What's new

Tabac, Speick: Yes or No?

Hey all,

First post in years. I have for a very long time (like since I got into wet shaving in the early 2000s) been considering both Tabac shaving soap and Speick shaving soap. I have been offput by the price but I know that many have enjoyed Tabac very much and I personally LOVE the scent of Speick bath soap so I would like to try the shaving soap. Are these, in your experience, worth the price tag?

Thanks for any input!
 

Messygoon

Abandoned By Gypsies.
Welcome back!

A resounding yes, but with one caveat. Tabac quietly reformulated their shave soap last year, replacing tallow. I much prefer the tallow version, which can be had on the BST forum.
 
Tabac is one of the more expensive soaps at purchase here as well, but from all reports it lasts for quite awhile. As has been mentioned they changed their formula but the old formula is around if you look. The Shave Supply in Southern California had some in stock recently.
 
Speick stick is a great soap. It can be found for around $5 or less for the 50g stick, not too expensive since it is a harder soap that will last a long time. If you don't like the stick format, you can just get two sticks and grind them up together into a container. Try to find the older tallow formula if you can, since it is still available in some stores.

1640312520755.png
 

Ron R

I survived a lathey foreman
I use both those hard soaps and I like Speick stick triple milled a little better, you can face lather with it or just cut off some with a pocket knife and into my shave bowl. It will crumble a little but I just press it into bottom of my bowl and just wet my finger to solidify all so the brush does not pick up small bits. The Tabac can be also done this way in the bowl and also face lathered.
Both soaps produce good lather qualities and Speick might out perform a little better but the scent of Speick is a nice mild spicy pleasant scent where Tabac is more a flowery pronounced clean scent. Best bet buy both and test them, Tabac you can buy just a puck refill and Speick just the stick. Speick also makes a cream also and I have never tried that one and maybe some will chime in on it.
Both soaps are going more to the vegan base because of of European rules or customer demands ?, the old tallow base soaps seem to be fazed out just recently in a lot of European union countries.
 
I wholeheartedly recommend both soaps, look out to get these soaps in their "old" tallow formula (if you are not looking for a tallow free soap in particular). Be quick and place an order as long as these soaps last, they'll likely dissapear soon from the shelfes on your side of the pond, too.
 
Both last relative long due to the hard soap and this actually makes them very affordable punching way above the price per shave performance point.

Now if you want dirt cheap there is not much what arko beats per shave and I can recommend vergulde hand extra fris in the same price bracket.

And in softer soaps the 1kg cella or Vitos bricks (which you need to cut up and store in the fridge).

Scent/performance wise I would take speick.
 
Hey all,

First post in years. I have for a very long time (like since I got into wet shaving in the early 2000s) been considering both Tabac shaving soap and Speick shaving soap. I have been offput by the price but I know that many have enjoyed Tabac very much and I personally LOVE the scent of Speick bath soap so I would like to try the shaving soap. Are these, in your experience, worth the price tag?

Thanks for any input!
It’s your money, you’re the only one who can decide if they’re a good value for you or not.
 
A resounding "yes" to both excellent soaps. They are both great value for the money. They will last quite a long time in hard soap form, and give very good performance.
 
Whoah, I think that's a resounding 'Yes' from everyone. I am going to treat myself and pull the trigger on both. Thanks for all the feedback.

I have found all three varieties of Proraso at Marshalls over the past year or so in both soap and cream for half the price available anywhere online and I have been thoroughly enjoying them. I am a cheapo when it comes to shaving, especially since I have a family of five to provide for. I think I am going to go for the soaps of Speick and Tabac as I am not really into creams anymore.

Someone mentioned Arko and I used to have a dozen of them. It performed very well. Someone else mentioned Cella, which I also tried years ago. It smelled amazing.... until I lathered it up, at which point I got the play-dough smell others have mentioned.

Thanks for your opinions, everyone!
 
Top Bottom