Pursuit of the perfect shave soap. What's your experience?

[guitarslinger]

I’ve been de shaving for nearly 15 years.

Overall, I like Italian soft soaps the most. Good lathers. Good shaves. Good scents. Good prices.

Tfs
Extro cosmesi
Saponificio bignoli
Razorock
Mastro miche
Old p160
Old Valobra
Etc.

 

[CJB3]

I have settled on three artisans for the moment: Declaration Grooming, Grooming Dept, and Ethos. For me the performance of these is excellent and what probably pushes them to the very top for me is their excellent fragrance profiles.

That said, there are several non-artisans out there that I also love—Haslinger, Tabac, Proraso Green. If I had to, I could be perfectly happy using these soaps as well.

 

[Rhody]

GD and T+S are my top two
But then there’s Sv. Wk. wsp.
and captain c. Proraso.
Perfection is a ymmv thing. In my “collection” I can’t think of more than one or two that were duds and I’m currently resisting the urge to buy anything else.

 

[musicman1951]

I'm not sure there is a perfect shave soap, even for one face. But my favorite for many years has been MdC. I very much like the sparse ingredient list, but most of all I seem to get fewer weepers than when using other brands.

Scent is next to meaningless for me, so I prefer something quite mild, as opposed to something I don't like.

SV is a very nice soap, although I've only used one so far. It seems kind of expensive, but I'm not sure yet. I'm keeping track and I'm about 180 passes into the puck. It seems to be about half gone, but it's really hard to tell. Give me at least a couple more moths and I'll let you know.

WK makes nice soap. I think there are quite a few nice soaps in that price range. They seem a little expensive compared to the MdC, but it's nice to have an alternative occasionally.

For cheaper soap I think Stirling and Haslinger make excellent products. I just ordered my first La Toja, as my friend Marco would never steer me wrong.

 

[Ravenonrock]

Not pursuing much these days. Along the way I’ve collected some favourites that work well for me. There are a few I’m still interested in trying, but content with the variety on board currently. All in good time.

 

[GNR]

There are too many great soaps, both Artisan and Classics. I’m not chasing any of them, I just let them come to me when it’s time to replace something or my SAD kicks in.
My perfect soap of all time...is the one I’m using that day. Life is too short to use a soap you don’t love, PIF it, use in the shower, or toss it. Love the one your with!

 

[Trollky]

The soaps that perform the best for me are the long-standing mainstays of the wet shaving world e.g. TOBS Sandalwood, Proraso Green etc. I also really enjoy many of Razorock's offerings.

Ironically, fancier/small batch soaps with high post-shave qualities do not perform as well for me during the actual shave.

 

[dabrock]

Here are my own personal conclusions:

• Most soaps are good enough for a great shave.
• High end soaps are typically not worth the additional cost.
• Best is irrelevant, as whatever I use, I'll probably fancy a change within a few weeks of using it anyway.
• I like a bit of variety, but don't want to face a daily choice of more than three soaps.
• As my skin varies with the seasons, so do my preference for both soap and post shave.

After going through well over 200 soaps and creams I would definitely agree. I started with Proraso Green and still happily use this from time to time. If all I had to shave with for the rest of my life was Proraso I would still be happy to shave as long as I had a great brush, razor and blade. In the end, as long as the soap has decent glide I'll be fine.

 

[dankolov1]

So far I am happy with Tabac; I also have some D R Harris pucks to try out.

 

[dotKomo]

Perhaps we should veer off into what's the best bar soap to shave with.

 

[old_school]

Perhaps we should veer off into what's the best bar soap to shave with.

Well this is in the shape of a bar.

 

[Trem]

For the traditional, hard, tipple milled soap Saponificio Varesino. No contest! Post-shave feel and strength of their scents are second to none (sorry MdC fans).

Agree, SV > MdC for me as well. Klar Siefen, Haslinger and B&M Reserve have become my other "go to" soaps over the past year or two. But there are others I get similarly good performance out of and also love... Tabac, Stirling, the old CRSW Select (ca. ~2016-17), PdP, Sudsy Soapery all come to mind.

I've also tried some of the newer artisan soap formulations that have generated hype in recent years (the usual suspects). Never really took to them the same way. Maybe I needed to take more time learning how to dial them in, but in my hands, the older guard just seemed to give me better shaves.

 

[Dov Shaves]

Thanks to all who commented on this post. I have a small rotation of mainly artisan soaps and but after all the comments about many of the "old guard" and stalwart commercial soaps, I think I'm going to eventually revisit soaps like SV, Tabac, Proraso, and Haslinger. Again, thank you!

 

[crazy shavers]

Mwf
Tabac
Cella
Wilkinson stick
Palmolive stick

 

[dotKomo]

Well this is in the shape of a bar.

Yes, and I have 5 of them on the recommendation of one Marco, that fine Italian gentleman!

 

[1Vader]

I find myself enjoying the classics these days.

 

[JCinPA]

I find myself enjoying the classics these days.

For the most part, I do, as well, but I've been impressed with artisans along the way, too. Queen Charlotte is much lamented. I've enjoyed my Barrister & Mann, still deciding how much. Sterlings offerings and the PAA I've tried are also very nice. My latest favorite is Razorock's Santa Marie del Fiore.

But Tabac (old), Cella (red & teal), Proraso (green), La Toja stick are what I'd consider the classics, although others would have different lists. Well, maybe not the Cella teal, it's brand new. I find myself enjoying the new offerings very much, but if I had to choose--not one product, but a class of products--between the classics and the new, I'd pick the classics.

Luckily there is no reason to have to choose, and I think the "best shaving soap" is impossible to select, as the term itself implies everyone should agree. One can have a reaction to a top-tier soap that most do not have, one may hate a scent others love, et cetera. All we can do is come up with a class of unordered, top-tier products that many agree on.

Whether you like these or not, think they are worth the price or not (if they are spendy), you cannot argue that MdC, SV, SmN, Tabac, Cella, La Toja keep coming up in these lists more often than others, as well as many of the artisans that keep getting repeated mentions. "The Best" to me is a whole class of products, not any particular one.

That said, I don't even have a personal "best product". I go in the shave den and think to myself, "I really want a luxurious old Tabac shave this morning." And that is the best. For that day. If it's over 90 already when I wake up, I may think, "That Proraso followed by AV looks pretty enticing." And that is the best. For that day. I walk into the den and think, "That new Cella Bio would feel so comforting this morning." And that is the best. For that day. Or I walk into the den and think, "Boy I miss that QC GIT, I think I'll use Sterling's Sharp Dressed Man this morning." And that is the best. For that day. Or I'm in a Lavendery mood this morning, I think I'll use the B&M Reserve soap and their lavender A/S." And that is the best. For that day.

This whole this is imponderable, isn't it? But so much fun. I like all my 'bests', it just depends on my mood at the time.

 

[Scaramouche]

Blade shaving for over 50 years, with the original Burmashave and assorted foams on. There is no perfect soap, because each day and each shave is different. There are great soaps (meaning consistent and functional in performance and fragrance), there are good soaps, there are average soaps, there are bad soaps and there are worse soaps. All are improved by an improvement in 1) water, 2) technique, and 3) hardware, in that order. And all are better - even marginally - than shaving with water alone or dry.

 

[SliceOfLife]

Tested dozens of soaps and learned to make soap trying to find the perfect shaving soap.

Vintages (williams and a number of others... there are weak vintages, but not many) are top tier.
Speick stick is the #1 I've found of Modern stuff

I've gotten into the realm of vintage soaps with my homemade soaps, but there's still something missing (age/drying out/?). The easiest way I can describe to get there is a MDC recipe, shifted to use a bit of NaOH instead of a pure KOH and then cutting the fats with tallow while maintaining roughly (You'll need to up the coconut a TINY bit) the same Coconut:Stearic ratio, to make the soap more gentle.

 

[Balthier]

Southern witchcrafts and la toja are the tops for me. I need to try more shave sticks, I have only tried two. I don't like post shave qualities of super fatted soaps, I want just want a nice clean feeling. La Toja is perfect in this regard. B&M wins for scents although a few I don't like.