Just went to their website. It's $41 Canadian. Yikes! Expensive soap.
Canada Shaving Soap review
- Thread starter godlike
- Start date
I purchased mine last January and and the level in the tub has barely changed, so in terms of value it is far more economical than any other soap I own.
Does that include VAT/GST/whatever, and do we get a break on that if ordering from the US?
In comparison, MdC Nature is €37.50 for 200g which translates to $47.25 Canadian for 175g (the size of CS soap).
How much is shipping? With MdC, it is €19.65.
But I do much prefer the packaging of the MdC.
This.
I have used mine about a dozen times and scooped out a few samples to send to B&B members. Still looks full.
I can kill a $20 tub of B&M Softheart in 25-30 shaves but I bet I could get well over 200 shaves out of a tub of the Canada soap. It is hard as a rock but lathers incredibly well. I will absolutely replace it when (if) I finish my current puck.
I believe @RenoRichard ordered some from Arizona and it cost him US$45 shipped.
You seem to be from California but you’re confusing me with all this VAT talk and cost in € Euros.
Last edited:
Rhody
I'm a Lumberjack.
Great review. Thanks for the detail.
You can buy menthol crystals or peppermint EO if you like.
I buy fragrance oils online and make my own scents for unscented soaps my latest is peach-peony.
It's kind of fun to scent your own soaps.
- Thread starter
- #29
Yeah it's pricey (33 USD) but it is worth it especially with it's potential to last long
For Canadians it's way easier to just buy it off Amazon
- Thread starter
- #30
Today I experimented with using a little Tabac shave stick. Not too much to overpower the performance of Canada but just enough to give that Tabac scent for Tabac Tuesday. Had a BBS head shave on only 2 days of growth, and been touching my skin non stop still in awe of the post shave
Thanks for the review. Being Canadian, I guess I should purchase a tub... 
Speaking of mimimalist ingredients, another unscented, excellent soap to consider is Le Pere Lucien. Its ingredients are:
Potassium Stearate, Potassium Cocoate, Water, Coconut Oil, Glycerine.
I find LPL’s performance to be on par with MdC Nature. Scent-wise, LPL is completely scentless, while MdC Nature has a very pleasant soap scent.
Speaking of mimimalist ingredients, another unscented, excellent soap to consider is Le Pere Lucien. Its ingredients are:
Potassium Stearate, Potassium Cocoate, Water, Coconut Oil, Glycerine.
I find LPL’s performance to be on par with MdC Nature. Scent-wise, LPL is completely scentless, while MdC Nature has a very pleasant soap scent.
MdC nature to me felt like a milder version of original when new. But by the time I got to the bottom of the container, leaving it open all those months, it was unscented. I wonder if the scent is intentional or just a result of cross contamination during the manufacturing process.Thanks for the review. Being Canadian, I guess I should purchase a tub...
Speaking of mimimalist ingredients, another unscented, excellent soap to consider is Le Pere Lucien. Its ingredients are:
Potassium Stearate, Potassium Cocoate, Water, Coconut Oil, Glycerine.
I find LPL’s performance to be on par with MdC Nature. Scent-wise, LPL is completely scentless, while MdC Nature has a very pleasant soap scent.
I received my puck of this soap a few days ago now and have had two shaves with it. Time to write down my initial thoughts!
I love the care and attention they give to simply getting it to the customer in good condition. With how common shipping mishaps can be, it's nice to see the seller invest in protective packaging. And while the full page printout of instructions on how to use their product (and how to wet shave in general) is a bit quaint, the hand-written and signed thank you from the master soap maker is a touch you don't see very often.
The absence of scent is interesting. After years of using Tabac, La Toja, Arko, Van der Hagen, and recently Stirling and Barrister & Mann, I kind of forgot that a soap could actually have no scent, heh. I said it in another thread, but to me it doesn't even smell like soap. It just smells a bit dry.
The lather doesn't wait around for an invitation, that's for sure. I face lathered all three of my brushes (a badger, a boar, and a synth) for a single pass each today, just because I had the time to do so. With all three the lather started to develop before I'd finished the 20 second load up. And with all three the lather required only a little addition of water to get where it needed to go.
Based on my two shaves thus far, I'd say it's a solid contender in the same class as Tabac (my top soap), for me. It made a Kai in a Fendrihan Mk II feel smooth as silk, if you're in the presumably small number of folk that have experienced that combination.
Based on today's three brush test, the soap clearly favored the badger (Wee Scot), with the synthetic (Maggard's Travel 18mm) close behind, and the boar (Omega 10086) a ways behind because it hogged all the lather.
The post shave feel is exceptional as well. I don't use any balms or splashes or lotions after a shave, beyond wiping off excess lather with my hands and a cold water splash, so the soap is the only variable in post shave feel for me. Immediately after the shave, my face felt very soft and moisturized. I can't recall from memory how it compares to the immediate post shave feel of Tabac, so I'll need to do a side by side comparison later. But 6 hours after my shave today (with half an hour in that time spent outside in -17°C weather), it still feels the same. I'm fairly confident Tabac post shave feel doesn't last this long for me!
I'm definitely leaning in a direction of making this soap a permanent feature of my den. I might lay in a couple spare pucks, perhaps through wishlists when family members ask, hehe.
I love the care and attention they give to simply getting it to the customer in good condition. With how common shipping mishaps can be, it's nice to see the seller invest in protective packaging. And while the full page printout of instructions on how to use their product (and how to wet shave in general) is a bit quaint, the hand-written and signed thank you from the master soap maker is a touch you don't see very often.
The absence of scent is interesting. After years of using Tabac, La Toja, Arko, Van der Hagen, and recently Stirling and Barrister & Mann, I kind of forgot that a soap could actually have no scent, heh. I said it in another thread, but to me it doesn't even smell like soap. It just smells a bit dry.
The lather doesn't wait around for an invitation, that's for sure. I face lathered all three of my brushes (a badger, a boar, and a synth) for a single pass each today, just because I had the time to do so. With all three the lather started to develop before I'd finished the 20 second load up. And with all three the lather required only a little addition of water to get where it needed to go.
Based on my two shaves thus far, I'd say it's a solid contender in the same class as Tabac (my top soap), for me. It made a Kai in a Fendrihan Mk II feel smooth as silk, if you're in the presumably small number of folk that have experienced that combination.
Based on today's three brush test, the soap clearly favored the badger (Wee Scot), with the synthetic (Maggard's Travel 18mm) close behind, and the boar (Omega 10086) a ways behind because it hogged all the lather.
The post shave feel is exceptional as well. I don't use any balms or splashes or lotions after a shave, beyond wiping off excess lather with my hands and a cold water splash, so the soap is the only variable in post shave feel for me. Immediately after the shave, my face felt very soft and moisturized. I can't recall from memory how it compares to the immediate post shave feel of Tabac, so I'll need to do a side by side comparison later. But 6 hours after my shave today (with half an hour in that time spent outside in -17°C weather), it still feels the same. I'm fairly confident Tabac post shave feel doesn't last this long for me!
I'm definitely leaning in a direction of making this soap a permanent feature of my den. I might lay in a couple spare pucks, perhaps through wishlists when family members ask, hehe.
My dad asked me for a wishlist for my birthday a couple weeks ago, so I just sent him the link to this soap on Amazon, and it arrived today. Two pucks of this, should keep me going for many years, lol.
2 pucks? Good lord, that will last forever. 
I am thinking about buying another puck but just in the event they stop making it. Stuff is like a rock. I have barely put a dent in mine after a couple dozen shaves.
I am thinking about buying another puck but just in the event they stop making it. Stuff is like a rock. I have barely put a dent in mine after a couple dozen shaves.
I read many comments that artisan soaps $25+ are too expensive.
Those soaps contain tallow, milks, butters, oils and other skin condition ingredients.
Plus the relatively large expense of fragrances.
Here is a coconut, stearic acid, lye soap which is unscented, at US$33...seems unreasonable!
Those soaps contain tallow, milks, butters, oils and other skin condition ingredients.
Plus the relatively large expense of fragrances.
Here is a coconut, stearic acid, lye soap which is unscented, at US$33...seems unreasonable!
I don't have this soap, but MdC is 10-12 cents per shave compared to fully double that for B&M's new Omnibus and Zingari Man Sego. Almost everything "Artisan" is in between there, the cheapest being about 15 cents/shave. The real problem cost wise is collecting, which Artisan soap makers encourage heavily. There are many people on here that only use MdC every day until they need a new one. Sometimes they have two.
I do agree with your numbers.
On a value for money basis, MdC and CSS seem unreasonably priced.
MdC for e.g. Was extremely drying to my skin to the point I had itchy skin later in the day, same as what I experience with arko.
But on a cost basis, arko is around ten times cheaper and the lather is superb (I have up on arko due to skin dryness so an using it as an example with bias).
@SliceOfLife
Ian had made an MdC clone soap years ago and others that tested it confirmed it performed like MdC, at a fraction of the cost.
I'm remembering it correctly Ian?
Yeah... And Shortly after a bunch of artisan makers came out with mdc copies. I assume they're pretty common these days, but I haven't really bought soap outside one or two exceptions in years.
It's a really really simple soap. Coconut oil/stearic at like 12/88 (might not be right, I posted it before and that's the correct ratio) and pure koh as the caustic.
The challenge is that it traces crazy fast and can be a bit explosive if you aren't exact about temps.
It's a really really simple soap. Coconut oil/stearic at like 12/88 (might not be right, I posted it before and that's the correct ratio) and pure koh as the caustic.
The challenge is that it traces crazy fast and can be a bit explosive if you aren't exact about temps.
Yeah, I remember the feedback on your soap was that it behaved like MdC.
MdC was a very drying soap for me. Luckily I had purchased a large sample so it wasn't a big loss.
Whilst performance is of course YMMV, it's the cost aspect I disagree with when it comes to these super simple soaps cos let's face it, stearic acid and coconut oil are two of the cheapest ingredients in the soap making process.
