Shave Soap Ingredient(s) and Rash

[TinyTim]

If you suspect this to be the case, try glycerine or shave oil as pre shave.

When I find my skin is dry/irritated, I always use a pre shave (not pre shave soap though cos that just compounds the problem!).

For aftershave, I apply either a balm or vitamin E oil and at bed time, I apply vitamin E oil or a vitamin c/hyaluronic acid serum.

I definitely notice a big difference in my shave comfort and closeness when my skin is hydrated and supple.

P.s. Lanolin also works wonders to make the skin soft and supple but as an aftershave, it's a little too sticky for me.

Again, nav, you have informatively addressed the problem. Interesting, I have been using CeraVe products for quite some time and recently started using the combination of Vitamin C/ Hyaluronic Acid that you describe. It has helped to lessen skin dryness. And I have some preshave oil, that I will experiment with as a preshave. Thanks again for weighing in with your excellent suggestions.

 

[Forged]

My skin reacts badly to quite a few soaps, so buying was always hit or miss for me. Expensive.

For awhile I tried to figure out what ingredients were causing the reactions, but eventually I gave up because that was getting me nowhere.

I’ve found a few soaps that seem pretty benign and I just stick to those now. They are:

B & M - Soft Heart base soaps are my favorite and have never given me any problems, at least the scents I own. I have a couple excelsior base soaps too, but haven’t tested them extensively yet.

SV - I have about 8 of these and none cause me irritation.

Gillette Pure Cream - Cheap and non-irritating, great for travel as it works well lathered or not.

TOBS - Ultimate Comfort Unscented and Jermyn Street Sensitive skin creams. The performance isn’t quite up there with B&M and SV, but it’s still good enough and causes me no problems. The Unscented still has a scent, and the Jermyn Street smells much better, so I doubt I’ll ever buy the Unscented again.

That’s what’s working for me currently. Maybe one or two are worth a try for you. Good luck with your quest for non-irritating soaps/creams, it can definitely be a challenge.

 

[nav]

My skin reacts badly to quite a few soaps, so buying was always hit or miss for me. Expensive.

For awhile I tried to figure out what ingredients were causing the reactions, but eventually I gave up because that was getting me nowhere.

I’ve found a few soaps that seem pretty benign and I just stick to those now. They are:

B & M - Soft Heart base soaps are my favorite and have never given me any problems, at least the scents I own. I have a couple excelsior base soaps too, but haven’t tested them extensively yet.

SV - I have about 8 of these and none cause me irritation.

Gillette Pure Cream - Cheap and non-irritating, great for travel as it works well lathered or not.

TOBS - Ultimate Comfort Unscented and Jermyn Street Sensitive skin creams. The performance isn’t quite up there with B&M and SV, but it’s still good enough and causes me no problems. The Unscented still has a scent, and the Jermyn Street smells much better, so I doubt I’ll ever buy the Unscented again.

That’s what’s working for me currently. Maybe one or two are worth a try for you. Good luck with your quest for non-irritating soaps/creams, it can definitely be a challenge.

When it comes to soap reactions,
I react to 2 out of 5 artisan soaps, either a tingling or outright burning!
I have basically stopped buying artisan soaps for this reason.

But it's funny that SV has fairly strong and complex scents and, like you, I don't get any reactions from those! I just love them!!

 

[Forged]

When it comes to soap reactions,
I react to 2 out of 5 artisan soaps, either a tingling or outright burning!
I have basically stopped buying artisan soaps for this reason.

But it's funny that SV has fairly strong and complex scents and, like you, I don't get any reactions from those! I just love them!!

Yes, SV was a surprise for me too! Same with B&M.

I have the members of the ATG forum to thank for those “discoveries”. Basically, I started a thread about my allergy problems with soaps/creams and started getting recommendations on things to try. Most people weren’t as sensitive as I am, so I took a few of the recommendations from people who seemed most sensitive.

SV soaps came up pretty universally as being benign, so I took a chance and ordered one, I think I started with 70th. I have to be honest though, I was skeptical, particularly after opening the tin and smelling the scent, which was nice but I thought to myself, oh yeah, this is gonna burn Aaaaand….nothing. Just a pleasant shave with a great scent. So I tried another. And another. And….several hundred dollars later I had a bunch of them and a smaller bank account

With B&M I also got a lot of recommendations but I had a bad experience with a couple of soap samples from either the Latha line or Reserve line, can’t remember which, but I definitely reacted to them and I didn’t want to try Will’s soaps again.

Someone who seemed to be just as easily irritated as me kindly offered to send me a sample of B&M Unscented Soft Heart base. That soap caused me zero irritation, although the lack of scent was a downside, particularly after finding SV.

Since I felt some aspects of performance were better with B&M vs SV, I took a chance on another Soft Heart base soap, this time scented, and viola!, again zero irritation. Result, the bank account has taken another hit and my shaving cabinet is getting crowded, but I’m not complaining! It’s nice to finally have a variety of nicely scented soaps that don’t burn my face and lips.

Both SV and B&M soaps are fairly high in scent strength, so I’m not really buying the “fragrance oils are the problem” theory. And even if that theory is correct, I don’t see how it’s going to be useful to anyone looking for soaps that won’t irritate them because you can’t tell exactly what’s in these soaps by the labeling.

At any rate, for those who react badly to some (or many) soaps, the good news is that there are shaving soaps/creams out there that will likely give you great shaves with no irritation, it just takes some searching.

 

[B_R_A_D]

I get bad reactions to soaps that contain almond oil due to a severe tree nut allergy. Stirling is one of the soaps that contains almond oil, as well as SV, Moon Soaps, 345 Soaps, First Line Shave, Proraso balm and PAA The Cube, there’s probably more I’m forgetting. The only brand that I have a bad reaction to that allegedly doesn’t contain almond oil is Zingari Man, which is odd as it is designed for sensitive skin.

I don’t have this issue but I have seen many people mention they have reactions to different scent notes in the fragrance like cinnamon and pink peppercorn for example. I’ve seen a few people mention they get burning or tingling from A&E St Barts but can use the other A&E soaps.

 

[nav]

Yes, SV was a surprise for me too! Same with B&M.

I have the members of the ATG forum to thank for those “discoveries”. Basically, I started a thread about my allergy problems with soaps/creams and started getting recommendations on things to try. Most people weren’t as sensitive as I am, so I took a few of the recommendations from people who seemed most sensitive.

SV soaps came up pretty universally as being benign, so I took a chance and ordered one, I think I started with 70th. I have to be honest though, I was skeptical, particularly after opening the tin and smelling the scent, which was nice but I thought to myself, oh yeah, this is gonna burn Aaaaand….nothing. Just a pleasant shave with a great scent. So I tried another. And another. And….several hundred dollars later I had a bunch of them and a smaller bank account

With B&M I also got a lot of recommendations but I had a bad experience with a couple of soap samples from either the Latha line or Reserve line, can’t remember which, but I definitely reacted to them and I didn’t want to try Will’s soaps again.

Someone who seemed to be just as easily irritated as me kindly offered to send me a sample of B&M Unscented Soft Heart base. That soap caused me zero irritation, although the lack of scent was a downside, particularly after finding SV.

Since I felt some aspects of performance were better with B&M vs SV, I took a chance on another Soft Heart base soap, this time scented, and viola!, again zero irritation. Result, the bank account has taken another hit and my shaving cabinet is getting crowded, but I’m not complaining! It’s nice to finally have a variety of nicely scented soaps that don’t burn my face and lips.

Both SV and B&M soaps are fairly high in scent strength, so I’m not really buying the “fragrance oils are the problem” theory. And even if that theory is correct, I don’t see how it’s going to be useful to anyone looking for soaps that won’t irritate them because you can’t tell exactly what’s in these soaps by the labeling.

At any rate, for those who react badly to some (or many) soaps, the good news is that there are shaving soaps/creams out there that will likely give you great shaves with no irritation, it just takes some searching.

One of my worst ever reactions was to B&M latha oceana. It was like an acid burn!
My face was red for about 6 hours and felt like it was on fire.
The latha lavenda we fine though.

I have least reactions to triple milled soaps. I believe it's because they are not scented so strongly.
I have a good success rate with milled soaps compared to artisan soaps.

One artisan brand which had never irritated my skin is mystic water. I love the soap base/performance and I love the scents!