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Shave Stick Off

8. Derby- The final shave stick in my review. This stick has a light soap smell. It came wrapped in foil with no plastic base. I paid $7.78 on Amazon which seems expensive but it’s available elsewhere cheaper. I had a little bit of a hard time getting a good lather (had to apply twice).

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My top top 3 sticks that I will continue to use would be...

Wilkinson

Tabac

Palmolive

This is based on performance and scent (to me)

Honorable mention...

Razorock blue

Love the scent but wish it came with with a plastic base

All the other sticks performed fine, I just did not prefer the scent.
 
Thanks for the reviews

I enjoyed reading them and looked forward to the next.

So far the only shave sticks I've used have been Arko and Derby.

Have Palmolive and Speick ready to go into my rotation. Just need to finish one off, before I break them out.
 
...Honorable mention...

Razorock blue

Love the scent but wish it came with with a plastic base...

Italian Barber recently had a sale on a four-pack of the hard soap pucks: Blue Label, Gold Label, Green Label and Black Label for $8.88. If you converted those pucks into sticks, you would have eight 50gm sticks at $1.11 each. That would be phenomenal value -- less than Arko, I think.

 

Luc

"To Wiki or Not To Wiki, That's The Question".
Staff member
Excellent! A proper container is always better. Since most “stand-alone” shave sticks are roughly the same diameter, I often reuse the Wilkinson sword holder.
 
My top top 3 sticks that I will continue to use would be...

Wilkinson

Tabac

Palmolive

This is based on performance and scent (to me)

Honorable mention...

Razorock blue

Love the scent but wish it came with with a plastic base

All the other sticks performed fine, I just did not prefer the scent.

Thanks for the reviews!! :a29:

For me, the bottom line is that most of these these sticks perform!! Scent and packaging may determine the the precise raking. But it is great to have excellent options!!
 
Thanks for the reviews!! :a29:

For me, the bottom line is that most of these these sticks perform!! Scent and packaging may determine the the precise raking. But it is great to have excellent options!!

Glad I could help
 
I've really become a shave stick fan here myself lately. It just makes my workday shaves that little bit less work, with all the same benefits of a regular bowl lathering.

I make my own stick now though. It's really easy to do, and you get to put all the best ingredients into the mix.

OP - when you are done testing all your sticks, PM me and I'll send you some of my sticks to try out.
 
I count myself as a shave stick fan. That said, I have only two: Palmolive and La Toja. Both are great performers. The scents of both are nothing special, just generic "soapy," but I find neither in any way offensive. I'll grab one or the other when I need to save a bit of time, or just when I want explosive, slick lather.

I do have a puck of Tabac, which I also love, and I'm certain that the Tabac stick would be right up there with the best. I'm one of "those people" who like the smell of Tabac in the morning.
 
8. Derby- The final shave stick in my review. This stick has a light soap smell. It came wrapped in foil with no plastic base. I paid $7.78 on Amazon which seems expensive but it’s available elsewhere cheaper. I had a little bit of a hard time getting a good lather (had to apply twice).

View attachment 1044303
Love this stuff. Takes a bit more water than the Arko stick, for example, but I get very nice shaves from it. I like the scent a lot but my guess is it's one of those polarizing ones.
 
I have only used the Arko stick, yesterday and today. I was surprised how quickly it lathered up, used a Boar brush yesterday and a Badger today. I probably won't use it again as it has left my face with some irritation, and I used two different razors and blades as well.
Thanks for the reviews, will have to try some different ones.
 

FarmerTan

"Self appointed king of Arkoland"
I have only used the Arko stick, yesterday and today. I was surprised how quickly it lathered up, used a Boar brush yesterday and a Badger today. I probably won't use it again as it has left my face with some irritation, and I used two different razors and blades as well.
Thanks for the reviews, will have to try some different ones.
Arko is awesome. My favorite.
 
I'm new to proper DE shaving and this quality thread helped me decide that I definitely need to try a few shaving sticks as well.

My first high value order of razor/ soaps are on the way and depending upon the customs charges, I'll slowly add a few sticks to my rotation.

I'm definitely going to be getting :
1) La Toja
2) Speick
3) Palmolive

These, along with the soaps that are on the way will be enough to last an year of shaving rotation.
 
i got Tabac few days ago, its great stuff, lathers very fast, and softens beard. But i see it does dry out a little bit my skin. My question is, does Tabac dry someone else skin? changed for some other stick that does not dry?
 
Tabac speick arko all work great.

But you can buy an empty shave/deo stick screw container in several sizes and shapes (oval, round).

Just take your favorite croap and load it up. You can even make layers of different soaps.

Or grate, mix, heat carefully and fill a Franken stick from your leftover samples. Gives some interesting smells and usually great performing soaps.

And for the gram counters on holiday. 1g a shave so a small stick will do fine.

Some other euro brands
Muhle
Vergulde hand
 
i got Tabac few days ago, its great stuff, lathers very fast, and softens beard. But i see it does dry out a little bit my skin. My question is, does Tabac dry someone else skin? changed for some other stick that does not dry?
It dries because soap strips some of the oils from the skin. This is normal, not a problem, just add moisture with an aftershave lotion or balm. Some soaps are super-fatted, meaning they have extra fats or oils added which don't get saponified. That can replace part of the oil that was stripped off by the soap. Currently, on this board, super-fatted soaps are in fashion, but they are not necessary and can be too much for people who have oily skin or complexion problems.
 

FarmerTan

"Self appointed king of Arkoland"
Has anyone tried the sticks made by Phoenix Shaving? How are they?
No, but I've been tempted. I need another shaving stick like I need another ear.

My wife is ALWAYS tellin' me I don't use the other two!
 
Has anyone tried the sticks made by Phoenix Shaving? How are they?
I have Diver Down both in puck and stick and both in CK-6 base. Both work well but I have only used the stick once. It is a soft soap and I applied too much to my face. The lather was a lot thicker than I prefer. Razor clogging thick. Next time I will apply less of the soap to my face. It came in a nice plastic container with a knob at the bottom to advance the soap. I will reuse the container. PAA also sells empty soap stick containers for less than $2 that should be handy when you have a soap puck that looks like a donut and you want to get more life from it.
 
So a good question is, why aren’t shave sticks more popular, especially in the US? I’m new to them. They are great—you lather up on your face and therefore exfoliate your skin well. They lather really well, actually. They are not messy. They are inexpensive (well, getting them in the US can be a little more expensive, since there aren’t any drug store options here — there was a whole forum on that that unfortunately got shut down as people started talking about unrelated and less than flattering things).
 
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