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Too Many Soaps?

C

ChainsawShaver

Hi guys I love wet shaving but there is something I think that may be happening or is gonna happen. Do you think there may be a shaving soap bubble? I see to many soaps. Some I love
like Proraso being my favorite so far but are some just marketing with fancy labels? It seems there is just to many makers who can possibly try 1000 types of soaps?
 
Rhody

Rhody

I'm a Lumberjack.
Ive never made a bubble with soap...yet
Lol
I dont have 1000 but working on it
Variety is the spice of life so why not buy a few more?
 
seattleshaver

seattleshaver

I don't particularly care about who makes it or not but I saw the market as you do when I first started trying out soaps. I knew that I didn't want to have to try them all. I just wanted some variety and I didn't want to go broke trying to find that variety.

Early on I bought some "artisan" soap made from goat's milk or something like that. I didn't like it. It smelled.

I tried the usual suspects, Proraso, Cella, TOBS, VDH. TOBS is fine but the others were good enough but no better than that. Once I found Stirling, I just decided to stay there. The soap is good and they have more variety of scents than I could ever go though. It's priced right and it's a well run company.

Now that I finally tried every scent that I was interested in I have 9 scents that I really like and I'm kind of though with the searching phase.
 
ajkel64

ajkel64

Check Out Chick
Staff member
I have not quite fallen down the rabbit hole regarding soaps yet. I have around 10 that I use and enjoy. There is a couple that are there but unused. I have tried a couple of artisan soaps but I found them to be under performing soaps. Supply and demand as usual.
 
rodmonster

rodmonster

I was on a soap sabbatical for over 1 year, happy to use the soaps in my cupboard. They performed very well. In the last few months I have purchased soaps from 6 different artisans and I am a happy man.
Did I need new soaps? No.
Have the new soaps revolutionized my shave? No.
Do the new soaps add a bit of pleasure to my life? They sure do.
 
les24preludes

les24preludes

I have around 30 artisan soaps, having sold or PIFed another 20. My favourites rotate which is how I like it. Currently trending is Fitjar and Barbus Classic but could equally go back to my GD, SV, WK, Eufros, Pannacrema, Boellis, Wickhams.... I had to buy 50 to get the best 30. You lose a bit of cash, but the remaining soaps are great.
 
johnwick

johnwick

les24preludes said:
I have around 30 artisan soaps, having sold or PIFed another 20. My favourites rotate which is how I like it. Currently trending is Fitjar and Barbus Classic but could equally go back to my GD, SV, WK, Eufros, Pannacrema, Boellis, Wickhams.... I had to buy 50 to get the best 30. You lose a bit of cash, but the remaining soaps are great.
Click to expand...

Very good point! It takes awhile to find your favorites but once you do, it was all worth it!
 
muzichead

muzichead

There are quite a few soaps out there and always will be... As pointed out earlier, variety is the spice of life!! Also pointed out earlier was that soap makers come and go but most importantly, when sales start to taper off or go slightly stale, there have been a few to change an ingredient or two as well as change the name of the company to revive a line and bring life back into it!!
 
dfoulk

dfoulk

After trying just about everything out there I've narrowed my shave den down to only a handful of makers that I'd consider to be the very best. These are generally the soaps that I buy.

I try to keep up to date on what's out there but I do it cautiously. New ones I tend to wait a few months and read reviews giving more weight to those from people I trust. After the newness wears off, and they're no longer the newest, latest, greatest flavor of the month, if they're still getting outstanding reviews then maybe it's worth trying. At that point, I'll try and procure a sample and make my own judgement. It's very rare that these are something that's going to best or even compete with my favorites. Usually they are just another excellent soap with no obvious flaws but not anything truly elite. Impressive to some but not to me.

I suspect that the reason that there are so many soap makers is that there are several recipes posted on the internet that'll make an excellent shaving soap. So a couple small tweaks and it's not all that difficult to produce something that's decent enough to actually sell. Making an excellent soap with no obvious weaknesses isn't all that hard. Making something truly elite must be much more difficult.

All said and done some vendors will fall off and new ones will likely enter the market. Having too many choices is not a bad problem to have from a consumer standpoint. Just do some research, try samples whenever you can and choose wisely.
 
N

Nicholas

dfoulk said:
After trying just about everything out there I've narrowed my shave den down to only a handful of makers that I'd consider to be the very best. These are generally the soaps that I buy.

I try to keep up to date on what's out there but I do it cautiously. New ones I tend to wait a few months and read reviews giving more weight to those from people I trust. After the newness wears off, and they're no longer the newest, latest, greatest flavor of the month, if they're still getting outstanding reviews then maybe it's worth trying. At that point, I'll try and procure a sample and make my own judgement. It's very rare that these are something that's going to best or even compete with my favorites. Usually they are just another excellent soap with no obvious flaws but not anything truly elite. Impressive to some but not to me.

I suspect that the reason that there are so many soap makers is that there are several recipes posted on the internet that'll make an excellent shaving soap. So a couple small tweaks and it's not all that difficult to produce something that's decent enough to actually sell. Making an excellent soap with no obvious weaknesses isn't all that hard. Making something truly elite must be much more difficult.

All said and done some vendors will fall off and new ones will likely enter the market. Having too many choices is not a bad problem to have from a consumer standpoint. Just do some research, try samples whenever you can and choose wisely.
Click to expand...
Which are these makers if I may ask?
 
dfoulk

dfoulk

Nicholas said:
Which are these makers if I may ask?
Click to expand...

I've tried just about everything out there and for me personally these are the very best soaps I've found. These soaps are elite.
1. Grooming Dept
2. Tallow & Steel
3. Lisa's Natural Herbal Creations (new Premium formula)

Grooming Dept is the very best without a doubt. Tallow and Steel and Lisa's are both exceptional and on par with one another just a bit behind. These are what I'm narrowing my shave den down to. It's currently about 90% Grooming Dept and Tallow & Steel with a few of Lisa's soaps in there. Sure there are a couple legendary soaps and a couple others on hand (that I really enjoy the scent of), but performance wise the three above are it for me.

There's a decent gap between these and everything else that I'd rate as a tier 1 soap. The rest would be listed below in no particular order. You'll no doubt find many of these present in most people's tier 1 as they are outstanding.

Wholly Kaw donkey milk version
PannaCrema Nuavia
Barrister & Mann Reserve and Excelsior formulas
Sudsy Soapery
Declaration Grooming

Again, this is just my personal opinion which is probably worth what you paid for it.
 
N

Nicholas

dfoulk said:
I've tried just about everything out there and for me personally these are the very best soaps I've found. These soaps are elite.
1. Grooming Dept
2. Tallow & Steel
3. Lisa's Natural Herbal Creations (new Premium formula)

Grooming Dept is the very best without a doubt. Tallow and Steel and Lisa's are both exceptional and on par with one another just a bit behind. These are what I'm narrowing my shave den down to. It's currently about 90% Grooming Dept and Tallow & Steel with a few of Lisa's soaps in there. Sure there are a couple legendary soaps and a couple others on hand (that I really enjoy the scent of), but performance wise the three above are it for me.

There's a decent gap between these and everything else that I'd rate as a tier 1 soap. The rest would be listed below in no particular order. You'll no doubt find many of these present in most people's tier 1 as they are outstanding.

Wholly Kaw donkey milk version
PannaCrema Nuavia
Barrister & Mann Reserve and Excelsior formulas
Sudsy Soapery
Declaration Grooming

Again, this is just my personal opinion which is probably worth what you paid for it.
Click to expand...
I know what you mean. Very nice lists. Thank you!
 
les24preludes

les24preludes

European version of favourite soaps:

Eufros - great scents
Fitjar - clean and natural Norwegian soaps/creams, addictive
Mitchell's Wool Fat - legend
Saponofocio Varesino - Felce and Dolomiti are unavoidable for starters
Wickhams 1912 - generally best of the UK artisans I've tried
Truefitt and Hill 1805 - they got this scent just right
Pre de Provence 63 - French quality floral
Boellis - pure Italian quality
Pannacrema - more pure Italian quality
Barbus Classic - here's a rare one from Slovakia which I like a lot, here's the ref.

Barbus Classic Shaving Soap with Glycerin 150 g WET SHAVING (1 PACK) | eBay
 
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