I will start by saying artisan soaps are among my favorite soaps--Stirling, Razorock, WSP, Dr. Jon's and others have all been great performers for me and I have all but a Stirling in my current rotation (and only until I finish the 2018 sabbatical when I'll buy some more).
When I started wet shaving a few years ago, Prorasso, Cella, Tabac, MWF, and a few other well known brands were the most talked about. But then artisan soaps got better and more available, and more people here started reviewing them. Some artisans were poor, most were average, and a few were excellent. But now it seems like there are new artisans showing up every week with someone on here singing it's praises. That's not a bad thing, but there is no way for me to keep up.
But here's my controversial question. Are all these new artisans really producing new soaps, or are they mostly using minor variations of the same soap base recipes? If that's the case (which I think it is but I could be wrong), then choosing a favorite artisan is more about finding a pleasing scent then a better soap.
Am I correct in my thinking? I wish all of the soap makers the best of success--but considering most of us can only use up 3 or 4 soaps/year, I'm not sure the market is big enough for all of them to still be around in a couple of years.
When I started wet shaving a few years ago, Prorasso, Cella, Tabac, MWF, and a few other well known brands were the most talked about. But then artisan soaps got better and more available, and more people here started reviewing them. Some artisans were poor, most were average, and a few were excellent. But now it seems like there are new artisans showing up every week with someone on here singing it's praises. That's not a bad thing, but there is no way for me to keep up.
But here's my controversial question. Are all these new artisans really producing new soaps, or are they mostly using minor variations of the same soap base recipes? If that's the case (which I think it is but I could be wrong), then choosing a favorite artisan is more about finding a pleasing scent then a better soap.
Am I correct in my thinking? I wish all of the soap makers the best of success--but considering most of us can only use up 3 or 4 soaps/year, I'm not sure the market is big enough for all of them to still be around in a couple of years.