Soap reaction questions

[JonJeffman]

Hello Gents,
I understand that more than anything else, bad reactions to products are very much a YMMV thing, but hopefully you can guide me in the right direction and avoid some stupid mistakes.

I bought a small jar of P160 to go along with my new RazoRock R160 aftershave balm. Tried out the soap 2 days ago, without any ASB (I like to introduce new products one at a time so I can fairly evaluate them) and had such an amazing shave I was considering buying the 1 kg brick of it before it disappears. I had no reaction and it made my skin feel great. Well after looking forward to today's shave with the P160, I had the worst reaction I've ever had to a product. My face was beet red everywhere I had lather, and took over an hour just to get to a "sunburnt" shade of red as opposed to the "what is wrong with your face!!!" shade of red. The only difference between the two times was the first I bowl lathered - so maybe a little more airy, meringue type lather; and today I tried the Marco method so it was a little creamier, more yogurty lather. Potentially this creamier lather exposed me to more soap hence the reaction?

So my questions are:

1) Can you ever 'fight' through it, if it's a product you love, till your skin gets used to it? Or will the reaction/sensitivity/allergy only get worse with repeated exposure? I'm tossing around the idea of trying it again with bowl lathering, but maybe just need to cut my losses?

2) Is it typically the fragrance that causes the reaction? I love the smell of the P160, but does this also mean I should likely avoid all the italian almond scents, i.e. my new RR R160 balm, Cella, Vitos, etc..., or is the reaction to fragrances so unique that I'm just as likely to react to a lavender soap as I would another almond soap?

3) Does anyone produce a truly unscented/uncoloured soap? Not just a mildly scented soap? I saw for example how GFT claims the rose cream is for sensitive skin, but just looking at the pics you can tell there's a lot of colouring and likely a decent amount of fragrance.

Thanks for the advice.

 

[7 O Menthol]

These are some great questions! I'm looking forward to seeing some of your responses as well.
As far a unscented soaps go, I've heard high praise for the unscented iterations of AOS, Mike's Natural Soaps, and Mystic Water. If you're interested in Mystic Water, Michelle even offers directions on how to add some scent to her unscented soap should you desire one and know of a safe fragrance your skin can handle.
Good luck!

 

[Ruston]

I had a similar experience with RazoRock XXX. Unfortunately for me, each reaction was worse than the last. By the time I figured out it was the XXX it took several days for the redness to go away.

I've seen others recommend making a little lather and putting it on the inside of your forearm to see if it causes the same reaction.

 

[Price]

First of all, if you face lathered the second time and bowl lathered the first, I believe your problem might be your brush. Not the brush itself, but face lathering tends to include a more vigorous, exfoliating scrubbing on the face - which in turn exposes fresh and tender skin to a soap which might contain an ingredient that irritates your skin. The key to determining that is repeatability: if you keep getting little or no irritation when you bowl lather, you've solved the riddle.

1) Can you ever 'fight' through it, if it's a product you love, till your skin gets used to it? Or will the reaction/sensitivity/allergy only get worse with repeated exposure? I'm tossing around the idea of trying it again with bowl lathering, but maybe just need to cut my losses?
If a product irritates your skin, it's not going to get better. If bowl lathering works, that's great, but I'd expect further face lathering efforts to have similar results.

2) Is it typically the fragrance that causes the reaction? I love the smell of the P160, but does this also mean I should likely avoid all the italian almond scents, i.e. my new RR R160 balm, Cella, Vitos, etc..., or is the reaction to fragrances so unique that I'm just as likely to react to a lavender soap as I would another almond soap?
Hard to say. Unfortunately it's kind of a "you gotta try it" thing. Fragrances are frequently the culprit, though that doesn't mean that two different Italian Almond products are going to have similar properites.

3) Does anyone produce a truly unscented/uncoloured soap? Not just a mildly scented soap? I saw for example how GFT claims the rose cream is for sensitive skin, but just looking at the pics you can tell there's a lot of colouring and likely a decent amount of fragrance.

I've never sought out an unscented product myself - scent is part of the reason I got into this in the first place - but I have heard good things about AOS unscented and KMF. Both are said to be virtually scentless and good for sensitive skin.

 

[Blondie]

I have the same problems with the almond scented soaps. Not as severe as yours sounds, but makes for a bad shave none the less. It has not gotten better.

 

[petr]

1. No. Don't use it. I had the same exact reaction to P160. It freaked me out.

Luckily, it was one of the very few products that gave me that reaction, so just give up on P160 and move forward. Don't give up everything else.

 

[JonJeffman]

I've seen others recommend making a little lather and putting it on the inside of your forearm to see if it causes the same reaction.

First of all, if you face lathered the second time and bowl lathered the first, I believe your problem might be your brush. Not the brush itself, but face lathering tends to include a more vigorous, exfoliating scrubbing on the face - which in turn exposes fresh and tender skin to a soap which might contain an ingredient that irritates your skin. The key to determining that is repeatability: if you keep getting little or no irritation when you bowl lather, you've solved the riddle.

Sounds like a good plan - I'll give this a shot, if it fails, then I have to cut my losses, if this passes maybe I'll try the bowl lather again

I've never sought out an unscented product myself - scent is part of the reason I got into this in the first place - but I have heard good things about AOS unscented and KMF. Both are said to be virtually scentless and good for sensitive skin.

I am actually quite fine with just a 'soapy' smell, heck I used Williams for about a decade before I found this forum and the fact that there are endless options outside of the local pharmacy, but now that I've smelled some of these amazing products; Arlington, Don Marco, RR Fresco, P160, it'll be hard to go back to plain ol' soap.

Luckily, it was one of the very few products that gave me that reaction, so just give up on P160 and move forward. Don't give up everything else.

For sure, I won't give up on everything else yet, but I'm a little concerned cause once the severe redness faded, it reminded me of my first reaction to DR Harris Arlington - just a touch of redness around the cheeks but white on my upper lip. I never had any discomfort from the Arlington, so hopefully that reaction doesn't get any worse. I think I only used it 5 times or so before my box from Italian Barber came in and I got distracted with the new soaps. I'll have to go back to it and pay close attention to any redness. Hopefully I don't need to cut the Arlington out as well.

 

[celestino]

These are some great questions! I'm looking forward to seeing some of your responses as well.
As far a unscented soaps go, I've heard high praise for the unscented iterations of AOS, Mike's Natural Soaps, and Mystic Water. If you're interested in Mystic Water, Michelle even offers directions on how to add some scent to her unscented soap should you desire one and know of a safe fragrance your skin can handle.
Good luck!

+1 with Mystic Water and Mike's soaps.
i would stop using the soap if it is causing irritation as it will not improve and you WANT to enjoy the shave, right?