Pursuit of the perfect shave soap. What's your experience?

[Marco]

I just ordered my first La Toja, as my friend Marco would never steer me wrong.

I'm always at your disposal, Sir.

 

[Marco]

Yes, and I have 5 of them on the recommendation of one Marco, that fine Italian gentleman!

You are really too kind, my friend. Thank you so very much.

 

[steveclarkus]

I'm interested in others comments about this. I started wet shaving in January of 2018. Within a few months of working with a Merkur 34C, a 26" Yaqi synthetic brush, Astra SP blades, and a tub of Taylor of Old Bond street, I became infatuated with finding the best of all of them, or at least the top 3-5 of them. Of particular interest was finding the best soaps. I tried or owned many soaps over the years and I participated in a 400 soap pass-around about two years ago. Thank you defoulk! Today I own 16 soaps across 8 soap makers.

It seems to me that many of the artisan soap makers have mirrored this endeavor leaning heavily towards maximizing post shave while holding shave performance or pleasure the same. For me, I found that the better the post shave, the worse the shave performance or experience. I finally gave up the pursuit this week in favor of sticking with the simple formulas that maximize shave performance and pleasure and leave the majority of the post shave performance to post shave products. I like Thayers witch hazel with aloe, another simple but very effective product. My soap keepers today are Caties, Mike's, Shannon's (original formula), PAA (Crown King formula), and Sudsy Soapery. The closest I'll go to the face food category is Wholly Kaw (original formula). These are the soaps I will continue to use and rebuy as long as they keep making them.

Comments all?

After trying most of the “classics”, I’ve settled on ARKO. It is an excellent soap and costs almost nothing. I happen to like the scent as well.

 

[VerbaVolant]

Just enjoy the journey.
Presently, MWF checks all the boxes for me.
Never tried modern artisan soaps since I find them too expensive for my shaving budget.

 

[Contact_vs_Feedback]

It's all subjective, no singular answer will ever come up. A few names may garner high votes bit it'll never be 100% that you'll love that soap just because others love it.

I absolutely love (will be re stocked) - Tabac (tallow), TFS Intense Line soaps and B&M (reserve base), Stirling soaps.

I love (a strong possibility of re stock) - Mitchell's, William's and Arko, Cella Extra Bio Organic soaps.

OK (never re stock) - La Toja, Wickham (pre 1912) soap.

Amazed by - GFT Violets (vegetal) soap

Hate - none

This is my experience with soaps in just 10 months and I've barely scratched the surface.

Enjoy the journey, don't think too much about it and keep note of the good soaps and most importantly - Load heavy.

 

[Paul Bearer]

there are only two perfect soaps:

MWF and proraso green

others come very close such as speick and palmolive, but they score at about 99% vs 100% of the aforementioned two.

 

[Music]

Saponificio Verasino

 

[awk_m4]

Southern witchcrafts and la toja are the tops for me. I need to try more shave sticks, I have only tried two. I don't like post shave qualities of super fatted soaps, I want just want a nice clean feeling. La Toja is perfect in this regard. B&M wins for scents although a few I don't like.

Southern Witchcrafts is near the top of my list at the moment. I recently purchased all the samplers they have available and will be going through them in short order. Over the last two years I've tried many different creams/soaps and I've only found one that I don't like which surprisingly is a very popular brand that I was really keen on trying. Like many wise folks on this forum often say: YMMV

 

[Ckmaui]

never saw this thread till now since it got pulled back up here goes !

since it fits with me in the last year getting into this trying to find the perfect soap was my goal which is now clear I wont

instead a few to choose from to keep it fun
1 a old school company TOBS or Proraso most likely
2: a local in my town/state company
3: another from where ever that I love for whatever reason
chances are in my lifetime the small or local will go out of business and will have to find again ? but that is fine if it happens can take that path if when it comes
also might want a tube easy to use when camping traveling I do not need to do much with but wipe on face

do agree most all work but some do work better
its like anything in life food or cars or shaving how much do you care ? and can you tell the difference ? and do you care to find the best or you happy with good enough or maybe lucky to have tried that top one early and stuck with it ?

I do want slickness and comfort and do not want it drying to my skin or leaving me oily prefer it does its job and nothing more
like some others that is what post routine is for and can change with season or routine
smell wise comes second to performance but enjoy the scent when I am shaving and on my face so its nice to have something I like and could see a few to break up the routine

have also had a couple give me skin allergies but that happens

I have found what I think is near the top where one is not better just different and hard to pinpoint or I change my mind which I reckon is a good place to be !
a few have gone in the garbage though and some mornings I have a hard time choosing and put out another for the next day to use

no matter what at 58yr old I finally find shaving fun !!!! that alone is a huge thing as it was tedious horrid chore I had to do ! and now I look forward to it !

 

[Tomo]

I’ve sampled extensively and have narrowed it down to the below list that I enjoy and will likely restock when depleted.

Acqua di Parma
Baume BE
Fitjar Islands (cream)
Martin de Candre
Mitchell’s Wool Fat
Musgo Real (cream)
Saponificio Varesino 4.3
Speick (cream)

These are my top soaps. They are readily available and give me all the variety that I need.

Tabac dropped off the list when it was reformulated. Luckily I still have plenty of alternatives.

 

[oscar11]

I've done alot of experimenting with soaps too and I'm pretty burnt out on the artisans especially with the scents. Definitely going back to some quality mainstream products.

 

[Wogus]

My list of Forever Soaps is pretty short. In no particular order these are:

• Southern Witchcrafts, Necromantic
• Stirling, Orange Chill
• Stirling, Varen

Showing potential for addition to that list is Spearhead Shaving, Seaforth! Sea Spice Lime.

 

[Ckmaui]

I've done alot of experimenting with soaps too and I'm pretty burnt out on the artisans especially with the scents. Definitely going back to some quality mainstream products.

hahahahah ya cant leave it like that which mainstream ones

for me I like the nostalgia of the good ol stuff like proraso as example and want to keep one around

 

[Hahnenkamm]

I keep coming back to unscented soaps. I have a lot of scented soaps, but I tire of them easily. I love strong AS but for some reason when shaving, I prefer unscented or very lightly scented soaps. Stirling Beeswax and Sheep, or Haslinger Sensitiv top my list.

My preferred pre-shave creams usually have just enough scent to catch a whiff while shaving. If I want a little more scent, I'll add a smidge of La Toja or Speick cream, maybe a drop of EO instead, or just add menthol crystals to my brush dipping water.

 

[JoeG]

Pre de Provence works best for me. In fact I have used it for months straight but that became boring.

My search led me to Arko and Mogno recently.

I don't like spending much on soaps and rarely go over $15 dollars per tub.

PDP last's me about five months. Proraso you mentioned as factory made last five weeks. At $10 plus that's $100 for a years supply. That makes it expensive to me. Both the Red and Green are excellent.

 

[flintoid49]

After several years of experimentation I've decided to simplify my shaving routine. I have almost completely purged my soap collection down to 3 soap brands. I have 4 flavors of MdC, 6 flavors of SV and one Nuavia Blu. I go through an SV in about 6 months and an MdC in a bit over a year. So that's at least 7 years of soap. If I live that long I'll order a couple more.

 

[Michaelp]

For me it's Mitchell's Wool Fat.

 

[UncleBob59]

I have many top tier soaps and I can get a great shave from any of them. These include, but are not limited to, Barrister & Mann, Declaration Grooming, Grooming Dept, Wholly Kaw, Jabonman, Saponificio Varesino, The Club/A&E, and Stirling.

Given that most of my soaps are excellent performers, I find myself gravitating toward soaps with great scents and rich, creamy lather. Here are a few recent soap/scent choices that approach shaving nirvana for me:

The Club/A&E Khalifa or Tibetan Temple K2 base
B&M Le Grand Chypre Excelsior base
B&M Rhapsody Soft Heart base
Wholly Kaw Rebelle Siero base
Los Jabones de Joserra Rodrigo de Jerez
MacDuffs Backcountry Bourbon
Highland Springs Soap Company Eclipse
Tallow and Steel Sicily
Declaration Grooming Yuzu Rose Patchouli Milksteak base

Into every life a little rain must fall. Here are a couple of duds:

Moon Soaps Havana
Southern Witchcrafts Druantia

Try Highland Springs Soap Co. tallow base. Ruds Shaves ranks the base at 99 out of 100. Can ask for more from a shave soap.

 

[RayClem]

Try Highland Springs Soap Co. tallow base. Ruds Shaves ranks the base at 99 out of 100. Can ask for more from a shave soap.

Yes, Ruds did rate HSSC tallow with a score of 99. It is an excellent shave soap.

However, Ruds rated 10 soaps at 100 points and higher with his top soap achieving a score of 105. At that point, he considered his shave score system to be broken and stopped rating soaps. Since that time, several artisans have released soap formulations that I believe are even better than those Ruds rated.

This is a great time to be a wet shaver.

 

[JohnnyWayne203]

For me, an excellent shave is an excellent shave. I don't see how a product could surpass that. I found this out over years of buying though.
Mike's, Stirling, B&M, A&E, La Toja, SW, MWF, Tabac, Wickham, SV...... all provide me excellent shaves.
Post shave is something I do give credit if it's there, but don't deduct points if it's not. As I will use some type of post shave product regardless. But B&M Omnibus base does give me the best post shave feel.