Shave Soaps for DE's that don't work well for SR's

[rbscebu]

Over the past couple of years SR shaving, I have found some shaving soaps that, although working well for DE shaving, just don't work well for SR shaving.

Two of them in particular for me are:

• Nivea Sensitive for Men
• Shave by Sanofi (Australian)

Have you found any others?

 

[lasta]

I see no correlation to be honest. Most of soap/cream's consistency issues can be dialed in with the right amount of water. That being said, some are capable of making more consistently lather than others (ie poor ones bubble up too much).

Good lather is good lather regardless of SR/DE.

 

[lasta]

FYI, I'm targeting maximum water content yet lowest "volume". Nivea Sensitive is middle of the road, but not particularly bad.

I'm gonna get a lot of hate...but:
TOBS, Truefit and Hill, C&E, Geo F Trumper, MdC, Wickhams, Body Shop, and Arko are below average.

WARS(cream), Palmolive (cream), Gentleman's Tonic(cream), and tabac are on the upper end of my list.

 

[rbscebu]

I see no correlation to be honest. Most of soap/cream's consistency issues can be dialed in with the right amount of water. That being said, some are capable of making more consistently lather than others (ie poor ones bubble up too much).

Good lather is good lather regardless of SR/DE.

I disagree. I have tried very hard to get those two soaps to work well with SR shaving. I just couldn't do it. I feel that it was mainly to do with slickness. Those two worked well for DE shaving but not so well with SR shaving.

Other soaps like Arko, Palmolive, Proraso and Tabac work well with both DE and SR.

 

[rbscebu]

FYI, I'm targeting maximum water content yet lowest "volume". Nivea Sensitive is middle of the road, but not particularly bad.

I'm gonna get a lot of hate...but:
TOBS, Truefit and Hill, C&E, Geo F Trumper, MdC, Wickhams, Body Shop, and Arko are below average.

WARS(cream), Palmolive (cream), Gentleman's Tonic(cream), and tabac are on the upper end of my list.

I'm not saying that Nivea is "bad". I am saying that it works better with DE shaving than SR shaving, no matter how you adjust the lather.

 

[lasta]

Hi rbscebu, I didn't mean to come across as confrontational. After all, wetshaving is subjective and everyone has their own preferences.

I'm with the slickness over all else camp (SR and DE), so YMMV.

The low aeration soupy lathers work great for that, but offer almost no cushion. People who like cushion might much prefer the first part of my list (which are generally more voluminous/structured) and find my preferences mediocre.

On the other hand, a good preshave makes all lathers equally slick. So nowadays, I just buy soaps/creams for the scent.

TOBS and Wickhams are too "bubbly" for my liking, but Eton College and Club Cola are my 2 absolute favorite scents, so I still use them regularly.

 

[Shutterbug57]

I have started comparing 4 soaps with 3 razors, a DE, SE & shavette. I am starting to have some thoughts about this topic, but it’s too early to say for sure yet. I will say that some soaps perform noticeably differently depending on razor type.

 

[Frank Shaves]

Because I have been so focused on razors, I have stopped chasing soaps and have been just using and getting great results with Stirling (especially the mutton tallow) and Tabac, and LEA cream.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[camoloc]

Over the past couple of years SR shaving, I have found some shaving soaps that, although working well for DE shaving, just don't work well for SR shaving.

Two of them in particular for me are:

• Nivea Sensitive for Men
• Shave by Sanofi (Australian)

Have you found any others?

I asked this or similar question when I first started.

I find it more of an issue of does the soap still perform well when hydrated whipped up to where we need it.

I believe some soaps are better less hydrated......but won't be as nice for SR shaving.

at some point if hydrated to where I like it........the soap may lose some quality that I initially liked (creamy feel, fatty comfort, scent strength, etc.) I could go on forever about all the differences in soap types I like.

for me I used to really like the soaps with fats in them. if underhydrated, the blade sticks which is not a quality I want.

MDC is tolerant of hydration changes as are the Caswell-Massey soaps i like to use. perfect balance for me. I actually give a slight edge to Caswell-Massey in the slickness dept.

hope some of this makes sense.

camo

 

[Eastcoast30]

I find that I need to pay a lot of attention to how I use the lather. They all seem to lather well. But sometimes, and for a difficult area, I need to apply some lather with my finger, thin it with a bit of water and stretch the skin just so in order to get the razor to ride just right. It's never just apply and shave, although that works well for most areas.

 

[Old Hippie]

Best soap I ever used is the one I make. But at the moment I'm frying other fish so not making soap (and jealously guarding that last lonely puck of O.H. Puck! soap...)

I remember Proraso green was OK for DE/SE shaving but only just OK for me. Colonel Conk was a nonstarter but I'd try it again now.

I'm one of those cheap old buzzards who can get months of good shaves out of a bar of Yardley Almond & Oatmeal Moisturizing Bath soap. Six bucks for a two-pack of bars at the grocery store and that's almost an entire year of soap.

Nice and slick, lathers well, and works for whatever blade I'm using. Takes a little different technique than a dedicated shave soap, but once I got that part I had it locked.

Plus I don't mind the scent, Mrs. Hippie loves the scent, and the dog apparently likes it because she'll lick my head after I've shaved.

O.H.

 

[DaveHStone]

IMHO, great soap/cream will work great with any (type of) razor. The rest comes down to lathering proficiency.

Synthetic brush can be a game-changer in this respect. I used to face lather only, until one day I bought a scuttle.

Now I typically build the lather in the scuttle, then proceed with swirling, mashing and painting that lather on my face.

Hope that helps.

 

[dabrock]

IMHO, great soap/cream will work great with any (type of) razor. The rest comes down to lathering proficiency.

Synthetic brush can be a game-changer in this respect. I used to face lather only, until one day I bought a scuttle.

Now I typically build the lather in the scuttle, then proceed with swirling, mashing and painting that lather on my face.

Hope that helps.

I find that any soap that works for DE shaving will work with SR as long as it can handle some extra water. Anything that has low water tolerance seems to be a non-starter for me.

 

[Tomo]

I’m pretty picky with my soap selection and I’ve weeded out anything that doesn’t give perfect results with both systems.

There are a few differences between DE and SR that effect the way a soap performs.

1. When using a DE you are constantly rinsing the blade and the wet DE brings quite a lot of water back to your face as you shave. This is helpful if a lather starts to dry on you face.

2. A SR tends to remove lather on your face more completely with each stroke. There’s a lot less lather left over for follow up passes than you get with a DE.

3. Too much residual stickiness can me problematic with a SR. You want to have some grip for stretching. Most of the time #2 takes care of this.

 

[Mouette]

Over the past couple of years SR shaving, I have found some shaving soaps that, although working well for DE shaving, just don't work well for SR shaving.

Two of them in particular for me are:

• Nivea Sensitive for Men
• Shave by Sanofi (Australian)

Have you found any others?

I didn't know that Nivea made shaving soap - have never seen it in our local supermarkets

The Sanofi shave cream has been ok for me - I bought a tube from the local IGA for about 3 bucks and it seems to work just as well as a 40 buck cream.

I can, however, highly recommend the Aussie Squadron soaps. They work really well with DE and Straights and have great scents. So far I have bought the Despatch Rider, Empire, Red Lead and Ace. Check out their website - they also make splashes to match their soaps.
cheers
Andrew

 

[rbscebu]

I didn't know that Nivea made shaving soap - have never seen it in our local supermarkets

The Sanofi shave cream has been ok for me - I bought a tube from the local IGA for about 3 bucks and it seems to work just as well as a 40 buck cream.

I can, however, highly recommend the Aussie Squadron soaps. They work really well with DE and Straights and have great scents. So far I have bought the Despatch Rider, Empire, Red Lead and Ace. Check out their website - they also make splashes to match their soaps.
cheers
Andrew

The Nivea that I have is a few years old now, bought in AU. I haven't seen it on the shelves in AU for quite a while.

I agree that the Sanofi works well but I find that it works better with my DE razors than my SR's.

 

[Shutterbug57]

The Nivea that I have is a few years old now, bought in AU. I haven't seen it on the shelves in AU for quite a while.

I agree that the Sanofi works well but I find that it works better with my DE razors than my SR's.

Not trying to be funny here, but define “works better”. The reason I am asking is that in designing my rating system for my 4 soap test, I am not looking so much at the BBS, SAS, etc. standards as the overall experience (ignoring scent). I can get a BBS with different soaps and have my face feel great with one soap and have it feel dry and/or distressed with another. Same razor, same technique and based on notes from multiple shaves. One BBS may rate outstanding while another is simply good. In this case, the outstanding/very good/good/fair/poor rating system I am employing is far more subjective than the BBS, SAS, etc., which is still somewhat subjective.

 

[rbscebu]

Not trying to be funny here, but define “works better”. The reason I am asking is that in designing my rating system for my 4 soap test, I am not looking so much at the BBS, SAS, etc. standards as the overall experience (ignoring scent). I can get a BBS with different soaps and have my face feel great with one soap and have it feel dry and/or distressed with another. Same razor, same technique and based on notes from multiple shaves. One BBS may rate outstanding while another is simply good. In this case, the outstanding/very good/good/fair/poor rating system I am employing is far more subjective than the BBS, SAS, etc., which is still somewhat subjective.

By "works better" for DE shaving, I mean that it provides a more comfortable shave (is that cushion?) while not providing as much "slickness". In SR shaving "cushion" is mostly not required whereas "slickness" is more required. I am not referring to just shave results (BBS, DFS, CCS, etc.), nor am I referring to skin feel after the shave.

It is just that I have found a few shaving soaps that perform well with DE razors and perform not as well with SR's. There are other soaps that perform equally well with both types of shaving. I have yet to find a soap that performs well with SR's and not as well with DE razors, however other may have found this.

 

[Eben Stone]

...Body Shop...below average

Seriously? I can agree with most of the others. But out of the 27 soap brands I've tried, I would put Body Shop as #1 for performance. Obviously, there are a lot of soaps I haven't tried, so maybe I'm missing out.

WARS(cream), Palmolive (cream), Gentleman's Tonic(cream), and tabac are on the upper end of my list

Now I'm curious. I wouldn't mind trying one of these. Is there top dog among these?

 

[PintoPlain]

I guess I must be lucky as with the sole exception of a "shave" soap made by a local soap maker, I have managed to shave with almost all of my soaps. I didn't use the Wilkinson Blue tub, or Arko with a straight. However, Palmolive sticks, body shop shave cream, Grafton Barber, Captain's Choice (cream and soap) and Stirling (Black Ice) seem to work equally well for DE and Straights for me once I got the lather dialled in.