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My New Soaps

I love the traditional soaps that I have used over the past 15 years and I have taken steps to ensure that I always have access to them. Nevertheless, I have really enjoyed some of the newer soap offerings that have hit the market. The new vendors are really innovating, particularly when it comes to scent and post-shave feel. I thought that I could share my experiences and maybe learn from your feedback.

The Razorock soaps that I picked up on sale are excellent. The performance of Dead Sea, SMdF, and Mudder F. are top notch and the scents are wonderful. Razorock is very easy to lather and the soap to water ratio has a fairly wide window. For people that are interested in trying scented soaps, Razorock represents an easy transition from traditional soaps and creams.

I also had the opportunity to try Stirling Executive Man. The scent of SEM is something that should be experienced. You get a lot of soap for the price. If you are used to traditional soaps, creating a lather with Stirling may require some practice. I got it on my second attempt. Once you dial in the soap to water ratio, the lather you do get is quite good. I would say that the RazoRock soaps that I mentioned may win in terms of post-shave feel, but Executive Man probably has the more memorable scent. The protectiveness and slickness of the lathers are not sufficiently different to enable me to readily distinguish between them.

More recently I tried Wholly Kaw's King of Oud Tallow formulation. I don't like the scent of King of Oud, but Wholly Kaw is the King of post-shave feel. The positive effect on my skin was noticeable for many hours. The lather is very, very dense and slick, but not high volume. If hydrated properly it looks like a shiny cream. Creating a lather with WK is similar in difficulty to creating a lather with Stirling.

Barrister Man Le Grand Chypre is the most challenging of the soaps to lather; it has a very narrow window of tolerance for the soap to water ratio. It creates a low volume lather that is extremely slick; the residual slickness is far superior to most everything that I have seen. With regard to density of the lather and the post-shave feel, however, BM is are not on par with Wholly Kaw.

Ariana & Evans Amber Rose is the soap that I tried most recently. The scent is unbelievably good and the presentation/packaging of the soap is quite beautiful. Master Chef's understand the concept of balance in spicing food and A&E understands this in creating scents! This soap has the second best post-shave feel after the Wholly Kaw's Donkey Milk formulation. It is as easy to lather as Razorock's soaps and creates a more cushioned lather than either WK or BM. I would say that the slickness of the lather was a little less than WK and significantly less than BM, but the volume makes up for that to some extent.

Keep in mind that I don't have that much practice with these soaps. It is always possible that I underhydrated or overhydrated the lather without realizing what I had done.

I do have an order for Shannon's Soaps and another for Mystic Waters in the mail. Those will cover the scents of natural landscapes and flowers and give me enough soap to bargain with Charon.

I look forward to your feedback.
 
I love the traditional soaps that I have used over the past 15 years and I have taken steps to ensure that I always have access to them. Nevertheless, I have really enjoyed some of the newer soap offerings that have hit the market. The new vendors are really innovating, particularly when it comes to scent and post-shave feel. I thought that I could share my experiences and maybe learn from your feedback.

The Razorock soaps that I picked up on sale are excellent. The performance of Dead Sea, SMdF, and Mudder F. are top notch and the scents are wonderful. Razorock is very easy to lather and the soap to water ratio has a fairly wide window. For people that are interested in trying scented soaps, Razorock represents an easy transition from traditional soaps and creams.

I also had the opportunity to try Stirling Executive Man. The scent of SEM is something that should be experienced. You get a lot of soap for the price. If you are used to traditional soaps, creating a lather with Stirling may require some practice. I got it on my second attempt. Once you dial in the soap to water ratio, the lather you do get is quite good. I would say that the RazoRock soaps that I mentioned may win in terms of post-shave feel, but Executive Man probably has the more memorable scent. The protectiveness and slickness of the lathers are not sufficiently different to enable me to readily distinguish between them.

More recently I tried Wholly Kaw's King of Oud Tallow formulation. I don't like the scent of King of Oud, but Wholly Kaw is the King of post-shave feel. The positive effect on my skin was noticeable for many hours. The lather is very, very dense and slick, but not high volume. If hydrated properly it looks like a shiny cream. Creating a lather with WK is similar in difficulty to creating a lather with Stirling.

Barrister Man Le Grand Chypre is the most challenging of the soaps to lather; it has a very narrow window of tolerance for the soap to water ratio. It creates a low volume lather that is extremely slick; the residual slickness is far superior to most everything that I have seen. With regard to density of the lather and the post-shave feel, however, BM is are not on par with Wholly Kaw.

Ariana & Evans Amber Rose is the soap that I tried most recently. The scent is unbelievably good and the presentation/packaging of the soap is quite beautiful. Master Chef's understand the concept of balance in spicing food and A&E understands this in creating scents! This soap has the second best post-shave feel after the Wholly Kaw's Donkey Milk formulation. It is as easy to lather as Razorock's soaps and creates a more cushioned lather than either WK or BM. I would say that the slickness of the lather was a little less than WK and significantly less than BM, but the volume makes up for that to some extent.

Keep in mind that I don't have that much practice with these soaps. It is always possible that I underhydrated or overhydrated the lather without realizing what I had done.

I do have an order for Shannon's Soaps and another for Mystic Waters in the mail. Those will cover the scents of natural landscapes and flowers and give me enough soap to bargain with Charon.

I look forward to your feedback.
Hi Keyvan, Looks like you are having a lot of fun expanding your range to some great shaving soaps since we traded messages last September regarding low cost custom blends with ingredients like Arko, Van Der Hagen and Dove. Curious as to how you would compare your new shave soaps to the classic products you've used over the years?

I've been doing the same taking advantage of some low fall'22 exchange rates to score some great deals from Connaught Shaving to expand my range of classic shaving soaps & creams. New soaps/creams for me include Mitchell's Wool Fat, Tabac, D.R. Harris Windsor, Lea regular and menthol creams, Cyril R. Salter shaving soap (hard puck) as well as Cyril R. Salter Wild Rose and Vetvier crams. Still have custom blends in my rotation. So far I've found that the core shaving performance (ease of lathering & lather quality) of my custom blended soaps is as good as any off-the-shelf classic products. Where the classics further excel in scent and sometimes post shave feel. Also convenience as I don't need to blend them.

Lots of fun so enjoy your shaving soap journey.
 
You have a good start on learning soaps. I'd recommend you try Grooming Dept and Declaration Grooming and Zingari Man if you enjoy the Artisan side of soaps. Or quit playing and buy 3 pucks of MDC and 3 pucks of SV. When those run out about 3 years from now you won't want any other brands. They are the top of the line when it comes to soaps. Sure they will cost you when you buy them. But when they last 3 or 4 times longer than an Artisan soap you will know why people don't sweat the cost.
 
Hi Keyvan, Looks like you are having a lot of fun expanding your range to some great shaving soaps since we traded messages last September regarding low cost custom blends with ingredients like Arko, Van Der Hagen and Dove. Curious as to how you would compare your new shave soaps to the classic products you've used over the years?

I've been doing the same taking advantage of some low fall'22 exchange rates to score some great deals from Connaught Shaving to expand my range of classic shaving soaps & creams. New soaps/creams for me include Mitchell's Wool Fat, Tabac, D.R. Harris Windsor, Lea regular and menthol creams, Cyril R. Salter shaving soap (hard puck) as well as Cyril R. Salter Wild Rose and Vetvier crams. Still have custom blends in my rotation. So far I've found that the core shaving performance (ease of lathering & lather quality) of my custom blended soaps is as good as any off-the-shelf classic products. Where the classics further excel in scent and sometimes post shave feel. Also convenience as I don't need to blend them.

Lots of fun so enjoy your shaving soap journey.
Hi Lane,

It's great to hear from you. The Arko, VDH, Dove, Ivory, Proraso formulation that you communicated to me is my everyday soap. As a matter of fact, I just used it this morning. That formulation outperforms all other formulations that I have tried in two categories: value and ease of loading a brush. It pretty much saturates a wet boar brush in 10 or 12 swirls and builds a highly water-tolerant and slick lather with ease. It does have excellent post shave feel, but I would say that the Wholly Kaw is much more effective and A&E is somewhat more effective in the post-shave feel/ moisturizing department. Also, Barrister Mann is slicker as far as the lather it creates. Nevertheless, if you remove scent from the equation, your custom formulation is competitive and in some cases superior to these products.

There is always controversy when comparing the new formulas with the classics, particularly MWF. My lathering technique is attuned to triple-milled hard soaps. I can always create a great lather from MWF or DR Harris. Conversely, I have a hard time getting great lathers from creams. In that context, I can create better lathers from MWF than from any of these Artisan soaps. The lather is dense, slick and high in volume (cushioning). These Artisan type soaps are not really designed to create cushioning lathers. On the other hand, despite the fact that MWF has great post-shave effects, A&E and WK are superior in that area.

By the way, I purchased nearly identical soaps from Connaught. The Wild Rose cream has a fantastic scent and I am looking forward to trying the Lea Menthol. If at some point you find yourself ordering from Connaught again, I would highly recommend the Green Cella Bio soap. It is organic and inexpensive, and creates a very slick and dense lather. I am fairly sure that you will enjoy it.
 
Sounds like you’re all set for a while. When it comes time to restock you might want to consider some of the European options. There are a lot of great soaps being produced in Europe at the moment.
 
You have a good start on learning soaps. I'd recommend you try Grooming Dept and Declaration Grooming and Zingari Man if you enjoy the Artisan side of soaps. Or quit playing and buy 3 pucks of MDC and 3 pucks of SV. When those run out about 3 years from now you won't want any other brands. They are the top of the line when it comes to soaps. Sure they will cost you when you buy them. But when they last 3 or 4 times longer than an Artisan soap you will know why people don't sweat the cost.
I did purchase SV Dolomiti from Connaught and I really enjoyed the post-shave feel and the lather. The only way I justified buying the SV was that it was half priced (based on exchange rate from Connaught) and will last for a long time.

I also really wanted a rose scented soap and had the opportunity to purchase one from Pasteur with a great discount. I considered the MDC, but wound up getting the LPL.

I completely agree with you about calculating costs. You can't compare a triple-milled soap to a croap by weight or by volume. At the same time, the equipment that is required to create dense soaps is probably not available to Artisans in the early stages of their business.
 
Thanks for sharing. The only thing I will add is that in my experience B&M is really very easy to lather, and the lather it produces is absolutely top notch. Give it another go and make sure you use a synthetic brush 👍
 
Thanks for sharing. The only thing I will add is that in my experience B&M is really very easy to lather, and the lather it produces is absolutely top notch. Give it another go and make sure you use a synthetic brush 👍
I will and that is definitely good advice. Mastering a new soap with a synthetic brush is much easier.
 
Hi Lane,

It's great to hear from you. The Arko, VDH, Dove, Ivory, Proraso formulation that you communicated to me is my everyday soap. As a matter of fact, I just used it this morning. That formulation outperforms all other formulations that I have tried in two categories: value and ease of loading a brush. It pretty much saturates a wet boar brush in 10 or 12 swirls and builds a highly water-tolerant and slick lather with ease. It does have excellent post shave feel, but I would say that the Wholly Kaw is much more effective and A&E is somewhat more effective in the post-shave feel/ moisturizing department. Also, Barrister Mann is slicker as far as the lather it creates. Nevertheless, if you remove scent from the equation, your custom formulation is competitive and in some cases superior to these products.

There is always controversy when comparing the new formulas with the classics, particularly MWF. My lathering technique is attuned to triple-milled hard soaps. I can always create a great lather from MWF or DR Harris. Conversely, I have a hard time getting great lathers from creams. In that context, I can create better lathers from MWF than from any of these Artisan soaps. The lather is dense, slick and high in volume (cushioning). These Artisan type soaps are not really designed to create cushioning lathers. On the other hand, despite the fact that MWF has great post-shave effects, A&E and WK are superior in that area.

By the way, I purchased nearly identical soaps from Connaught. The Wild Rose cream has a fantastic scent and I am looking forward to trying the Lea Menthol. If at some point you find yourself ordering from Connaught again, I would highly recommend the Green Cella Bio soap. It is organic and inexpensive, and creates a very slick and dense lather. I am fairly sure that you will enjoy it.
Hi Keyvan, Thank you for the recommendation. The LEA Menthol is nice with a reasonable menthol kick that is not overpowering. With the shaving creams, that are relatively new to me, I've found it's important to load/apply enough product and then slowly add water. Since they are faster to lather then a hard soap there one can wind up whipping up what looks like great stable lather from too light a load that in reality is too thin for adequate slickness and protection. Once dialed in they work really well.

The Cyril R. Salter Wild Rose does provide an excellent scent though it is not as strong a scent as I thought it would be. How strong is the scent from your tub? Was really pleasantly surprised by the Vetiver cream where the scent is perfect in all dimensions per my preferences after all the warnings as to how strong it is.

Appreciate your comments on my Arko (or Williams for those that have some), VDH, Dove, Ivory and Proraso formulation. Outside of scent it's as good or better than any other shaving soap I've used. Bottom line is that core soap ingredients are relatively low cost commodities so there is no need to spend a lot for excellent core shaving performance.
 
I like the scent of the Wild Rose. It has a very natural scent, but you have to be close to the tub to smell it. It’s not strong enough to be sensed at a distance, but the only roses that can really project fragrance are the short lived Damasks.

I had heard that the Vetiver and Sandalwood CRS creams were very good. If I can improve my cream lathering technique, I might get one of those in the future.

The lady who owns Mystic Waters, Michelle, is known for producing a great Jasmine scent. I ordered that and she may have included a sample of her Yellow Rose. If I get that, I’ll report on differences between the scents of the CRS Wild Rose, the LPL Rose, and the Mystic Waters rose.

If you recall I tried to add fragrance to your supersoap formulation, but I may not have used enough essential oils. Mystic Waters has an unscented soap and they describe adding essential oils at 1/2 teaspoon per 4 ounce. That’s basically 10 times as much as I added. If I can find an essential oil derived from Damask Roses, I will give it a second shot.
 
I like the scent of the Wild Rose. It has a very natural scent, but you have to be close to the tub to smell it. It’s not strong enough to be sensed at a distance, but the only roses that can really project fragrance are the short lived Damasks.

I had heard that the Vetiver and Sandalwood CRS creams were very good. If I can improve my cream lathering technique, I might get one of those in the future.

The lady who owns Mystic Waters, Michelle, is known for producing a great Jasmine scent. I ordered that and she may have included a sample of her Yellow Rose. If I get that, I’ll report on differences between the scents of the CRS Wild Rose, the LPL Rose, and the Mystic Waters rose.

If you recall I tried to add fragrance to your supersoap formulation, but I may not have used enough essential oils. Mystic Waters has an unscented soap and they describe adding essential oils at 1/2 teaspoon per 4 ounce. That’s basically 10 times as much as I added. If I can find an essential oil derived from Damask Roses, I will give it a second shot.
The CRS Indian Sandalwood cream is phenomenal, it's the best cream I've ever tried.
 
This morning I tried Shannon's Soaps Lavendar and Lemongrass. The scent of the soap is very good. My senses detect the lavender, but the lemongrass is the stronger scent. Overall, they balance each other very nicely. When you add warm water to the soap, the scent pops and I can detect it on my brush after the shave.

I noticed that this soap is that it is dense and soft. Based on the feel of the soap I believe that it has a high lipid content and that accounts for the softness. I removed a small amount of soap (almond-sized portion) and spread it on the bottom of my ceramic lathering bowl. I whipped up a lather with a badger brush by adding small amounts of water incrementally. When I was satisfied with the lather, I started the first pass. At this point I found the lather to be creamy, but it did not seem slick. Realizing that something was off, I watered down the lather on my face to the point where it seemed sparse and proceeded to face lather. The volume of the lather and its slickness increased significantly.

After completing 3 passes, I had a significant amount of left over lather and I documented that in the attached photo.

With regard to Shannon's I would rate the scent as extremely good and I would say that initial slickness is good. You can create mounds of high volume, slick lather, but you have to invest effort into whipping it up. The residual slickness is not as good as some of these other soaps, but with the amount of lather that the soap creates you will not have to worry about residual slickness.

When the product is on your face you don't get the feeling that the post-shave will be fantastic, but in fact the post-shave is very, very good. Overall, Shannon's is different enough from the other soaps to provide some opportunity for experimentation and entertainment.

IMG_0791.jpg
 
Hi Keyvan, Thank you for the recommendation. The LEA Menthol is nice with a reasonable menthol kick that is not overpowering. With the shaving creams, that are relatively new to me, I've found it's important to load/apply enough product and then slowly add water. Since they are faster to lather then a hard soap there one can wind up whipping up what looks like great stable lather from too light a load that in reality is too thin for adequate slickness and protection. Once dialed in they work really well.

The Cyril R. Salter Wild Rose does provide an excellent scent though it is not as strong a scent as I thought it would be. How strong is the scent from your tub? Was really pleasantly surprised by the Vetiver cream where the scent is perfect in all dimensions per my preferences after all the warnings as to how strong it is.

Appreciate your comments on my Arko (or Williams for those that have some), VDH, Dove, Ivory and Proraso formulation. Outside of scent it's as good or better than any other shaving soap I've used. Bottom line is that core soap ingredients are relatively low cost commodities so there is no need to spend a lot for excellent core shaving performance.
I shaved with the CRS rose this morning and got much better results as far as lather. I may not have been using enough.

I noticed that when I first open the tub the scent is strong, but dissipates quickly. It may be one of those scents to which our olfactory sensors acclimate rapidly.

The LPL rose scent is stronger and lasts longer. I don’t think that it is better than the CRS Wild Rose, but the fragrance is more noticeable for a longer period of time.
 
I shaved with the CRS rose this morning and got much better results as far as lather. I may not have been using enough.

I noticed that when I first open the tub the scent is strong, but dissipates quickly. It may be one of those scents to which our olfactory sensors acclimate rapidly.

The LPL rose scent is stronger and lasts longer. I don’t think that it is better than the CRS Wild Rose, but the fragrance is more noticeable for a longer period of time.
Yes, both my CRS creams, including Wild Rose, provide great lather. Similar experience with the CRS Wild Rose scent, Vetiver scent is stronger with much better staying power.

I discovered the the same with my first CRS and LEA cream shaves that it is essential to use enough product. Since the creams lather much more easily that soaps its easy to whip up what appears to be great, stable lather from insufficient product that is in reality too thin to provide enough slickness and protection. Found it was better to start on the heavy side and then dial in the right amount of cream to use.
 
I like the scent of the Wild Rose. It has a very natural scent, but you have to be close to the tub to smell it. It’s not strong enough to be sensed at a distance, but the only roses that can really project fragrance are the short lived Damasks.

I had heard that the Vetiver and Sandalwood CRS creams were very good. If I can improve my cream lathering technique, I might get one of those in the future.

The lady who owns Mystic Waters, Michelle, is known for producing a great Jasmine scent. I ordered that and she may have included a sample of her Yellow Rose. If I get that, I’ll report on differences between the scents of the CRS Wild Rose, the LPL Rose, and the Mystic Waters rose.

If you recall I tried to add fragrance to your supersoap formulation, but I may not have used enough essential oils. Mystic Waters has an unscented soap and they describe adding essential oils at 1/2 teaspoon per 4 ounce. That’s basically 10 times as much as I added. If I can find an essential oil derived from Damask Roses, I will give it a second shot.
Let us know after you have used the Mystic Waters soap a few times. In my experience, it can be difficult to lather, but it is a good value soap .
 
You have a good start on learning soaps. I'd recommend you try Grooming Dept and Declaration Grooming and Zingari Man if you enjoy the Artisan side of soaps. Or quit playing and buy 3 pucks of MDC and 3 pucks of SV. When those run out about 3 years from now you won't want any other brands. They are the top of the line when it comes to soaps. Sure they will cost you when you buy them. But when they last 3 or 4 times longer than an Artisan soap you will know why people don't sweat the cost.
MDC? SV?
 
@Keyvan
“The LPL rose scent is stronger and lasts longer. I don’t think that it is better than the CRS Wild Rose, but the fragrance is more noticeable for a longer period of time.”

I just bought some of the LPL arose de Pushkar. Haven’t tried it yet…any further thoughts/advice?
Thanks,
Hms
 
@Keyvan
“The LPL rose scent is stronger and lasts longer. I don’t think that it is better than the CRS Wild Rose, but the fragrance is more noticeable for a longer period of time.”

I just bought some of the LPL arose de Pushkar. Haven’t tried it yet…any further thoughts/advice?
Thanks,
Hms
I just have one more thought with regard to LPL. There is some controversy around the exposure of the soap to water and the long term effects. I decided to scrape out a bit of soap with a butter knife and lather it in my ceramic bowl. That way the bulk of the soap never gets exposed to water.

It’s harder than a croap and softer than a triple milled soap. It’s not hard to scrape some out of the tin and spread it across a lather bowl. If you prefer to face lather, you can can build the proto-lather in a bowl then spread it across your face.

The issues seem to depend on the exact formulation of the LPL batch. Other people that have more experience with LPL might say that this is not necessary. In that case I would go with their advice, but this is the same technique that I use with Razorock’s SMdF which has been reported to have similar issues.
 
I just have one more thought with regard to LPL. There is some controversy around the exposure of the soap to water and the long term effects. I decided to scrape out a bit of soap with a butter knife and lather it in my ceramic bowl. That way the bulk of the soap never gets exposed to water.

It’s harder than a croap and softer than a triple milled soap. It’s not hard to scrape some out of the tin and spread it across a lather bowl. If you prefer to face lather, you can can build the proto-lather in a bowl then spread it across your face.

The issues seem to depend on the exact formulation of the LPL batch. Other people that have more experience with LPL might say that this is not necessary. In that case I would go with their advice, but this is the same technique that I use with Razorock’s SMdF which has been reported to have similar issues.
Thanks. I will give that a try. I am a face latherer, and do tend to get my soaps wet. I do have a nice @Captain Pre-Capsize ceramic bowl that I use every day.
 
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