What's new

Can any soaps made by Razorock compete with the top tier?

The eerie wails of a Greek Chorus sends chills down the spine of our Hero:

...a good starter soap...
...playskool is fun, but you are supposed to graduate...
...C+...
...third tier...
...you can do better...
...turn back, turn back...

gchorus.jpg
 
The ingredients that make soap good aren’t expensive.

The ingredients are the cheapest part of making soap.

Shipping or scent (depending on what scent you use) is the most expensive. Packaging (if you do any more than barebones) is next. Stearic acid, tallow, lye, coconut oil? Enough to make a 5oz soap is less than $1... no matter what ratios. Lanolin, Shea and cocoa butter can be upwards of 5x as much, but are used in such small quantities when used they’re not a significant price influence.

You pay for scent, packaging, shipping, and the makers misc overhead and profits.

I’ve never tried Razorock soap, but cost is no reason for it to not perform as well as more expensive soaps.
 
Do we take that as a yea or nea on RR soaps
I think they're a good value, and use SMDF, Dead Sea and Don Marco regularly in warm weather. I don't really chase the high end, my most expensive soaps are probably one Wholly Kaw and one Valobra.
 
I think they're a good value, and use SMDF, Dead Sea and Don Marco regularly in warm weather. I don't really chase the high end, my most expensive soaps are probably one Wholly Kaw and one Valobra.
Well that list perfectly summed up my list of razorock essentials, in the same order. I find razorock soaps difficult to consistently dial in when lathering. This is really more of a user issue than an issue with the soap. I would use the soaps more often but they aren’t the easiest on my skin but by no means are the harshest. If could easily transition to their soaps and get a decent lather with less effort l would probably praise them a bit more.

while an easy lathering soap doesn’t make a soap good, it certainly doesn’t hurt. But cushion, slickness and post shave are the most important. I would not say any one of these attributes is particularly stellar in the razorock line, but to only say these products are serviceable is a gross insult to the value and performance. If dialed in right, it’s got an edge over Arko, palmolive, and Wilkinson sword In my opinion.

I have 10 razorock soaps in my stash. They will last me nearly forever. I just don’t go to them often. They sort of fall in between my really good artisan products (A&E) and my quality commercial production soaps (tabac, speick, LaToja, cella etc...). The staples are just great, even though the scents may not be as fun as the RR products the performance is better and they lather with greater ease. My artisan soaps just offer so much more with lather slickness, cushion, post shave and fragrance.

I think I blame RR for the sheer size and number of products taking up space in my shave inventory. If I omitted all but my top 3, I would have a smaller inventory and be able to say I rotate through things more consitently.

I have no issue with buying the fancier artisan soaps and find the rat race of keeping up with one brand to be worthwhile because the performance is always great and the scent is the reason for the variation.

for someone who truly wants the variety, yet has the discipline to stay budget minded, razorock is probably one of the Best products for that niche. That’s my no means an insult to the price of the product. It just seems to fall between two camps making it hard for folks without much experience with the rr products to judge the quality of the product.
 
.....

This is basically a standard Italian soft soap recipe with some nice fragrance and skin conditioning ingredients added. .....
For some reason, it wouldn't show the ingredients list in the quoted part, but the only "skin conditioning" ingredient in the whole list is lanolin. I'm not sure what else you in there you thought was a "skin conditioning" ingredient. The coconut oil is saponified; not only is it NOT skin conditioning, it is essentially a skin drying ingredient.

Not trashing the soap. I've never tried it. I'm sure it lathers and shaves just fine. But there is really nothing in that list to suggest that the soap is even remotely attempting to be skin conditioning.

For the record, I have the What the Puck? soap in the Orange Sunrise scent and I think it is a quality soap. It doesn't dry my skin at all; therefore, the post-shave is adequate for me. It is slick, protective, and it smells great. Not much to not like. But it's definitely not trying to compete with Grooming Department, Zingari Man, and the like.
 
but the only "skin conditioning" ingredient in the whole list is lanolin.
I understand skin conditioning ingredients are important and should be in artisan soaps
and I certainly appreciate any skin nourishment but I'm almost 60 and use Neutrogena
anti wrinkle cream as my daily moisturizer. I wish I took better care of my skin when I
was younger, hint for guy's in their 20's-40's, you'll wish you had.
 
...the only "skin conditioning" ingredient in the whole list is lanolin. I'm not sure what else you in there you thought was a "skin conditioning" ingredient...
I'm not sure why you want to nitpick and throw shade.

Lanolin is an emollient, it can soften the skin and help it retain moisture to improve roughness or dryness.

Camphor can reduce itching and irritation. It may have anti-microbial and anti-fungal properties.

Eucalyptus oil has antibacterial properties and can help skin retain moisture.

It's very old-fashioned stuff.
 
Last edited:

never-stop-learning

Demoted To Moderator
Staff member
I understand skin conditioning ingredients are important and should be in artisan soaps
and I certainly appreciate any skin nourishment but I'm almost 60 and use Neutrogena
anti wrinkle cream as my daily moisturizer. I wish I took better care of my skin when I
was younger, hint for guy's in their 20's-40's, you'll wish you had.

Just a suggestion, researching Hyaluronic Acid may give you a great tool to help your skin.
 
I've been using Gold Label lately and haven't had a bad lather from it, it's quite good actually. I also love the Acqua di Parma scent.
 
I'm not sure why you want to nitpick and throw shade.

Lanolin is an emollient, it can soften the skin and help it retain moisture to improve roughness or dryness.

Camphor can reduce itching and irritation. It may have anti-microbial and anti-fungal properties.

Eucalyptus oil has antibacterial properties and can help skin retain moisture.

It's very old-fashioned stuff.
I don't think that's what he was trying to do... in the context of the OP's thread and question, I think that when you compare the Razorock formula's to some of the other artisans, the ingredients other than lanolin aren't really what we think of as "skin conditioning." I look at the camphor and eucalyptus oil as part of the SMDF scent and tingling effect, whereas with other artisans most folks are looking at ingredients like shea butter, cocoa butter etc for additional skin-conditioning properties.
Not looking to interject myself in between differing opinions of other folks, but for my take on the OP's question that's where I think one of the big differences is in the Razorock soaps vs some of the other artisans he asked about. They don't have a lot of those ingredients that are going to make you feel like its giving you a standout shave, but they're not trying to charge those prices which I appreciate and as a result they'll probably always have a market for their products.
 
I'm not sure why you want to nitpick and throw shade.

Lanolin is an emollient, it can soften the skin and help it retain moisture to improve roughness or dryness.

Camphor can reduce itching and irritation. It may have anti-microbial and anti-fungal properties.

Eucalyptus oil has antibacterial properties and can help skin retain moisture.

It's very old-fashioned stuff.
Sorry if it came across as throwing shade. That was not my intention. I did intend to pick nits, though.

The jury is out on whether camphor, and especially eucalyptus, are actually good for the skin or not. Both can be skin irritants to some people. Neither is in the class of things most of us consider skin 'goodies' such as shea butter, kokum butter, and the like.

Please bear in mind that I harbor no ill will at all toward razorock nor toward any of their soaps. I have personally shaved through at least four pucks of soap from them and have another one that is currently in my den, which I praised in my earlier post.

Please don't take things personally. We are just having a discussion about the merits of a shave soap. I'm sure it is a fine shave soap. I stand by my earlier post, however, that I believe it is overstating the case to imply that it is loaded with ingredients that are good for the skin.
 
...I stand by my earlier post, however, that I believe it is overstating the case to imply that it is loaded with ingredients that are good for the skin.
Fine, but I don't think I implied that, maybe someone else did. Some of RR's other soaps do have argan oil, shea butter, etc. but not SMdF.

I personally like SMdF because it has a short ingredient list and simple ingredients. It leaves the skin feeling clean and refreshed. I have no complaints about the post shave, it seems about right to me, especially in hot weather. Maybe other people value a long list of post-shave ingredients more; I don't like a heavy, greasy feeling after shaving.
 

Owen Bawn

Garden party cupcake scented
Santa Maria Del Fiore is a luxurious sensory delight, and gives an all around great shave. I got 2 jars in the initial flush of excitement when the soap was first released 5 years ago and it is still fresh and the scent is still potent. The after shave is almost perfume strength. Very easy to overdo it. The Zi Peppino soap & splash are also summer favorites. Lovely green tobacco scent.

I remember reading a thread on this site in which @Marco wrote that SMdF was actually a better product than the original Novella cream. I've never used the original, but his endorsement certainly got my attention.
 
I've tried a few RazoRock soaps, and while I've found them to be a decent value, for me, they don't quite equal the better new artisans out there. (B&M, Stirling, CBL)
 
I have used quite a few different RazoRock soaps over the years and all have been excellent performers. Some of the scents I have liked and some I have not. Currently I have two, Dead Sea and Essential Oil of Lavender. Lots of folks have commented on Dead Sea being superior to other RazoRock soaps, but I find the Lavender to perform just as well. I preferred the old King of the Castle Lavender, but only because of the scent. Since I was buying a new razor from Italian Barber and I needed a small amount to get free shipping I have the 4 What the Puck soaps on the way. At $12 for all four, I couldn't resist. My expectation is that they will perform very well, and time will tell if I like the scents.

I guess I'm a bit of an outlier among the soap crowd here at B&B. I just have a very hard time distinguishing the performance of one soap from another. Every once in a while I think I have found a soap that is significantly better than others, but over time I find that they all do the job. My only firm criterion is that they have to lather easily. I have tried a few very inexpensive olive oil soaps from unknown soap makers that I had to relegate to the shower. While post shave moisturizing gets a lot of attention, as an "older gentleman" I use a moisturizer after I shave anyway, so I don't notice any significant difference there either. All of the higher end artisan soaps I have used, Ariana & Evans, Barrister & Mann, Wholly Kaw, etc. have been fine, but really no better than simpler artisan soaps like Wet Shaving Products or commercial soaps like Mitchell's Wool Fat, La Toja, Cyril Salter or Art of Shaving.
 
Razorock may not be top tier, but they are really good and above average. It performs like other great bang for the buck soaps such as Sterling and Tabac. The best IMHO is the Valobra made soaps such old stock AOS and Czech & Speake.
 
Top Bottom