Favorite Lisa's Natural Soap

[RayClem]

Since my post back in September, I purchased Lisa's Smoked Black Tea and Irish Green Tweed. They are both nice additions to my shave den. I still rate them as A- soaps: excellent, but not elite level.

 

[It's Hedley]

Since my post back in September, I purchased Lisa's Smoked Black Tea and Irish Green Tweed. They are both nice additions to my shave den. I still rate them as A- soaps: excellent, but not elite level.

May I ask what you consider elite level soaps? I am just now branching out to find elite soaps and any input would be appreciated.

 

[RayClem]

May I ask what you consider elite level soaps? I am just now branching out to find elite soaps and any input would be appreciated.

I have a tough beard and sensitive skin. The characteristics I look for in a shaving soap are: easy to load, easy to lather, have excellent primary slickness, excellent residual slickness to enable buffing strokes without relathering, excellent cushion protection for using either a straight razor or aggressive ED razor, and finally, excellent postshave moisturizing and conditioning.

When I evaluate Lisa's Natural soaps, they are excellent in most aspects, except I am not quite able to develop the level of cushion/protection that I get with my top soaps. Some folks might not be as concerned about cushion as I am. Some have even told me they do not want a lot of cushion as they believe they can get closer shaves with a thiner lather. YMMV.

For some people, price is a significant concern. When I evaluate soaps, that is not a consideration; I only look at performance.

I have evaluated over 30 different soap bases and over 100 soaps. I have another couple of soaps from a new soap base arriving for testing early next week. By my criteria, the soaps I consider to be elite, listed in alphabetical order are:

Ariana and Evans Goat Milk formula
Barrister and Mann Excelsior formula
Cold River Soap Works Glide Formula
Declaration Grooming Icarus Formula
Grooming Department, I have only tried the Primus formula
Wholly Kaw both the Donkey Milk formula and the new Bufala formula

There are a number of other soaps that I enjoy using and still give a great shave, but they do not quite come up to the standards of those listed above.

 

[It's Hedley]

I have a tough beard and sensitive skin. The characteristics I look for in a shaving soap are: easy to load, easy to lather, have excellent primary slickness, excellent residual slickness to enable buffing strokes without relathering, excellent cushion protection for using either a straight razor or aggressive ED razor, and finally, excellent postshave moisturizing and conditioning.

When I evaluate Lisa's Natural soaps, they are excellent in most aspects, except I am not quite able to develop the level of cushion/protection that I get with my top soaps. Some folks might not be as concerned about cushion as I am. Some have even told me they do not want a lot of cushion as they believe they can get closer shaves with a thiner lather. YMMV.

For some people, price is a significant concern. When I evaluate soaps, that is not a consideration; I only look at performance.

I have evaluated over 30 different soap bases and over 100 soaps. I have another couple of soaps from a new soap base arriving for testing early next week. By my criteria, the soaps I consider to be elite, listed in alphabetical order are:

Ariana and Evans Goat Milk formula
Barrister and Mann Excelsior formula
Cold River Soap Works Glide Formula
Declaration Grooming Icarus Formula
Grooming Department, I have only tried the Primus formula
Wholly Kaw both the Donkey Milk formula and the new Bufala formula

There are a number of other soaps that I enjoy using and still give a great shave, but they do not quite come up to the standards of those listed above.

Great information and thank you for sharing. I have tried a couple of these brands and a couple are on my wish list.

I have Ariana & Evans Asian Plum which I really enjoy. Great performer and scent.

I have B&M Levanille. Not a fan of the dark lather and the fact that I have to use a special brush as to not discolor. My fault, I should have read the description in more detail.

I have tried Wholly Kaw and for the life of me cannot get a good lather out of any of the samples. I gave up. I am sure it is my technique. I PIF'd a few and will PIF the rest soon enough.

I am excited to try Declaration Grooming, Cold River Soap and Grooming Department. I have heard of each and they do get high marks from most.

As you state YMMV. It is fun to try new soaps and I enjoy opening the packages when they show up at the house.

Thanks again for the info. Greatly appreciated.

 

[RayClem]

G
......
I have B&M Levanille. Not a fan of the dark lather and the fact that I have to use a special brush as to not discolor. My fault, I should have read the description in more detail.

I have tried Wholly Kaw and for the life of me cannot get a good lather out of any of the samples. I gave up. I am sure it is my technique. I PIF'd a few and will PIF the rest soon enough.

I am excited to try Declaration Grooming, Cold River Soap and Grooming Department. I have heard of each and they do get high marks from most.

B&M Levanille is one of the old Glissant base soaps that will be converted over to the new Excelsior base. I like the Glissant base, but the new base is superb. There just aren't many scent offerings at this time.

I have purchased a few samples in the past. Some vendors, like Oleo Soapworks, have put out larger samples that work well. The samples are great for determining whether you like the scent, but not whether you like the soap. I have difficulty loading and lathering the 5ml samples, so I normally go for the full tubs. The only time purchasing samples really paid off is when I got samples from The Sudsy Soapery. As soon as I tried them on my face, they burned my face so badly I could not complete the shave. They were fairly simple scents containing lime, lemon, grapefruit, and peppermint. My face would not tolerate them, so I am glad I did not purchase full tubs. Bay rum soaps high in clove do the same thing to my face.

The only caution I have for Declaration Grooming soaps is that they are made with bison tallow. I have five DG soaps (four bison tallow and one Icarus) and every one of them has an underlying funky smell that reminds me of fish oil. Typically, I take the top off the soap and allow it to air out for a couple of hours (or overnight) before shaving. That seems to minimize the funkiness. I do not detect that scent in any other soap in my den, but all of the DG soaps have it. The performance of DG soaps, especially the Icarus formula, is wonderful. I just wish it did not have the funky aroma.

 

[steelhead52]

I’ve got Amber & Tobacco, Florida Freeze, Somali Rose and Coconut Oud in her Premium line (plus a few others no longer available), and Haute Leather and Doc Holiday in her Artisan line. Although I like the two new scents, the four older ones are more interesting, and stronger, to my nose. She may have tamed down the strength of those four in her new line, but if they’re the same scent profiles, you can’t go wrong. My personal favorite is Florida Freeze, which is my favorite citrus soap (among many).

From a performance standpoint, how would you compare the older Premium line with the new Artisan line?

 

[pbrmhl]

From a performance standpoint, how would you compare the older Premium line with the new Artisan line?

I like the old Premium line, but I confess I enjoy soft soaps and creams that I can scoop with my finger into my scuttle. That's hard to do with the new Artisan line. I also enjoy the Artisan line, but the Premium is my favorite. Premium is like Stone Cottage, Hemingway, Esbjerg, TOBS, Salter, etc. Lisa's Premium, though no longer available, is one of my favorites.

To answer your question, the lather is essentially similar between the Artisan and the Premium. The difference, to me, is not near as much between the legacy Bison base of Declaration, vs. the Icarus version. In my hand, the Bison is a much better performer than the Icarus. Others differ. I think I'm settling into a position where I like softer soaps/creams than harder ones.

 

[chibi]

Lisa's is about the only well respected soap that I haven't tried yet because to make it economical with overseas shipping I need to choose 3 or 4 scents...I'm looking now to buy:

Irish Green Tweed
Coconut Oud
Isle of Skye

Any comments or other suggestions?

Has anybody tried the balms? Would love to hear about them!

 

[Bogeyman]

...I have evaluated over 30 different soap bases and over 100 soaps. I have another couple of soaps from a new soap base arriving for testing early next week. By my criteria, the soaps I consider to be elite, listed in alphabetical order are:

Ariana and Evans Goat Milk formula
Barrister and Mann Excelsior formula
Cold River Soap Works Glide Formula
Declaration Grooming Icarus Formula
Grooming Department, I have only tried the Primus formula
Wholly Kaw both the Donkey Milk formula and the new Bufala formula

There are a number of other soaps that I enjoy using and still give a great shave, but they do not quite come up to the standards of those listed above.

A&E superb. B&M Excelsior superb. CRSW, I only have the tallow one and it is superb. DG Icarus superb. GD, IMO overrated, i.e., good, but not great. WK DM formula superb.

I would also add Sudsy Soapery tallow & non-tallow soaps to the list as well.

 

[RayClem]

A&E superb. B&M Excelsior superb. CRSW, I only have the tallow one and it is superb. DG Icarus superb. GD, IMO overrated, i.e., good, but not great. WK DM formula superb.

I would also add Sudsy Soapery tallow & non-tallow soaps to the list as well.

Grooming Department has a lot of different formulas. They were unobtanium during much of 2018. I was able to pick up a couple of tubs of the Primus formula ( Flight and Tao) earlier this year, but they are generally sold out with no hint of when they might become available.

I wish I could add Sudsy Soapery to my list, but most of their scents cause severe irritation to my face, so I have never been able to evaluate the performance.

 

[Racquet]

I believe SS now offers an unscented soap

 

[RayClem]

I believe SS now offers an unscented soap

Yes, they do have an unscented tallow. However, for me, the scent of the soap is a significant part of my shaving enjoyment. To get around my sensitivity to certain scents, I usually pick very complex scents where no single part of the accord is strong enough to create an issue.

 

[pbrmhl]

I’ve got bunches of citrus soaps and creams, but Florida Freeze is my favorite. The menthol makes it a hot weather soap for me, so it’s not seen much use lately. Fortunately, I’m going to Hawaii soon—FF will be the only soap I take.