Do you buy different unscented soap?
- Thread starter Roy
- Start date
lasta
Blade Biter
I don't see the point honestly, scent 99% of the reason why I have more than one soap!
I’m one of those guys who has six or seven unscented soaps. It is true I could settle on one of them, but they really are different. Variety is still the spice of life even fragrance free.
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- #4
Hi, I was wondering in what way the soaps vary. I'd be interested as ì have a poor sense of smell, so may as well cut out fragrance.
I imagine that just like scented soaps, unscented soaps perform differently depending on the user, brush, technique (face v bowl lather), and water (hard v soft). Performance is still the goal, so no reason to avoid scented unless certain scents irritate your face.
Well, I became curious about this as I've noticed different soap bases performing pretty differently for me, so I ordered a bunch of unscented soaps in the last week from TRC:
I should have a tub of Wickham's somewhere in the soap box, too.
- Barrister and Mann (Veggiebus)
- Henri et Victoria
- Hendrix Classics & Co.
- Supply - Ultra Lather Shaving Cream
- Nordic Shaving Company - Natural Unscented
- TRC - Unscented - Shaving Soap Puck
- Extro Cosmesi - Zero - Shaving Cream
I should have a tub of Wickham's somewhere in the soap box, too.
I’m pretty much just copied the favorite soaps of people here. I love Canada shaving soap, Stirling unscented with beeswax, Mike’s unscented, Baume.be cream, and a few others. All of them work well, but they aren’t the same.
Sir Roy, I suspect you have some slight smell sense!
Tell us, what are your couple of favorite soaps??
- Thread starter
- #9
These would be perfect for comparisons!
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- #10
Hi, sv and extro cosmesi are good as regards pe4formance, initially they smell great, but scents soon vanish on lathering.
In the past, I've found the scents that linger are mdc and castle forces and pamolive Cream.best of all as the Meißner ranges but not easy to get in UK now.
I (still) have 3, but they all smell differently ;-)
Stirling - Sheep
Stirling - Naked & Smooth
Martin de Candre - Nature
The one that is closest for me to unscented is the Naked & Smooth. There actually is hardly any smell. The sheep is perhaps the best of those, but does have a sheepish smell. The MdC has the same base as the other MdC soaps, and that is what distinguished it from the the other 2.
Love the unscented soaps, great stuff! And ideal for combining with your after shaves, balms and or edt/edp afterwards.
Stirling - Sheep
Stirling - Naked & Smooth
Martin de Candre - Nature
The one that is closest for me to unscented is the Naked & Smooth. There actually is hardly any smell. The sheep is perhaps the best of those, but does have a sheepish smell. The MdC has the same base as the other MdC soaps, and that is what distinguished it from the the other 2.
Love the unscented soaps, great stuff! And ideal for combining with your after shaves, balms and or edt/edp afterwards.
I usually only buy unscented creams or soaps, and have to restrain myself from buying too many. They differ in lather volume, consistency, glide, cushion, moisturizing qualities, afterfeel, residue on the razor, and so forth and so on — if anything not dealing with scents just focuses attention to all the other functional qualities of the soap or cream.
I have several unscented soaps. I'm mostly interested in the shaving properties instead of scents. I usually prefer lighter scent strength, though.
One possible use for unscented soaps is to blend it with a strongly scented soap to reduce the scent strength and/or improve its performance. For that, you may need at least one hard unscented soap and one soft unscented soap, depending on what you want to blend it with.
One possible use for unscented soaps is to blend it with a strongly scented soap to reduce the scent strength and/or improve its performance. For that, you may need at least one hard unscented soap and one soft unscented soap, depending on what you want to blend it with.
I currently have 6 different unscented soaps (listed alphabetically):
Bartigan and Stark Nil Unscented Shaving Soap.
Noble Otter Bare Shave Soap.
Saponificio Bignoli shaving cream - Fragrance free.
Stirling Naked & Smooth.
Stirling Sheep.
Stirling Unscented with Beeswax.
I have not yet gotten to using/testing the Stirling Sheep or Stirling Unscented with Beeswax.
As far as the other 4 go, the Bartigan, Noble, Saponificio and Stirling Naked and Smooth, they are all outstanding performers, and I'd be happy with any of the 4 if I was only able to have just 1. If it were my choice, I'd pick the Stirling Naked and Smooth as I find it is so very easy to get a lather whether that is with a badger or a boar brush, bowl or face lather. I find the Naked & Smooth doesn't dry up on my face mid shave, and if I gave either a bit too much water, or just not quite enough, it still performs excellent. The Naked & Smooth is very slick and with a bowl lather, you can get quite the cushion out of it whereas a face lather, the consistency is much thicker like a Greek yogurt. To top is off, the tub size is slightly larger giving you more soap for the $$$ Vs. the others. This is not to say I am unhappy with any of the other brands, because I'd use any of them in a heartbeat. I am looking forward to getting to the Beeswax and the Sheep, but need to empty a few of the others first.
Bartigan and Stark Nil Unscented Shaving Soap.
Noble Otter Bare Shave Soap.
Saponificio Bignoli shaving cream - Fragrance free.
Stirling Naked & Smooth.
Stirling Sheep.
Stirling Unscented with Beeswax.
I have not yet gotten to using/testing the Stirling Sheep or Stirling Unscented with Beeswax.
As far as the other 4 go, the Bartigan, Noble, Saponificio and Stirling Naked and Smooth, they are all outstanding performers, and I'd be happy with any of the 4 if I was only able to have just 1. If it were my choice, I'd pick the Stirling Naked and Smooth as I find it is so very easy to get a lather whether that is with a badger or a boar brush, bowl or face lather. I find the Naked & Smooth doesn't dry up on my face mid shave, and if I gave either a bit too much water, or just not quite enough, it still performs excellent. The Naked & Smooth is very slick and with a bowl lather, you can get quite the cushion out of it whereas a face lather, the consistency is much thicker like a Greek yogurt. To top is off, the tub size is slightly larger giving you more soap for the $$$ Vs. the others. This is not to say I am unhappy with any of the other brands, because I'd use any of them in a heartbeat. I am looking forward to getting to the Beeswax and the Sheep, but need to empty a few of the others first.
There's also Simpson's unscented Stirlings unscented shaving soap
True, but Simpson's has a few ingredients that are irritants for me, I prefer non-tallow soaps at present time, so Stirling's and a few other makers are off the table for me.
I found that it doesn't really matter what a soap smells like to me because it washes off and most scents don't linger. I've tried Stirling Sheep, Shannon Soaps, Sudsy soapery, Zinghari man, Eleven, Maggards, and Arko if you consider that unscented*, also Mitchell's wool fat. Some contain lanolin. I think they all work pretty good, Shannon's does seem to stand out some though. I was recently gifted several of the soaps listed so the jury is still out on which soaps I would rate the highest.
I had a different reason for preferring unscented. My wife of 50+ years was having difficulty breathing and objected to scents as irritating her. Why would I want to cause my lifetime mate any distress? I wouldn't. So I went with unscented beginning in 2010. She died at the end of 2022. Now that I have tried some scented soap again, I find I can't smell them -- perhaps my nose has become old and lost my sense of smell. The point being -- there are those who would prefer unscented for genuine reasons. After all, the shaver himself my be the one with the breathing problems.
Arko being unscented - sacrilege
