As someone that started delving into the world of wet-shaving products in the last 5 years, I've largely ignored most of the traditional artisans based on the assumption that modern artisans made superior products. I haven't tried products like Cella, Tabac, Arko, Tcheon, Vitos. For people that have used both new and old, is there a large gap in quality (in terms of slickness and post-shave) between some of those mentioned above and some of the newer bases from companies like B&M and A&E? I don't have much space, so I'd rather fill it with better products over things that I am less inclined to enjoy using.
Comparing older artisans to modern products
- Thread starter D4PPZ
- Start date
Good question. I've been in the game for 16 years. It comes down to a number of factors, and whether they matter to you.
1. post shave - I have oily skin, so I don't really like tons of post shave moistness. This is not a big factor for me. That said, if you like post-shave feel, Southern Witchcrafts is as good as it gets, imo.
2. Scent - This is a mixed bag. Lots of great newer soap bases use cheap, duplicate, premixed fragrances to emulate familiar colognes. OTOH, some modern artisans do their own perfumery OR hire a real perfumer. Good ones = Barrister and Mann, Spearhead/Seaforth, Noble Otter, Southern Witchcrafts. RE CLassics;, Arko and Tabac both smell pretty bad to me, even though they are "classics" with a pedigree. It just depends. new and old doesn't really factor into it. Do your research, get samples.
3. latherability = a pretty big one for me. My water is pretty hard, but I don't have much trouble with most soaps. That said, Williams does not work with my water. So, there goes another "classic" I won't/can't use.
4. Nostalgia/preference - this is the big one. I really miss my time in my formative years when I started wet shaving. Therefore, Proraso green, Floid Blue, Pre De Provence B&T, P160, etc. are all important scents to me that I like to continually smell as time goes on. FWIW, TFS red smells, lathers, and shaves pretty darned closely to my P160.
Back to some things you mentioned.
Vitos = one of the few soaps I've owned that tends to spoil or overcure/overdry as I store it. It doesn't smell as good as TFS Red, and it crumbles into dusty, yellow pebbles after a couple of years.
Cella = I never thought it smelled as good as P160 or TFS. It too tends to spoil much more quickly than other soaps.
So, after all that. It just depends. Some people think we choose things because we like them. I think we like things because we chose them.
Essential classics:
Saponificio Varesino - I don't think I've ever had a bad shave with it, and they all smell pretty good. It lasts a while too.
Pre De Provence - Doesn't provide as much invincibility/protection as SV, but it's cheaper, lasts longer, and is arguably slicker.
Tcheon Fung Sing - Uncle Walter. This scent completely blew me away the first time I smelled it. It lathers quickly and easily with any water. It shaves awesome. Classic. If you want cheaper, just grab the Rasozero Spiffero or the Red Kilo.
Magno Portuguese bar - hard, cheap, good scent. Good shaves.
1. post shave - I have oily skin, so I don't really like tons of post shave moistness. This is not a big factor for me. That said, if you like post-shave feel, Southern Witchcrafts is as good as it gets, imo.
2. Scent - This is a mixed bag. Lots of great newer soap bases use cheap, duplicate, premixed fragrances to emulate familiar colognes. OTOH, some modern artisans do their own perfumery OR hire a real perfumer. Good ones = Barrister and Mann, Spearhead/Seaforth, Noble Otter, Southern Witchcrafts. RE CLassics;, Arko and Tabac both smell pretty bad to me, even though they are "classics" with a pedigree. It just depends. new and old doesn't really factor into it. Do your research, get samples.
3. latherability = a pretty big one for me. My water is pretty hard, but I don't have much trouble with most soaps. That said, Williams does not work with my water. So, there goes another "classic" I won't/can't use.
4. Nostalgia/preference - this is the big one. I really miss my time in my formative years when I started wet shaving. Therefore, Proraso green, Floid Blue, Pre De Provence B&T, P160, etc. are all important scents to me that I like to continually smell as time goes on. FWIW, TFS red smells, lathers, and shaves pretty darned closely to my P160.
Back to some things you mentioned.
Vitos = one of the few soaps I've owned that tends to spoil or overcure/overdry as I store it. It doesn't smell as good as TFS Red, and it crumbles into dusty, yellow pebbles after a couple of years.
Cella = I never thought it smelled as good as P160 or TFS. It too tends to spoil much more quickly than other soaps.
So, after all that. It just depends. Some people think we choose things because we like them. I think we like things because we chose them.
Essential classics:
Saponificio Varesino - I don't think I've ever had a bad shave with it, and they all smell pretty good. It lasts a while too.
Pre De Provence - Doesn't provide as much invincibility/protection as SV, but it's cheaper, lasts longer, and is arguably slicker.
Tcheon Fung Sing - Uncle Walter. This scent completely blew me away the first time I smelled it. It lathers quickly and easily with any water. It shaves awesome. Classic. If you want cheaper, just grab the Rasozero Spiffero or the Red Kilo.
Magno Portuguese bar - hard, cheap, good scent. Good shaves.
No question there is far greater enjoyment factor with A&E/B&M and others compared to the mass produced stuff. In terms of the end-game, there isn't considerable gap between the more pricey artisan soap and stuff like cella and proraso. If you know how to use a DE and make a lather then you're going to get a fine shave with everything.
- Thread starter
- #4
For me, the difference between something like B&M and Proraso is night and day. I used Proraso exclusively for like 5 years before I fully delved into wetshaving and its inadequacy for my skin was a large reason. I was getting skipping and no residual slickness regardless of how I lathered it. If all the traditional artisans have similar performance to Proraso, I would say the difference is enough for me to avoid them. That being said, I often hear it mentioned here that brands like Tabac and Tcheon perform just as well as modern products, which is why I ask.
Mike's Natural Soaps is one of the OG artisans whose soaps still holds up IMHO. Mike's was the 1st artisan soap I tried back ~2014. The soap base hasn't changed but I still find it pretty awesome. Orange, Cedarwood, and Black Pepper is probably the most widely liked scent.
If you don't have Saponificio Varesino, you should try it. It's an excellent shave soap. It may seem a little expensive, but it's triple milled and will last making price per shave very acceptable. Scents are very classy.
If you don't have Saponificio Varesino, you should try it. It's an excellent shave soap. It may seem a little expensive, but it's triple milled and will last making price per shave very acceptable. Scents are very classy.
I'm sure there are a few people that can't use stuff like proraso. For the most part it does work well enough for most people. Of all the mass produced stuff I think Tabac was the best you can get. That may not be true since they changed to non tallow formula.
Ron R
I survived a lathey foreman
Great review with informative information from your experiences using and storing these soaps and if I recall your post from another thread you have collected a lot of soap over the years.
I like Proraso soap but I hate the Menthol Eucalyptus smell.
I would add Mystic Water Soap as well. And Shannon's Soaps. These 3 will be in my routine as long as they keep producing. Others have come and gone in my stash, but these 3 have a permanent position!
Hi Guitar Slinger, I recently purchased at TFS Red Bowl/Ciotola Rossa and have used it once so far. It lathered well and the almond scent was pleasant. Used a plissoft synthetic brush. Slickness was good but not quite at the level of my tallow soaps. Any advice as to how to get the best performance out of this soap?
Tabac (tallow) is probably one of the best that ever was. It's smell on the other hand is divisive. Cella is awesome but the smell can also be divisive and almond oil can give some reactions. Everyone should try the classics once. If you don't care for them people will take them off your hands. Everyone should try Arko. My favorite out of all the classics is Cella.
My experience with Proraso red is similar. Lathers easily but its slickness is not at the same level of the tallow soaps/blends I typically use (Williams, MWF & Arko) and vegan Razorock What The Puck triple milled.. Have found that it makes a great superlathering addition to my tallow soap blends and mostly use it in that way. Just acquired my first puck of TFS red bowl croap. Definitely a step up from Proraso though I have to experiment with how to best lather it to maximize slickness.
If slickness is lacking, you probably just need a bit more water and then mix in well. The lather should be just short of the runny stage, at least the way I do it.
With italian soft soaps, add more water. It will seem foamy. That’s okay. That’s because it’s not a superfatted low-structure lather. More water. More soap. Don’t be afraid to make a lot of foam.
I buy the old tried and true brands. No interest in the modern forum darlings regardless of how some rave over them. I like Proraso but other things more. However, if a person can't get a good slick lather with Proraso, they're doing something wrong.
The american artisans (I've used at least) pretty much blow the traditional products out of the water performance wise. They load up faster, lather into nice, creamy, bubble free and dense lathers, are definitely slicker and more protective, have superior post-shave and can have more sophisticated scents and fragrances. It does depend on the product though. imo, you can't really go wrong with something that is meant to be lathered up with a brush and I tend to like almost everything. Objectively though modern artisans beat traditional brands. Especially on the ingredient front. Proraso comparatively is ok at best and severely overrated in my opinion.
The scent of a soap doesn't add anything to a shave for me for a couple reasons. One, I have a poor sense of smell so I have trouble smelling it in the first place. Second, I don't like strong scents generally. Third, my skin seems to react to various ingredients used to make the scent itself, according to both my dermatologist and my own experience.
As a result, I have 4 soaps in my rotation at the moment: 2 unscented and 2 with very mild scents. Acca Kapp Barbershop (one of the very first soaps/croaps I bought, Baume.be cream, both light scents; Canada Shaving Soap and PAA Scentsless, though I just got the PAA before we left for Bali and I haven't tried it.
I have 5 others in the wings that I will try as time goes on. I haven't been wet shaving for as long as many people here so I don't have any soaps based on nostalgia.
Other than a brief stint of using a brush and shaving soap bought at a drug store in the early 90s sometime, I've been using canned goop of one sort of the other since I was a teen. I guess what I'm trying to say is... I have a clean slate. Everything is new to me... classic, modern... I don't have an allegiance to either. Thankfully, a couple guys here pointed me in the right direction early on so I don't have to try a bunch of products that wouldn't work for me in the end.
As a result, I have 4 soaps in my rotation at the moment: 2 unscented and 2 with very mild scents. Acca Kapp Barbershop (one of the very first soaps/croaps I bought, Baume.be cream, both light scents; Canada Shaving Soap and PAA Scentsless, though I just got the PAA before we left for Bali and I haven't tried it.
I have 5 others in the wings that I will try as time goes on. I haven't been wet shaving for as long as many people here so I don't have any soaps based on nostalgia.
Other than a brief stint of using a brush and shaving soap bought at a drug store in the early 90s sometime, I've been using canned goop of one sort of the other since I was a teen. I guess what I'm trying to say is... I have a clean slate. Everything is new to me... classic, modern... I don't have an allegiance to either. Thankfully, a couple guys here pointed me in the right direction early on so I don't have to try a bunch of products that wouldn't work for me in the end.
