Are we seeing the end of animal based products

[kingfisher]

If we are gonna farm and harvest animals for food, hide, etc. I feel we have a responsibility to use the entire animal. Perhaps soap is part of that equation.

This. People are still eating meat, and therefore animals are still being raised and slaughtered. It only makes sense to utilize everything, which includes using the tallow.

 

[Wgg2017]

Not in my house. 100% of my brushes are boar and 100% of my soaps are tallow based. Also one of my brushes (on order, actually) has an elk horn handle.

I feel like you're kind of missing out if you refuse to use vegetable based soaps. SV, Abbate y La Mantia hard soap, and MdC perform as well as any tallow soap I've used. With SV being very moisturizing, AyLM a bit less so, and MdC even less so while not being drying.

If you're a boar fanatic I can understand why synthetic brushes wouldn't be to your liking. But vegetable soaps are often just as good as tallow soaps and there is no need to avoid them on principle.

 

[WThomas0814]

I feel like you're kind of missing out if you refuse to use vegetable based soaps. SV, Abbate y La Mantia hard soap, and MdC perform as well as any tallow soap I've used. With SV being very moisturizing, AyLM a bit less so, and MdC even less so while not being drying.

If you're a boar fanatic I can understand why synthetic brushes wouldn't be to your liking. But vegetable soaps are often just as good as tallow soaps and there is no need to avoid them on principle.

I wouldn’t say it simply principle, although, yes, that’s part of it.

When I started wet shaving (‘76-‘77), options were limited to Williams or Old Spice pucks, primarily. My father wouldn’t have dreamed of a can of foam, so, I learned with a tallow puck and a drug store boar brush.

There are a million products out there and I’m quite confident that many of them are better performing, better smelling, etc. than what I use, but, they don’t have the “tradition” that is so enjoyable to me. This forum led me to Arko as a replacement for Williams, Arko led me to Cella, Cella led me to Vitos, and before I knew it, I had enough excellent, certainly good enough for me, soap to last many years.

When I’m forced to buy non-tallow soap, I suppose I will. I have no doubt that I will kick myself for not doing it sooner, but, tradition beckons today.

 

[Wgg2017]

I wouldn’t say it simply principle, although, yes, that’s part of it.

When I started wet shaving (‘76-‘77), options were limited to Williams or Old Spice pucks, primarily. My father wouldn’t have dreamed of a can of foam, so, I learned with a tallow puck and a drug store boar brush.

There are a million products out there and I’m quite confident that many of them are better performing, better smelling, etc. than what I use, but, they don’t have the “tradition” that is so enjoyable to me. This forum led me to Arko as a replacement for Williams, Arko led me to Cella, Cella led me to Vitos, and before I knew it, I had enough excellent, certainly good enough for me, soap to last many years.

When I’m forced to buy non-tallow soap, I suppose I will. I have no doubt that I will kick myself for not doing it sooner, but, tradition beckons today.

I can certainly understand the sentimental aspect of the soaps that you choose to use. Not to mention that they are less expensive than anything I mentioned. Definitely no reason to switch from those tried and true favorites if they work for you.

I've only tried the Cella of what you mentioned and my recollection is that it performed well but left my skin dry post-shave. I'll have to dig it out and give it another go.

 

[ChriWilson]

I can certainly understand the sentimental aspect of the soaps that you choose to use. Not to mention that they are less expensive than anything I mentioned. Definitely no reason to switch from those tried and true favorites if they work for you.

I've only tried the Cella of what you mentioned and my recollection is that it performed well but left my skin dry post-shave. I'll have to dig it out and give it another go.

I enjoy using Cella Red, it’s magnificent - with exception that I have a mild reaction to the Almond Oil when using 3 or more passes.

1-2 passes; I’m fine.

On that end, I have tallow-free soaps which are fabulous in performance, but my stockpile of Legacy Soaps will last for some significant timeframe.

I am set with brushes, but if I were to come into this journey anew and knowing what I know; I would probably be inclined to incorporate synths more readily into my rotation and concentrate naturally on boars.