Review of West Elm's "Sea Salt Soap"

[Darkbulb]

So, I decided to spend the $6 for the Swedish-American Sea Salt soap at West Elm the other day as I happened to walk past their store in downtown Palo Alto. The product advertises itself as being both a body/face soap AND also a shaving soap so I was naturally intrigued.

The soap smelled really nice and salty..and the packaging looked nice:


Yesterday I used it for washing my face. I did like the smell of 'sea' but I didn't get any sense of moisturizing after the wash but it may be less of an issue for me as I normally use a Nivea moisturizer anyway.

TODAY on the other hand I decided to try out the other use of this little soap: shaving.

I put it down in a mug and went to work with a badger brush. I was surprised at how quickly it lathered. W/in 15-20 seconds I had a lot of lather building up in the mug and after a minute it was really well worked up and my brush was covered in whiteness.

It started to look really good after 15-20 secs:


But...that's sort of where the 'good' ended.
I applied it to my face, swirled around the brush, stroked, etc as I've done with other soaps..but the soap seemed to dissipate so quickly and never got thick. I tried less water..I tried more water..more soap..but the same thing happened. The 'lather' was more of a 'soap foam' that quickly disapperared and never got rich/thick.

Not..the best looking lather:


So..I decided that I at least had to TRY to shave...and picked up my EJ DE89L with a Personna blade loaded in it.
Short story: Two strokes with the razor and I decided I valued my face more than that and stopped

Summary:
For face/body washing: Probably ok. The smell is sort of nice but it left my face feeling a tad dry.
For shaving: NO. Just don't!

I think I'll keep it in its pretty box and think longing about the footlong Subway sandwich I COULD had gotten instead.

 

[SmoovD]

Sorry about your trial. This soap has made the rounds before, with the usual results. I have seen the soap in shops but have never pulled the trigger as bath soap rarely makes a decent shaving soap. Look on the bright side, you have a new puck for the shower.

 

[mistercitizen]

I had the same results. I don't think I even attempted to shave with it after I saw the less than stellar lather it produced. Yeah, they're pretty much lying on the box when they say its "Good for Shaving". It's a great scrubby soap for the shower though.

Ben

 

[eyebright]

I never trust a product that claims to be good for everything, especially something like shaving that is so specific. Plus, I imagine that the salt lather in a shaving nick would sting!

 

[beginish]

I never trust a product that claims to be good for everything, especially something like shaving that is so specific. Plus, I imagine that the salt lather in a shaving nick would sting!

La Toja Manantiales was enriched with mineral salts and delivered one of the finest lathers I've ever had, so not all salt is bad!

 

[jpakstis]

Yeah, Leisureguy touted Swedish Sea Salt soap as a decent shaving soap, but I found it pretty terrible. It is a nice exfoliating bath soap, though!

 

[Nick Danger]

Thanks for taking a bullet for the rest of us. Now I know that's one soap to avoid.

Nick

 

[Darkbulb]

Thanks for taking a bullet for the rest of us. Now I know that's one soap to avoid.

Nick

Well....don't forget it's all YMMV... I think you should lather up and get that same beautiful lather as I show in the photos above and give it a try with say an R41 2011 or something like that ;-)