Declaration Grooming?

[djw19]

Hi Gents,

Recently I've seen a lot of praise about Declaration Grooming shave soaps. I didn't think a shave soap could perform much better than Barrister & Mann but I've seen some people say the performance is a notch above.

What makes it so good? Also, if I were to purchase one of their soaps, what scent is recommended? I realize the answers will be all over the board but wanted to see if there was a unanimous winner. Thanks!

 

[Esox]

I'm still trying to be convinced too but the DG "Lusso" is slowly gaining traction.

Paging @Chan Eil Whiskers .

 

[sugardaddy]

You're definitely not going to find anywhere close unanimous vote. Barrister and Mann has these bases : glissant, reserve, and the newest, excelsior. and they are very comparable with the bison base and the Icarus base from declaration.

Even the oldest of these bases is awesome.

Sent from my phone using Tapatalk

 

[Chan Eil Whiskers]

I'm still trying to be convinced too but the DG "Lusso" is slowly gaining traction.

Paging @Chan Eil Whiskers .

Oops, Mike, wrong thread.

It's the GD Lusso base.

Grooming Department.

 

[Esox]

Oops, Mike, wrong thread.

It's the GD Lusso base.

Grooming Department.

Ahhh lol. Too many soaps to remember! lol

 

[Chan Eil Whiskers]

Ahhh lol. Too many soaps to remember! lol

Confusing, too.

 

[1Vader]

I like the richness of the bison base, I also think it has a lot more skin food and I really like that.

DG is one of my top favorites, but the thing is I find the base to be too soft. For someone that likes loading heavily directly off the puck, it's kind of a negative.

Like Stirling, B&M really got the consistency on point as I find they last longer. The base is reliable, and high quality. This makes them about equal in terms of my favorites as both have their attribute that I enjoy.

 

[djw19]

I like the richness of the bison base, I also think it has a lot more skin food and I really like that.

DG is one of my top favorites, but the thing is I find the base to be too soft. For someone that likes loading heavily directly off the puck, it's kind of a negative.

Like Stirling, B&M really got the consistency on point as I find they last longer. The base is reliable, and high quality. This makes them about equal in terms of my favorites as both have their attribute that I enjoy.

Are you basically saying that DG is a croap, then?

 

[Badger in the Sun]

I love B&M, mostly because the scents are so good. I haven't tried the new Excelsior base. But I do think DG has better post-shave feel and perhaps more cushion than Glissant or Reserve. My favorite DG soap is Trismegistus.

 

[1Vader]

Are you basically saying that DG is a croap, then?

No not a croap. It's softer than B&M, but firmer than Sudsy soapery's vegan formula if you've tried that.

As for scents, aside from Trismegistus (terre d'hermes) I do like the Bandwagon as that's DG's take on barbershop.

 

[nwohio]

It's as slick as grease and the post shave feel is wonderful.

 

[Badlander13]

So first of all I’m a DG and CL fanboy. I like the way the bison base makes my face feel and I love the CL toners. My favorite scent so far is Gratiot League Square. Santal Auster was amazing but my face wouldn’t tolerate it. Darkfall is on the way this week. I will say that for me WK’s donkey milk is comparable and the WK’s buffalo base might make my face feel a little nicer— but there aren’t many scents available in the WK buffalo base yet. For my face the B&M Reserve base is a little drying as compared to either DG or WK. I do like the scents in the Reserve line though.

 

[ShavePastor]

What makes it so good?

This:

 

[Bogeyman]

No not a croap. It's softer than B&M, but firmer than Sudsy soapery's vegan formula if you've tried that.

As for scents, aside from Trismegistus (terre d'hermes) I do like the Bandwagon as that's DG's take on barbershop.

DG's new Icarus base is harder and a real winner IMO. So is the Sudsy Soapery new tallow soap. Personally, I rate these two and also Ariana & Evans, B&M Excelsior, Lisa's Artisan soap & Wholly Kaw goat milk as pretty much equal, i.e., top tier. Talbot's is right there with them as well, but damn near impossible to buy. Any real differences are purely subjective to be frank.

 

[1Vader]

DG's new Icarus base is harder and a real winner IMO. So is the Sudsy Soapery new tallow soap. Personally, I rate these two and also Ariana & Evans, B&M Excelsior, Lisa's Artisan soap & Wholly Kaw goat milk as pretty much equal, i.e., top tier. Talbot's is right there with them as well, but damn near impossible to buy. Any real differences are purely subjective to be frank.

Never tried Talbot before, but gave up on the hunt. Haven't tried Lisa's, and A&E, that's charky's line if I remember correctly. His scents are very intriguing, I should really try one, one of these days.

I just bought B&M's excelsior, Sudsy's tallow and a GD Icarus. Sounds like I'm really going to like Icarus. It's my only nitpick, and if he made a firmer base, it may very well go up to the top of my favorites. I still wish the GD liniments we're still around though.

My tops as of the moment are GD Bison, WK Donkey, T&S and Sudsy's vegan.

 

[ShavePastor]

Never tried Talbot before, but gave up on the hunt. Haven't tried Lisa's, and A&E, that's charky's line if I remember correctly. His scents are very intriguing, I should really try one, one of these days.

I just bought B&M's excelsior, Sudsy's tallow and a GD Icarus. Sounds like I'm really going to like Icarus. It's my only nitpick, and if he made a firmer base, it may very well go up to the top of my favorites. I still wish the GD liniments we're still around though.

My tops as of the moment are GD Bison, WK Donkey, T&S and Sudsy's vegan.

Nice current tops! Yes you really need to try A&E, Lisa's Natural, CBL Soaps, & WK Bufala base! The DG Icarus was not as good of a lather as the DG bison base no matter how I tried to do it. But hopefully it will be good for you.

 

[Chan Eil Whiskers]

Never tried Talbot before, but gave up on the hunt. Haven't tried Lisa's, and A&E, that's charky's line if I remember correctly. His scents are very intriguing, I should really try one, one of these days.

I just bought B&M's excelsior, Sudsy's tallow and a DG Icarus. Sounds like I'm really going to like Icarus. It's my only nitpick, and if he made a firmer base, it may very well go up to the top of my favorites. I still wish the DG liniments we're still around though.

My tops as of the moment are DG Bison, WK Donkey, T&S and Sudsy's vegan.

FTFY.

 

[Bogeyman]

Nice current tops! Yes you really need to try A&E, Lisa's Natural, CBL Soaps, & WK Bufala base! The DG Icarus was not as good of a lather as the DG bison base no matter how I tried to do it...

If you're not using one then I recommend heartily one of the newest generations of synthetic brushes. e.g., Cashmere, SynBad & Tuxedo. I get superb lather from both the original and the new Icarus base with the latter getting a nod as a slightly better overall performer. Call me biased, but the newest synthetics simply work better & faster in achieving max lather performance, at least for my handsome face.

 

[ShavePastor]

If you're not using one then I recommend heartily one of the newest generations of synthetic brushes. e.g., Cashmere, SynBad & Tuxedo. I get superb lather from both the original and the new Icarus base with the latter getting a nod as a slightly better overall performer. Call me biased, but the newest synthetics simply work better & faster in achieving max lather performance, at least for my handsome face.

Yes, I currently have a few Yaqi tuxedo's, as well as both the Green Ray and new Starcraft synthetics from PAA, and the new 26mm WCS synthetic with 2nd gen boss knot. I also have a custom brush with Cashmere knot on order. Never tried AP's SynBad or Yaqi's mew brown which are the same knot except the density and trimming is according to the specs of the vendor is what I understand. But yes, I fully agree with you about the performance of the newer synthetics. It is my preference. However, a good silvertip badger is always nice to include in the rotation and IME the aesthetics can't be beat!

I should have clarified more about my experience with the DG Icarus lather. I was able to get a very good shaving lather, but nowhere near the kind (or type I should say) that I get from the bison base. One is more low structured with low volume and increased density while the other (Icarus) is more high structured creating more volume but not as yogurty or silky. As seen from the pic above with the lather covered hand, this is from the bison base, and I couldn't replicate this with the Icarus no matter what I did. That same low structured silky yogurty or wet sour cream type of lather is also easily achieved with my current favorites: the B&M Reserve line and both the WK DM and the newer water buffalo base. I will be picking up the DG Sellout in the future though as I want to give it another extended usage.

 

[Keto]

A funny thing use the Icarus base the first few times I did not see what the fuss was about. I got some soft water from a buddies house and the soap acted like it totally different soap, to me. I have not went back and tried it again because I have hard water at my house, don't really want to carry water to shave. Just an interesting thing I did