Favorite soap finds of the year.

I'm always looking for new soaps to try. In particular the really, really good ones. So I'll share my favorite soap finds of the year with you and you can feel free to share yours. Keep in mind that this should be soaps that are new to you this year. I'd prefer to hear about soaps that are new to the market this year (not really looking for the Tabac and Proraso's of the world) but we haven't all tried everything, so new to you is going to have to be good enough.

Here's mine:

PannaCrema Nuavia - This is the very best soap I've encountered to date. A spare no expense approach to create a high end soap that excels in every category. Think silky clay slickness, high end scents, and an after shave face feel that almost allows you to skip the aftershave. It's costly but I have yet to find a better soap.

Sudsy Soapery Lavender & Peppermint - This is a much less expensive ($11) undiscovered soap company that uses silky clays and lots of butters to create their soaps. Easy to lather and very slick and luxurious. Similar to Nuavia in after shave feel and up there with my top performers in terms of performance. For me this is an $11 soap that's on par with MdC performance wise and gives very close to Nuavia type performance at a much lower cost.

Please feel free to share a couple of your favorite finds of the year and include a short review.

Not new soaps, but new scents to me, finally; Mystic Water Bergamot/Cedarwood/Juniper and Cedar/Sage.
I am not sure what took me so long to appreciate these scents.

These guys BlueBell Soaps. http://www.bluebellsoap.com/collections/8-oz-shave-soap-tins

Local to Utah and they have a very nice product.
[MENTION=73656]dfoulk[/MENTION].... I am browsing the Sudsy Soapery site now... and the bowls they offer are awesome looking too!

cvargo said:

These guys BlueBell Soaps. http://www.bluebellsoap.com/collections/8-oz-shave-soap-tins

Local to Utah and they have a very nice product.
@dfoulk.... I am browsing the Sudsy Soapery site now... and the bowls they offer are awesome looking too!

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Yeah, they added those not to long ago. I thought they looked cool but I generally face lather, so no need there for me.

Also, tell me more about BlueBell soaps please. I'm always looking for new unknown really great soaps to add to the sample passaround. This one is new to me.

Blue's Soap Goat Milk And Animal Fats From New Zealand - Available from various Chinese sellers on eBay, made from Goat's Milk, Tallow and Honey, and comes in a cool screw top tin. It's rock hard, but very easy to load and only takes a very small amount to produce good lather. (Too much product results in a very sticky lather that's like snot). Very "appetising" sweetish butterscotch/toffee/fudge scent.

Godrej Shaving Round - Not exactly new, but new to me, this classic soap from India is easy to load straight from the container, lathers very quickly, has an unusual powder blue colour and a clean, clinical, almost "hospital" scent. The compact size of the container makes it an ideal travel soap (the lid is loose, so a rubber band is a good idea)

De Vergulde Hand - Holland's finest, easy to load straight from the plastic bowl, easily produces a good lather, very nice no-nonsense "soapy" scent

The others will all sound very familiar.....
Proraso Red, White & Green Soaps - I liked them so much, I bought the Red, White, Blue & Green Creams too!!
Palmolive Classic Shaving Stick - Probably one of the best for the money
Tabac Original Shaving Stick - It was on my wishlist for so long I had to pull the trigger- love it !!
La Toja Shaving Stick - After nearly 10 years of living in Mallorca, Spain, I finally got around to trying it- definitely the best!!

dfoulk said:

Yeah, they added those not to long ago. I thought they looked cool but I generally face lather, so no need there for me.

Also, tell me more about BlueBell soaps please. I'm always looking for new unknown really great soaps to add to the sample passaround. This one is new to me.

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I have the barbershop which is a very nice soap.

I found out about them on a Utah Facebook shaving page.

Here is what I know.

They are brothers and BlueBell is the name of the town they live in which is in the Rockies here in Utah. It is a very small town. There soap base has no tallow so I guess can be considered Vegan but I know some people define Vegan differently than others.

The soap lathers very easily and provides a rich lather with plenty of lubrication. They are definitely worth looking into and are really good people to work with.

I haven't tried their 'Spice Rack' scent but I hear it is a huge fan favorite! I am planning on buying the Lime Wood scent on my next purhcase from them.

Schafmilch!

Jeeve's Soaps. After my first use, this instantly entered my top 5. Lather's like crazy and has a feeling, while it's on your face, like no other.

I'm pretty new here, but of the ones I've tried I really like MWF, B&M Bay Rum, and now Mama Bear Energy for the long hot summer.

Razorock Tuscan Oud. I think their tallow soaps make richer lather than their non-tallow recipes. And my wife loves the smell....

Man there have been a lot...

Haslinger Schafmilch
LPL's including the donkey milk and honey Lainess
Midnight and Two the Study
AOS sandalwood cream
Castle Forbes Lime cream
Baume.be cream

Out of all these I would say the baume.be and Schafmilch are the tops for performance on my face. Great lather.

stirling island man;
savonnerie du bon berger cedar/mandarin;
sapone di paolo cremoso (coconut/vanilla);
soapy bathman tropical lime;
jl davis bee dreamy;
mystic water sardinian honey;
shaving shop online freud blue (made by ginger's garden).

My real find this year is Henri et Victoria from Canada. I have a sample of their Le Poire Francaise (French Pear) and full tubs of Bergamot/Vetiver and Chestnut L'Orange. Soap performs wonderfully. Chestnut L'Orange smells sweet and almost buttery, then when you lather it the orange becomes more pronounced (kind of reminds you of Grand Marnier, sweet and orangey). Bergamot/Vetiver smells like a nice cup of Earl Grey tea with a hint of vetiver. Haven't shaved with Le Poire Francaise but the scent is very sweet and fruity. Really excellent soaps!

Phoenix and Beau Citra Royale: Just got this last week on impulse. I'd put it up against any other soap I own in every department. Wonderful scent, easy lather, outstanding performance, and great post shave feel.
Barrister and Mann's glissant base: I think Will is planning on having all of his soaps converted to this base in the near future. Gloriously slick, loads of lather and fantastic post shave. I love B&M's scents. Always something different and exceptional.
WSP Formula T: classy scents, great performer, and love their post shave also.

Rediscovered Mystic Waters. I had tried MW as a newbie and it proved too difficult to lather for me. I tried it again and not only is it a great soaps but Prospect Creek (Peppermint/Menthol), Rosalimone (Rose/Lemon) and Maestrale (Lavender/Rosemary/Peppermint) are among my very favorite scents.

Still a little difficult to lather. I understand that she has adjusted her formula to make things easier. All I have to say is that it is well worth the effort.

Strop Shoppe Unscented w/ tallow. Took me a couple of tries before I got a lather I found satisfactory, but I think this is going to be a memorable soap, more so since its been discontinued.

Ah! I wish I hadn't clicked on this post, now I know Sudsy Soapery Lavender & Peppermint contains clays which will affect my review. I always avoid looking at the ingredients before I review a soap. Great post though!

My favorites this year are many as I only started wet shaving in Feb. So far I would say 2 soaps meet my criteria:
MdC is in my top surprise category as it contains no tallow but is amazing despite its simple 5 ingredients. PannaCrema Nuavia fits in that category as well, just simply divine for what simple ingredients it has.

I thought I would be able to score these 2 soaps lower as I have no skin in the game (I did not purchase them so I have no need to "justify" the high expense paid with a favorable review.) The scores came in high anyway, these are both fantastic soaps. Anyway, those are my 2 soaps for this list. A big THANK YOU to [MENTION=73656]dfoulk[/MENTION] for providing me the samples. You have ruined my shave soap pallet beyond comprehension

I am slowly working my way through Haslinger's line up. So far all have mild scents with great performance IMO!

rockclimber said:

Ah! I wish I hadn't clicked on this post, now I know Sudsy Soapery Lavender & Peppermint contains clays which will affect my review. I always avoid looking at the ingredients before I review a soap. Great post though!

My favorites this year are many as I only started wet shaving in Feb. So far I would say 2 soaps meet my criteria:
MdC is in my top surprise category as it contains no tallow but is amazing despite its simple 5 ingredients. PannaCrema Nuavia fits in that category as well, just simply divine for what simple ingredients it has.

I thought I would be able to score these 2 soaps lower as I have no skin in the game (I did not purchase them so I have no need to "justify" the high expense paid with a favorable review.) The scores came in high anyway, these are both fantastic soaps. Anyway, those are my 2 soaps for this list. A big THANK YOU to @dfoulk for providing me the samples. You have ruined my shave soap pallet beyond comprehension

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You're very welcome. I love being an enabler so as far as your soap pallet goes it's given you something to strive for in your own soap making adventure. You'll certainly know now when you've made something truly spectacular.

Sorry about that. I don't worry about the ingredients as they don't really set my expectations or change my review at all. Maybe an explanation on why it's so good but I don't really care. Like eating a cake and wondering what kind of flour is used. I just enjoy the cake. I have been looking forward to your thoughts on that soap though.

As far as price goes that doesn't impact my reviews at all either. The soap is either better or worse than another I've tried. Sure I like it when I find a really great soap that's also inexpensive but being more or less expensive doesn't change the slickness, lather, post shave feel or any other characteristics of a soap that determine it's performance. Changing those scores or grading it harder would be the equalivant of my wife (who's a teacher) changing one students test scores because she knows that this student is smarter than another. It's not fair to do nor would it give you an accurate assessment.

You could add a column in your scoring for value but it shouldn't negatively impact any of the other scores. That's a totally separate discussion about value vs. performance. I do consider what a soap costs including shipping when I decide to purchase it but that's not part of the review process for me as I like to keep the performance playing field level.

Dog Whiskerer said:

Strop Shoppe Unscented w/ tallow. Took me a couple of tries before I got a lather I found satisfactory, but I think this is going to be a memorable soap, more so since its been discontinued.

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This was one of my absolute favorite soaps (not unscented) for over a year. They were one of the first to add all of the butters and it makes for a truly excellent soap. Sad that they are no longer available but I do still have a few tubs put aside and I have found a few new soaps that I prefer. Still excellent stuff though.