Finally tried Tabac...

[Ru4scuba?]

I get the hype...great amazing Tallowy lather. Easily right up there with AoS (possibly superior?) IMHO. Scent is...different...I could definitely see a different scent with the stuff. Goes between ok to tolerable to a roomful of spent ashtrays...

But, I dont go for soap for just the scent...as my review of Old Wrisley's can attest...I love that soap and it initially had the scent of old closets, retirement homes, stale cigarettes and somebody's moldy basement...I still love it tho!

I could see Tabac growing on me.

Also on the way is Czech & Speake 88...we'll see which one makes it to the top of the rotation!

 

[RayH]

You need to try L'Occitane's Cade soap next to get a good comparison between a high quality tallow based soap and a vegetable one.

 

[Ru4scuba?]

Haven't tried the Cade...but I've used Palm based soaps before...I personally think I get a better lather out of Tallow...but Palm is really good as well and totally shaveable.

 

[Eudjinn]

Cade is simply awesome, both in scent and performance. At 10 dollars for a puck, you can't NOT buy it!

 

[Greyfox]

Tabac is a great shaving soap.

 

[Valker]

Tabac is awsome,,,,

 

[Audiolab]

Tallow is a cheap and easy way to make good soap, I love tallow soaps but I can assure you it is perfectly possible to make a good veggie based soap. Cade is a good one to try.

 

[moodymick]

Gotta be Tallow all the way and it doesn't get better than The Tabac!

 

[falkor27]

Is Cade palm-based? I thought it was shea.

EDIT: I'm working at home today and realized I could check the ingredients list on my spare puck. It is indeed palm.

Haven't tried the Cade...but I've used Palm based soaps before...I personally think I get a better lather out of Tallow...but Palm is really good as well and totally shaveable.

 

[MrGuy]

I get the hype...great amazing Tallowy lather. Easily right up there with AoS (possibly superior?) IMHO. Scent is...different...I could definitely see a different scent with the stuff. Goes between ok to tolerable to a roomful of spent ashtrays...

But, I dont go for soap for just the scent...as my review of Old Wrisley's can attest...I love that soap and it initially had the scent of old closets, retirement homes, stale cigarettes and somebody's moldy basement...I still love it tho!

I could see Tabac growing on me.

Also on the way is Czech & Speake 88...we'll see which one makes it to the top of the rotation!

I'd say the C&S is better than Tabac, but possibly because it's also much more expensive. Not the most expensive soap there is, but I could be telling myself that to feel better about the price

 

[markb]

Goes between ok to tolerable to a roomful of spent ashtrays...

I don't get this.. In all the time I've been using Tabac, I've never gotten anything the least bit "tobacco-y" from it scent wise. Neither pleasant nor unpleasant..

 

[Ru4scuba?]

I don't get this.. In all the time I've been using Tabac, I've never gotten anything the least bit "tobacco-y" from it scent wise. Neither pleasant nor unpleasant..

What can I say? Scent is the most YMMV thing about wetshaving. Our sniffers will have to agree to disagree

 

[Fortitudo Dei]

Is Cade palm-based? I thought it was shea.

EDIT: I'm working at home today and realized I could check the ingredients list on my spare puck. It is indeed palm.

I know you have corrected your post in regards to Cade but I thought it was worth mentioning that as far as I know, there is no such thing as a shea based soap (or at least one which is available commercially - happy to be corrected if anyone knows of one). All of the soaps one normally think of as containing shea butter are actually palm-based. Its use is particularly associated with French products (where it is known as karité) due to the fact that the traditional suppliers of the raw ingredient are the former French colonies in West Africa and trading links were already well established when its usefulness was discovered by the French cosmetics industry.
Most "shea soaps" would contain no more than 3% - 5% shea butter - the primary reason being its high cost (about 1000% more than palm oil).

 

[SliceOfLife]

The best soap I've made had no tallow, but due to some intricacies of its production, it's infeasible to mass produce. However I see no reason why a suitable soap can't be made without tallow. You can get every fatty acid that makes tallow great from other sources. I'm actually curious to try a specialty soap, but it would cost $5-10/lb just for the fats (vs tallow which is $1-3/lb) so it will have to wait until I've got a little expendable income.


Some options are Palm oil and various derivative oils (Palmate, Stearate, Palm kernel oil), a number of nut butters. They all provide many of the oils that make tallow great.

 

[Osborn Cox]

Really nice, thick creamy lather. I was a little concerned about the negatve things I had heard about the scent because strong perfume type odors can be a headache trigger for me. I don't find it to be overpowering or offensive at all, in fact I think it smells a lot like the VDH pink(deluxe?) glad I wasn't scared off. Good stuff.

 

[Lusitano]

Most "shea soaps" would contain no more than 3% - 5% shea butter - the primary reason being its high cost (about 1000% more than palm oil).
Reply With Quote

Institut Karité shave soap contains 25% shea butter, and the cost is not prohibitive.

 

[Left Coast DJ]

Tallow trifecta - Tabac.AOS.Cella

 

[Hugo_Shavez]

I just tried the Tabac this morning for the first time. The lather, at least in my first shave, was no better than what I've been getting from Trumper Rose, an outstanding soap, but that's pretty good. But the smell, oh, the smell! What an outstanding scent. It's right up with the Trumper Rose, though obviously, very different. OK, I'm a fan.

 

[Smell The Glove]

Cannae whack the Tabac!

I like the scent. There is a shade of Imperial Leather soap in there.

 

[filedog]

I found a place that sells this locally, so I picked up a puck today. Sniffed thru the box in the store, I thought "oh, that's not bad", got home and mixed up a bowl, NICE lather. Better than my first soap, Col. Conk's Almond. Smell is kinda nice....