I received a Christmas gift of Dr. Stamler's shaving soap. It's an unscented vegan shaving soap made by a retired physician who gives the profits to charity. Most of the line is focused on sensitive skin care, so there's things to like about this line of products.
I was going to post more of a detailed review of the soap, but this product has highlighted a question for me that's often on my mind, which is why do we care so much about certain qualities in a shaving product?
The soap itself is pretty rich, and gives a nice, protective glide. In that sense it works well. Rinsing it leaves my skin fairly dry, but not out of the ordinary compared to other well-liked products on the market.
I think where this soap violates my expectations is in the lather: it lathers almost more like a lotion, with a little bit of foam but not much. There's no olive oil in it, but it lathers almost like how I imagine a superfatted olive oil soap might. Loading a brush with a bit more water than I would think helps, and you can get a lather, but it's denser than I would expect and takes a bit of work.
I think the drying effect of the rinsed soap is not quite for me, but more broadly I've often wrestled with why we often have this expectation that a lather be super foamy? I'm not suggesting someone should or shouldn't expect a foamy lather, but I like it myself, even though I admit what really improves my shave has nothing to do with the bubbles. I like the cleaning element of a lathering soap or cream, so that's why I prefer those to a latherless gel or cream, but functionally I've gotten good shaves from lathering and latherless products. So when I'm faced with a product that provides good protection and glide, and is a soap, why do I still want bubbles?
I was going to post more of a detailed review of the soap, but this product has highlighted a question for me that's often on my mind, which is why do we care so much about certain qualities in a shaving product?
The soap itself is pretty rich, and gives a nice, protective glide. In that sense it works well. Rinsing it leaves my skin fairly dry, but not out of the ordinary compared to other well-liked products on the market.
I think where this soap violates my expectations is in the lather: it lathers almost more like a lotion, with a little bit of foam but not much. There's no olive oil in it, but it lathers almost like how I imagine a superfatted olive oil soap might. Loading a brush with a bit more water than I would think helps, and you can get a lather, but it's denser than I would expect and takes a bit of work.
I think the drying effect of the rinsed soap is not quite for me, but more broadly I've often wrestled with why we often have this expectation that a lather be super foamy? I'm not suggesting someone should or shouldn't expect a foamy lather, but I like it myself, even though I admit what really improves my shave has nothing to do with the bubbles. I like the cleaning element of a lathering soap or cream, so that's why I prefer those to a latherless gel or cream, but functionally I've gotten good shaves from lathering and latherless products. So when I'm faced with a product that provides good protection and glide, and is a soap, why do I still want bubbles?
