Over the past couple years I've purchased a number of different shaving soaps such as Mitchell's Wool Fat (tallow formula), Tabac (new formula), What-the-Puck, Williams, Arko, Van Der Hagen, D.R. Harris and Cyril R. Salter. All these soaps work well for me and I enjoy the variation in lather characteristics and scent. Leaving scent aside there was no surprise that the lather characteristics vary as none of these soaps use an identical set of base ingredients. Even my very similar D.R. Harris Windsor and Cyril R. Salter require different levels of effort to create excellent lather that is easily explained by variances in the base ingredients (Top two ingredients: Cyril - Sodium Tallowate, Potassium Stearate, D.R. Harris - Potassium Palmate, Sodium Tallowate).
Recently I compared two of my softer Italian shaving soaps that use the same base (identical top 5 ingredients). One of these, Tcheon Fung Sing "Ciotola Rossa" (Red Bowl) is a more basic soap with little else added beyond the base beyond an almond scented fragrance. The other, Razorocks P.160 with a similar Almond scent, uses what appears to be the same base with the addition of a wide range additional ingredients including Tallow, Lanolin, Shea Butter, Argan Oil and Aloe that are heavily marketed to provide superior performance. Both are moderately priced soaps with the Red Bowl around $3-4 for 125ml and the P.160 selling for $6-$9 in a larger 150ml tub.
Since the main difference between these soaps are the trace ingredients (all #6 or higher on the list) I did a comparison and was surprised to find that, while these are both excellent soaps, all the extra ingredients in the Razorock P.160 made no detectable difference in either lather quality or lathering ease (link to my detailed post on this below). I lathered similar quantities of both soaps in the same way by scooping out almond sized portions that were spread across the bottom of my 4" stainless lathering bowl.
Later I found that @Wgg2017 had done a similar comparison with these soaps, and a couple of much higher end products, around a year ago and had similar results finding almost no difference in lather quality.
Again the focus here is on lathering ease and performance, not scent. Shaving soap trace ingredients are very important for imparting the unique scents in our soaps.
So the question here is you ever experienced significant differences in shaving soap performance from the addition of trace ingredients or has it just the top 4-6 ingredients that really matter for shaving soap performance?
We often pay significant premiums for similar base soaps with these trace ingredients. If they don't really matter then we should just make our purchasing decisions per the soap base (top 4-6 ingredients), scent and, for premium soaps, quality of the container artwork that some consider collectable.
Comparison of Razorock P.160 to TFS Red Bowl Ingredients: (Base in Blue Italics)(Select unique ingredients in red Italics)
Tcheon Fung Sing "Ciotola Rossa" Traditional Artisan Shaving Soap:
Stearic Acid, Aqua(Water), Cocos Nucifera (Coconut) Oil, Potassium Hydroxide, Sodium Hydroxide, Fragrance (Parfum), Potassium Carbonate
P.160 Shaving Soap:
Stearic Acid, Water(Eau), Cocos Nucifera (Coconut) Oil, Potassium, Hydroxide, Sodium Hydroxide, Tallow Acid, Hydrogenated Lanolin, Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea)Butter,Fragrance(Parfum), Argania Spinosa (Argan)Oil, Aloe Barbadensis Extract(Aloe).
Link to P.160 and TFS Red Bowl Review/Comparison post#28:
Razorock Santa Maria Del Fiore Firenze Shave Soap - https://www.badgerandblade.com/forum/threads/razorock-santa-maria-del-fiore-firenze-shave-soap.548869/page-2#post-12661434
Link to Wgg2017 's Italian Shaving Soap Comparision Including P.160 and TFS Red Bowl:
Recently I compared two of my softer Italian shaving soaps that use the same base (identical top 5 ingredients). One of these, Tcheon Fung Sing "Ciotola Rossa" (Red Bowl) is a more basic soap with little else added beyond the base beyond an almond scented fragrance. The other, Razorocks P.160 with a similar Almond scent, uses what appears to be the same base with the addition of a wide range additional ingredients including Tallow, Lanolin, Shea Butter, Argan Oil and Aloe that are heavily marketed to provide superior performance. Both are moderately priced soaps with the Red Bowl around $3-4 for 125ml and the P.160 selling for $6-$9 in a larger 150ml tub.
Since the main difference between these soaps are the trace ingredients (all #6 or higher on the list) I did a comparison and was surprised to find that, while these are both excellent soaps, all the extra ingredients in the Razorock P.160 made no detectable difference in either lather quality or lathering ease (link to my detailed post on this below). I lathered similar quantities of both soaps in the same way by scooping out almond sized portions that were spread across the bottom of my 4" stainless lathering bowl.
Later I found that @Wgg2017 had done a similar comparison with these soaps, and a couple of much higher end products, around a year ago and had similar results finding almost no difference in lather quality.
Again the focus here is on lathering ease and performance, not scent. Shaving soap trace ingredients are very important for imparting the unique scents in our soaps.
So the question here is you ever experienced significant differences in shaving soap performance from the addition of trace ingredients or has it just the top 4-6 ingredients that really matter for shaving soap performance?
We often pay significant premiums for similar base soaps with these trace ingredients. If they don't really matter then we should just make our purchasing decisions per the soap base (top 4-6 ingredients), scent and, for premium soaps, quality of the container artwork that some consider collectable.
Comparison of Razorock P.160 to TFS Red Bowl Ingredients: (Base in Blue Italics)(Select unique ingredients in red Italics)
Tcheon Fung Sing "Ciotola Rossa" Traditional Artisan Shaving Soap:
Stearic Acid, Aqua(Water), Cocos Nucifera (Coconut) Oil, Potassium Hydroxide, Sodium Hydroxide, Fragrance (Parfum), Potassium Carbonate
P.160 Shaving Soap:
Stearic Acid, Water(Eau), Cocos Nucifera (Coconut) Oil, Potassium, Hydroxide, Sodium Hydroxide, Tallow Acid, Hydrogenated Lanolin, Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea)Butter,Fragrance(Parfum), Argania Spinosa (Argan)Oil, Aloe Barbadensis Extract(Aloe).
Link to P.160 and TFS Red Bowl Review/Comparison post#28:
Razorock Santa Maria Del Fiore Firenze Shave Soap - https://www.badgerandblade.com/forum/threads/razorock-santa-maria-del-fiore-firenze-shave-soap.548869/page-2#post-12661434
Link to Wgg2017 's Italian Shaving Soap Comparision Including P.160 and TFS Red Bowl:
Four Italian, Almond Scented Soaps Compared
I didn't really intend to do a comparison between these four soaps but I ended up using them each for my last four shaves. I thought my experience was pretty eye opening. The four soaps: 1. Antica Barbieria Colla Almond Oil Shave Cream $79.00 for 100ml -- Stearic Acid, Aqua (Water), Cocos...
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