Stirling
CBL
Razorock
CBL
Razorock
Welcome to B&B! You may want to consider a range of 2-3 shaving soap types in addition to SV to provide a better sense of what will work best for you. Some category options to choose from based on my experience and research:I'm just entering the world of proper wet shaving after nearly 30 years of struggling with cartridge razors.
I'm looking to acquire a small selection of high quality soaps to get me started, something that will offer a good variety of scents.
I live in a hot and humid climate, so on the lighter/fresher side.
I think I'd like to include one Saponificio Varesino, maybe the 70th Ann. and maybe another two or three classic, "must own" scents from other artisanal brands. Any suggestions would be appreciated
Where I am, SV is not nearly as expensive as it is in the US. European soaps are a lot cheaper, Razorock and English soaps also offer much better value than in the US so the value proposition is a little different.Welcome to B&B! You may want to consider a range of 2-3 shaving soap types in addition to SV to provide a better sense of what will work best for you. Some category options to choose from based on my experience and research:
Two or three soaps from the above list will likely cost less than you single SV puck and let you better understand the type of shaving soaps that will work best for you. Enjoy your journey!
- As noted above a classic English hard soap should be part of the mix. I enjoy my D.R. Harris Windsor and Cyril R. Salter (same base as D.R. Harris at half the price) soaps within this category. Both of these are tallow based. If you can find a puck of the now discontinued Mitchell's Wool Fat tallow formula it would be a great option. Currently my favorite soap.
- Another category is that of classic "old school" basic soaps. With all the discontinuations recently Arko, that works well for me, would be your best bet that is still tallow based. Two years ago I would have added Williams shaving soap to this mix but it is now discontinued and not worth the $20-$40 per puck we've seen it priced at.
- Next there are the Italian soft soaps or croaps. I've tried both Prorasso Red and the TFS Red Bowl. Of course there is the classic Cella that many B&Bers like. Italian Barber has a wide range of reasonably priced softer Italian soaps, I've a new tub of their P160 (includes some tallow in the base) in que once I 3017 on of my other soaps.
- Stirling offers a wide range of artisan (defined as small batch process production) shaving soaps that are well regarded my many.
- Finally there are some vegan hard shaving soaps that have worked well for me. I've found the new vegan formula Tabac to be excellent and on the budget side there are the Razorock What-the-Puck french milled soaps that are also very good.
P.S. Rayclem, who used to post regularly here, had the deepest expertise on artisan soaps owning over 200 of them. You may want to look at some of his posts. Note that he tended to prefer easy to load (10-15 seconds) softer soaps versus harder soaps that required 30 seconds plus to load so you should use his ratings in light of your own personal preferences. He shared his full evaluation criteria on some of his posts.
I am a big fan of aion skincare/grooming dept. very good soap that really improves my shaves. I have used/owned no less than 25 artisan brands. If you find a soap that improves your shaves, that is the one to get.
Yes, prices for many European soaps are 2-3x higher in the U.S. Have seen SV on Connaught Shaving for close to half the price from U.S. retailers. MWF, that a year ago had a list price of 7 British pounds (roughly $9 U.S.) is sold for $15 -$20 in the U.S. Proraso that others find for 2-3 Euros (roughly $1.10 per Euro) sells for $10 here.Where I am, SV is not nearly as expensive as it is in the US. European soaps are a lot cheaper, Razorock and English soaps also offer much better value than in the US so the value proposition is a little different.
SP, how is that new barrister and man line ? I haven’t had a chance to smell it. I’m debating that one or the spearhead sea ice lime. Need something refreshing for summer.Boom here you are
Go for one of these shaving soaps
1) Stirling West Indies Lime or Island Man
2) Captain's Choice Lime or Venture
3) Barrister and Mann Lime or Seville