The one who dies with the most wins! Or at least I am trying. I know I have too many myself. In order to find a few exceptional ones you have to buy and weed through them which means you ends up with some not so good ones. I have some good performers where the scent is not that great and then I have some that the scent smells great and don't perform for me all that well so it is hard to find a winner in every one you buy. If I had to live with just one maker it would have to be Saponificio Varesino. I only have had a few scents but every one the performance is top notch for me.
Too Many Soaps?
- Thread starter ChainsawShaver
- Start date
I've given up on ever finishing a soap. I consider them all samples 
I’ve thought this way on and off, but the hobby will inevitably ebb and flow for you. You WILL go into some kind of rut (good or bad) and use the same thing regularly for a while. I’ve 3017’ed a couple of pucks of fine hard soap without much effort because I wasn’t accumulating during 2016 or 2017.I've given up on ever finishing a soap. I consider them all samples
- Thread starter
- #24
anyone have any brands besides proraso that are soft soaps?
I have only 4 soaps in rotation. I have been doing this for 6 years. I use one up. Get another. I am more of a brush collector. I have 12 so far in that category.
Chan Eil Whiskers
Fumbling about.
You have to try harder!
- Thread starter
- #27
interesting which ones do you you have?
There are a number of soft soaps. Captains Choice, Barrister and Mann, Razorock, Cella, Caties Bubbles to name a few. These are considered croaps, a cross between a cream and a soap and have the consistency of your Proraso. I am preferring these over hard soaps because I can scoop out a piece and smear it in the bottom of my lather bowl or scuttle instead of lathering on the soap. I like creams also for the quick lather but bad thing is I use a little more than necessary when using them.
- Thread starter
- #29
thanks you can probably make a little go a long way too!
Sudsy Soapery is a really great softer soap.
Have you tried Blackship Grooming soaps, they tend to be soft, more like a croap IMO. I have enjoyed the ones that I have tried, especially the Captain Joe, which is their take on a coffee soap, it smells sooooooo good!!!
- Thread starter
- #32
i have not tried that one
They are primarily a vegan soap, but performs well, and they have a lot of interesting, good scents with a pirate theme to their product. Give them a look when you get a chance, they may have some interesting choices that you may want to try.
I appreciate the input from you and everyone. Do you have a favorite base for Grooming Dept soaps?
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- #35
arrr arr i one day might have too arrrrrr arrrr!
I have 12 so far with plans on acquiring another 20 before 2019 is done. I really do like buying and trying different soaps. I'm fortunate in that I have bought some good soaps. I think that what keeps the vendors in business is the fact that soap is one thing that a lot of us own more of then most anything else. Most of us don't wait until one soap is used up before ordering another.
I use all of the bases. I have some in each of their formulas and I haven't done any kind of critical comparison of them to one another. Some differences are obvious and others not so much. Basically the Vegan base is the weakest of the bunch and I would still purchase a vegan soap from time to time if the scent seems appealing to me. I have a few of the Vegan soaps on hand but most are a variety of their different tallow based versions. You can tell the maker is making less of the vegan formula but still enough to satisfy those that will only use vegan products.
I don't have an adversity to tallow so if I were to get extremely selective, I'd likely avoid the vegan version and shoot for anything with tallow in it as I do prefer any of their tallow based formulas. I find them to perform a bit better. That being said their vegan versions are better than my second ranked soap (I'm not ranking all of the Grooming Dept formulas individually) so it's not like I'd be suffering if I were to use their vegan version, in fact quite the opposite. I recently used a vegan soap from them from start to finish and it was outstanding. I used it just to use it up and make some space for something new, but I must say that it was excellent and that I looked forward to using it every day.
I'm rather fond of the Incense & Rose soap from them which is in the beef tallow base. I find the scent to be one of my favorites ever from any maker. Right up there with Nuavia Blu from Pannacrema which to me is the best soap scent ever made.
The Mallard versions always give me a great lather that's slightly more luxurious than the Beef Tallow versions. I have Kulfi, Earl Grey Gelato and Chai in the Duck Base. This base seems a little softer to me. Maybe I'm picking up a bit more soap with this one and getting a more luxurious shave from it.
The Donkey Milk ones like Cyphre Conifer I really like as well, again performance is as good as anything that I've found.
If you forced me to say one was better than the other then I like the Mallard formula slightly better then the beef tallow formula. Just slightly more luxurious to me and maybe the best soap formula I've experienced to date. This could be a result of my water, how I lather, or the brush I use as well, or maybe just personal preference. I haven't critically compared the other formulas to one another and really see no reason to do so (unless I were asked to do so by the maker). There's no point to that as they are all exceptional.
I have several from the last batch as well including Tao, Cyphre Vert, Citric, Manderin Bay, Island In The Sun, and Naranja de Sangre and I do enjoy them all. I can't tell you which is which one is what version as they all perform about the same to me. I've only used them once or twice and I've been using Grooming Dept's pre and post shave products which are exceptional and likely skewing the results of every soap I use. My face feels the best it has in my entire life. My favorite from these is likely the Cyphre Vert as the scent is outstanding. They all smell great and all perform exceptionally well. The scents are all complex with plenty going on while still being mellow enough to be enjoyed by all. I can't find one of the new scents that I dislike and that's hard to say when you place a blind order with any soap vendor.
There's a bunch more that are mixtures of several types of tallow as well, so at this point the formulas seem to have morphed a bit and the lines are getting blurry. Can I tell the difference if he used a mixture of beef tallow and lamb tallow instead of all one kind? Not really as my face still feels great from the last shave.
Come away knowing that these are all absolutely exceptional soaps and you can't go wrong in choosing any of them. If you want the very best one just choose any of the tallow based versions in a scent that you think you'd enjoy.
Again, this is just my personal opinion and it's probably worth what you paid for it.
I do appreciate that good honest opinion that's awesome. I think I've got four versions now, I think if someone through the mixed up lather on my face with my nose pinched I'm not sure I could tell the difference in the bases. I'm sure there's differences, and and I do believe honestly I can tell a slight difference in the Lusso, but I wouldn't bet a $10 bill on it haha. I'ld probably lose my lunch money. I ended up from a shaving buddy, with some of the duck fat to ;try. I appreciate the thoughts and information and all, as I'm sure I've got a lot less experienced at this than several, but more than others. Thanks bud for the info.
I like the variety to choose from so get all you want and can.
- Thread starter
- #40
yea lots of selection
