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Have I been wasting my money?

By chance I noticed while washing my face with hand and body soap my wife bought from Amazon
it lathered up really good. So after washing and rinsing I lathered some on my face by hand and
shaved with it. I think it worked as well if not better than any shave soap I have used . A comfortable
close shave. The soap is A LA MAISON Rosemary Mint from France. It comes in a 16.9 oz. bottle
and she got 3 bottles for 24 dollars.
 
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Ron R

I survived a lathey foreman
By chance I noticed while washing my face with hand and body soap my wife bought from Amazon
it lathered up really good. So after washing and rinsing I lathered some on my face by hand and
shaved with it. I think it worked as well if not better than any shave soap I have used . A comfortable
close shave. The soap is A LA MAISON Rosemary Mint from France. It comes in a 16.9 oz. bottle
and she got 3 bottles for 24 dollars.
I think you can buy Gillette gel for around the same price (2 cans for $5.00US)if you want to smear lather with your hands, You can not beat a brush for kicking up lather and try using a brush with the A LA MAISON and just the therapy a brush brings to a persons face.
I used Gillette gel (great gel )for over 35 years and would not really like to use my hands as much as my brush(spoiled shaver).
You might save a few dollars a year possibly but shave soap is Taylor made for shaving. If it is slick enough then it should work and hopefully does not gum up your shave gear.
If you can use a brush that is even better IMO, try mixing some up in bowl and see if it dissipates with a brush.
Nothing wrong with experimenting and also could try making some ubber lather with it also.
 
Lots of people shave with non-shave products that they have found work well for them. I've shaved with a number of soaps I purchased at the dollar store ( Pears, Yardley Shea Buttermilk, Old Spice Sport, Dove Men+Care ). I find they all provide a safe and fairly comfortable shave, but they tend to not provide quite the same experience as some of my dedicated shave soaps ... either scent, lather life-span, slickness, or post-shave feel. Pears, for example, is insanely slick and creates a lather that lasts plenty long enough for me to finish a shave but the scent is just 'ugg'. The Yardley Shea Buttermilk is another soap that I've used more than once as a shave product and it was fine but once again the scent was just meh.

Lots of stories of our dads and granddads shaving with Ivory soap bars.
 
Bath soap bars often provide a very slick lather. There are some soaps that are so slick I have difficulty holding onto in the shower. The problem is that bath soaps are not designed for shave, so they do not provide a stable lather that protects your skin from the razor blade.

Keeping that in mind, some bar soaps contain some of the same ingredients as shaving soaps. I have used Yardley of London Moisturizing bar with Cocoa Butter. I rank it as below average in performance, but it is still as good or better than a number of shaving soaps and creams I have tried. Some have cost many times what Yardley costs.

I have very sensitive skin and prefer soaps that provide a high level of cushion/protection and skin conditioning. While I could use Yardley, it is not a soap I enjoy using. However, if your skin is not sensitive and all you need is a soap that provides a slick lather, you might be able to use a bar soap such as Yardley. I would suggest using a bar soap based either on tallow or stearic acid. Many of them these days are based on palm oil.

For the latter half of my working career, I traveled all over the country, spending over 100 nights a year in hotels. I did not want to carry a complete set of shaving gear with me on the trips, so I shaved in the hotel shower using whatever shampoo or hair conditioner provided. I was able to get a socially acceptable shave, but never one I enjoyed. Once I retired, I started looking for ways of improving the quality of my shaves. Now I can get a near-BBS shave with zero irritation, a huge improvement on my earlier shaves.
 

Steve56

Ask me about shaving naked!
Bath soap bars often provide a very slick lather. There are some soaps that are so slick I have difficulty holding onto in the shower. The problem is that bath soaps are not designed for shave, so they do not provide a stable lather that protects your skin from the razor blade.

Martin de Candre 4-oil Marseilles soap is as slick as it gets. It slides off my soap saver if I don’t have it leveled - many times, which made me think, ‘Can I shave with this stuff?’

Yes you can, and very well indeed unless you want lather.

If you have a properly honed straight razor, you do not need to be protected from the blade, that’s DE stuff.
 

AimlessWanderer

Remember to forget me!
If you have a properly honed straight razor, you do not need to be protected from the blade, that’s DE stuff.

I don't need "protection" from any lather, which is a damn good thing really, as it's no barrier against hardened and sharpened steel. I just need it to be slick and well hydrated.

"Protective" lather, in my experience, lessens shave feel and awareness. Either from being mixed too rich, being applied too thick, or being one of the soaps that collapses to "dirty dish water", when I try to get it thin and wet enough for me to be happy with it.

This "protective" lather, and its reduced awareness, promotes errors (and therefore nicks and irritation) in my shaves, not safeguards against them. Probably due to having to shave "heavier", to coax the razor through the meringue in the first place. That's irrespective of whether I use my usual double edge razors, or the occasional shavette or straight.

I would rather have thin, wet lather, and heightened awareness, every single time.
 
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