I said, AoS is my favorite, but I'm interested in hearing what your final opinion is.

I think MdC is considered an artisan but either way it's a top tier and gets a lot of love. I agree with the old AOS with tallow (I actually bought a puck today!), if it's not the best I have it's very close and an ant could starve on the difference. I was glad to hear it's the same as Valbora hard soaps so I'm going to get some of those later. I find that my top 10 to 20 list is pretty evenly split between traditional and artisan soaps and creams.

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50+ soaps reviewed by a new DE shaver.

rockclimber

BSAGuy

JayTris07

Cksnffr

matwho

mdevine

countrydirt

doofus

Greglam

rockclimber

Glaze3

JimmyKing

rockclimber

rockclimber

gfaulknor

Glaze3

Cigar Guy

AJ123

snowman

dabrock

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