Lot's of great info. I use both, at the same time. Load soap (usually MWF) then squeeze a little Proraso cream in the end of my brush. Face lather and shave, fast and a great protecting, slick lather every time. I've used both and many other soaps/creams separately, either way a good lather, combined a great lather.
Shaving cream vs shaving soap
- Thread starter Walleyeb
- Start date
I am in PHX so basically liquid rock coming out the tap
makes some near impossible to get a good shave with for me
while I can do bottled water and other things I just want to turn on and use what I have
but again found stuff that works and that was the goal for me to not make it to complicated wetting my face and brush and trying to heat it and so on with bottled water would be such a hassle
need to get a whole house softener one day
Creams are easier to lather in my experience. But both are capable of providing slickness and protection for a shave. Generally speaking, soaps will last longer...some folks may disagree. Depends on how much you load the brush with of course. Soaps are more plentiful as far as choices for the consumer.
- Thread starter
- #44
I 2nd that it’s really easy to make nice lather with and get a smooth shave.
Chandu
I Waxed The Badger.
For me one is not better than the other as far as obtaining a workable lather. I either swirl my brush around on the puck and palm lather or put a bit of cream on the brush and palm lather. In both cases I add water as needed. I don't like bowls or scuttles or the like as I don't like doing dishes after shaving.
If creams are easier for people new to shaving it's only because they don't load enough soap to begin with IMO.
On the whole, I think that I prefer more products that only come in hard soap vs products that come in both forms. MDC, Tabac, MWF and so on.
If I could only have one format, it would be hard soap, hands down. They seem to have better slickness. The creams seem to be born more for convenience and ease of obtaining an easy lather vs the best lather one can get.
If creams are easier for people new to shaving it's only because they don't load enough soap to begin with IMO.
On the whole, I think that I prefer more products that only come in hard soap vs products that come in both forms. MDC, Tabac, MWF and so on.
If I could only have one format, it would be hard soap, hands down. They seem to have better slickness. The creams seem to be born more for convenience and ease of obtaining an easy lather vs the best lather one can get.
Soaps for show.
Creams for dough.
Creams for dough.
Chandu
I Waxed The Badger.
I'm not sure I get your meaning.
Generally creams give better moisturization of skin -especially post shave
Personal preference...both can get the job done.
Soaps are challenging, more prestigious in people's eyes, have history, everyone and their brother makes them. Soaps are discussed 3 to 1 over creams, the numbers are there, it's a fact.
Creams are less flashy, less talked about, less glamourous, little to no artisans make them so they aren't discussed as much.
You have to conquer many soaps and triumph over them to break them into lather. Many users need a step by step by tutorial or have methods of grating them into a certain size, testing them and than standing on one foot, swirling 45.8 seconds clockwise and then 82.3 seconds counter clockwise, before it will work. After you figure a soap out, you jump on B&B, start a thread and share your excitement and everyone rejoices with you.
Creams, you just scoop or squirt them out and they generally work, on instructions needed. You shave and go about your business.
My opinion, YMMV and all that jazz. That's just been my experience oher the years.
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I laugh with the “soaps are for show…”.
I feel the majority, if not all, who come to B&B originally come for help with a chore. The visits turn into into enjoyment, and possibly a hobby. For some part of the enjoyment is the rituals involved, and the skills.
To each their own.
I feel the majority, if not all, who come to B&B originally come for help with a chore. The visits turn into into enjoyment, and possibly a hobby. For some part of the enjoyment is the rituals involved, and the skills.
To each their own.
I wonder how many would have ended up here with lather issues if they had purchased a cream by KMF, Proraso, AoS or TOBS.
The ones who stick around after they get their initial problems figured out, are definitely in it for the hobby aspect and comradery. Be it shaving hardware/software or the other finer things discussed in the culinary sections, haberdashery, writing instruments or a combination of all of them (me).
As for the OP's original question. Creams are better to start with.
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Chandu
I Waxed The Badger.
Ahh, I see what you are saying.
An interesting wrinkle is that what many Artisans call soap these days are a moderately dry cream.
There is some of that with MWF, and Williams.
But ANYONE can afford and lather ARKO first try with their eyes closed. Tabac and MDC are nearly impossible not to get a good lather with as well and Tabac is surely affordable enough as well. I would say Tabac is cheaper per use than any cream out there, actually MDC probably is as well, but I can understand someone not wanting to shell out for that.
- Thread starter
- #54
How so, could you explain why you think that?
Chandu
I Waxed The Badger.
Many call them croaps. A cross between soap and cream.
I say that because they are soft and nothing like a properly dried soap from Tabac, Williams, MDC, MWF, La Toja, Pre de Provence, etc. MDC once made sits and dries for six months before being sold.
Most artisans make it this week and sell it the next. They don't have the space, the time or the inclination to sit on inventory to make a proper hard soap when they don't have to. And they don't have to. People jump at the chance to spend $25 dollars for an amount of soap that if dry would be much less than what they receive in it's wet state. And that is fine, it's an arms length agreement.
I started out with creams and bowl lathering but have since ‘progressed’ to soaps and face lathering. Because it takes longer to build lather on the face with a soap than a cream, there’s more time to condition the skin in preparation for the shave.
- Thread starter
- #57
So it’s primarily the drying and aging process that sets them apart in your opinion.
Chandu
I Waxed The Badger.
I think it's more complicated than them from a chemistry standpoint. Many artisan offerings are superfatted these days and have what I would term excess oils, oils that are not fully saponified in the soap making process. Those free oils and moisture is one of the reasons we sometimes see photos of artisan soaps that look like a petri dish with several colonies of bacteria in full swing.
The drier soaps I am calling soaps would not support bacterial growth. Any hard soap will last years if not decades in storage. You can still buy vintage Colgate, Williams etc on ebay. Few artisans soaps could hope to last more than about 5 years, even if you scoop some out with a spoon and don't touch them with a brush. You can rub Arko on your face, put the stick away for 10 years and it will look exactly the same as it did when you put it away.
In the old days people used soaps and then used an AS or a balm. Many of today's artisan soaps are a soap plus a balm due to the excess oils they contain. That's fine. Many seem to have dry skin. I have oily skin so I generally steer clear of artisan offerings. For me they are a poor value.
Don't get me wrong on soaps vs creams. I do like many creams as well. I use in no particular order. LEA, D'Amaris, St James of London. I have one croap which is Number 6 from Caswell Massey. I love many of the scents from Caswell Massey. Strong but tasteful. Not the Axe like scent of some other POPULAR $15 dollar soap with about 40 scents, I won't name. The scent is also why I own the St. James of London. Otherwise I much prefer the muted scent of something like MDC, LEA, D'Amaris, MWF.
- Thread starter
- #59
Thanks for the info, right now I’m using mostly creams (TOBS-Sadalwood, Proraso-green, and Palmolive). Just branching out into the world of soaps, had a friend sent me a couple samples from Phoenix, not to really enough to evaluate. I did pick up another soap it was pretty hard so I just put a tablespoon of warm water on top of it in the glass container it came in for a few minutes while my brush was soaking. Poured the water off except for a wee bit. Then shook out almost all of the water from my brush and started lathering in the container. When it started to form a decent lather I scooped it up on my brush and transferred it to my bowl and worked it adding a tad bit of water as needed, produced a generous amount of good lather. Shaved with it a few times and so far I really like. I do intend to try some of the old tried and true soaps soon.
Chandu
I Waxed The Badger.
That's a nice list of creams. I've used the Proraso and Palmolive.
