WARNING: Sebum Lather Photos Ahead!

[pdillon]

Thank you for posting your process. It is helpful to have such a detailed recipe.

I tried this method twice today, once for my shave and once for a subsequent test lather. Both yielded good results, but seemed different and inferior to yours. For my shave, I scooped a good amount of Stirling Ozark Mountain into my Timeless bowl, shook out my badger brush and added 7 ml of water--1 ml at a time. After the first addition of water the lather exploded, where in your guide the lather remains pastey for most of the time.

I decided to try again with a brand new puck of WK King of Oud.The result was similar. Lather exploded very quickly.

My shave was good but I am going to have to keep trying to get results similar to yours.

What do you do with triple-milled soap? Do yoy scoop those as well?

 

[Nofx_Phan]

Looks yummy!

 

[Matt O]

Thank you for posting your process. It is helpful to have such a detailed recipe.

I tried this method twice today, once for my shave and once for a subsequent test lather. Both yielded good results, but seemed different and inferior to yours. For my shave, I scooped a good amount of Stirling Ozark Mountain into my Timeless bowl, shook out my badger brush and added 7 ml of water--1 ml at a time. After the first addition of water the lather exploded, where in your guide the lather remains pastey for most of the time.

I decided to try again with a brand new puck of WK King of Oud.The result was similar. Lather exploded very quickly.

My shave was good but I am going to have to keep trying to get results similar to yours.

What do you do with triple-milled soap? Do yoy scoop those as well?

I have gotten similar results to the Sebum from WK and Stirling...I have ridiculously hard water, so I do use distilled water. I am not sure how much of a difference it makes.

The water authority was cleaning pipes or doing something a few years back and the water smelled chlorinated, that was when I switched to the distilled, and I never looked back.

When I use a hard soap like an MDC or an Old Spice, I load the brush on the puck, and build the lather on my face.

I actually used Old Spice yesterday, and below is what I came up with...I was very very pleased!

Vr

Matt

 

[Nofx_Phan]

I have gotten similar results to the Sebum from WK and Stirling...I have ridiculously hard water, so I do use distilled water. I am not sure how much of a difference it makes.

The water authority was cleaning pipes or doing something a few years back and the water smelled chlorinated, that was when I switched to the distilled, and I never looked back.

When I use a hard soap like an MDC or an Old Spice, I load the brush on the puck, and build the lather on my face.

I actually used Old Spice yesterday, and below is what I came up with...I was very very pleased!

Vr

Matt

View attachment 1204702

HEAVENLY!

 

[Contact_vs_Feedback]

@Matt O

I feel like I'm going diabetic just by looking at the lather photos, they are so...... Sweet and Rich!

You sir have a gift for making extraordinary lather and I'll get back to my lathering process again as I see there are MILES to cover.

Ps: I remember your tips and look at the message whenever I seem to be stuck with the quality improvement.

 

[Matt O]

@Matt O

I'm feel I'm going diabetic just by looking at the lather photos, they are so...... Sweet and Rich!

You sir have a gift for making extraordinary lather and I'll get back to my lathering process again as I see there are MILES to cover.

Ps: I remember your tips and look at the message whenever I seem to be stuck with the quality improvement.

Thanks! I just have fun with it, and enjoy the zen of each part of the shaving process. I am glad that the posts help!

Vr

Matt

 

[Matt O]

BTW…I had forgotten how amazing the Old Spice shave soap is…I think I will use that next!

Vr

Matt

 

[Matt O]

I haven’t used Sebum in a very very long time! I need to use it more…amazing soap! This was the Lime Soap lathers from today’s efforts! Very agreeable shave!

 

[rally]

@Matt O Your lathers are making me feel seriously inadequate...

Jokes aside, how much is that soap for the 7 ounce tub (jar?), and relative to other soaps do you have to load the Sebum heavier or lighter? This soap could be an aspirational goal for me in a few years depending on the other variables.

 

[Matt O]

@Matt O Your lathers are making me feel seriously inadequate...

Jokes aside, how much is that soap for the 7 ounce tub (jar?), and relative to other soaps do you have to load the Sebum heavier or lighter? This soap could be an aspirational goal for me in a few years depending on the other variables.

Hello! On the first page of this thread, I show how much I typically scoop when bowl lathering. It’s about the same as I use with every soap, and I try to use all the soap pressed into the bottom in a single use. I feel like that gives me the richest and most high performing lathers possible. I paint the lather I build on my face, and I almost always add water during that process as well.

The price of Sebum soaps vary by seven ounce jar depending on the EOs and mixtures that Rick uses. He also changed his business/pricing model, but does from time to time do specials and sales. I don’t remember what it cost me, but I always bought on the sales, or bought from/traded with friends.

Are these soaps worth the price?

That is up to whomever is considering the investment…in my opinion they are the nicest, highest performing and highest quality soaps, with the best post shave feel on the market. However, sebum soaps are a luxury item…you can get other soaps at a way lower price point that offer performance that is almost on the same level. These less expensive soaps probably will have more ingredients that you can’t pronounce, won’t use Essential Oils for the fragrance, and they won’t have the neat packaging. It boils down to what’s important to you, and how you like to spend your hard earned money.

I hope that helps!

Vr

Matt

 

[Matt O]

This soap is about four years old I think…and it’s still great! haven’t used sebum in over three years, so I am a little out of practice! Shave turned out to be top tier!

 

[FarmerTan]

This soap is about four years old I think…and it’s still great! haven’t used sebum in over three years, so I am a little out of practice! Shave turned out to be top tier!


View attachment 1794822View attachment 1794823View attachment 1794824

Nothing wrong with that soap!

 

[Matt O]

Nothing wrong with that soap!

No Sir…nothing at all! I am glad it still works well after sitting unused for so long!

 

[Lane101]

Hi @Matt O , Really like your lathering technique. Thank you for posting. Appreciate your acknowledgement that you can generate similar lather with other shaving soaps. Plan to try it with some of my shaving soaps instead of my normal face lathering.

Regarding the Sebum Shaving Soap it looks like you are loading at least the equivalent of a teaspoons worth per your picture, likely 3-5x of the gram or so of soap most of us use. To fairly evaluate the soap against other brands one would need to lather them with a similar technique.

Since the Sebum soap comes in a 7 oz. jar that gives us roughly 200 grams or around 50 shaves at 4 grams per shave. At the $145 now being charged for this soap, versus $75 for spares back in 2022, that comes to just under $3 per shave.

That's a low cost if a spare is available. If not one has to purchase a shaving set with serum for $415 or roughly $8 per shave. Perhaps if one is able to stretch the serum across two soaps then the $560 cost will cover 100 shaves for $5.65 each. Of course with a $700+ Deluxe Custom Package one could be up to $14 per shave! Note that the current Sebum business model does not allow purchase of a soap without a serum unless the soap is a spare.

In reality there are quality shaving soaps available for the cost of 1-2 shaves with this product. Your conclusion above that you would not purchase this soap again given the cost makes sense. Glad that you found some more economical ways to acquire your Sebum and have enjoyed using it.

I posted on this roughly a year and a half ago noting that a video used to promote this product was not very impressive. Especially when compared to the same YouTube shaver using the same technique with other soaps (his Arko shaved looked better). Massive weeper during the Sebum shave. Link to the thread is below though the videos are no longer available.

While I respect YMMV I can understand why one might like the customizable high end packaging and scents I struggle to understand justification for the product's pricing.

$2 versus $700 Shaving Soap Videos, Which would you Prefer?

The Sebum Gold web site features a promotional video from Shave 326 who does a lot of YouTube videos demonstrating various wet shaving tools and products. Found it surprising that a vendor would use a video to tout its custom process that includes what appears to be a less than ideal shave with...

www.badgerandblade.com

 

[Matt O]

Hi @Matt O , Really like your lathering technique. Thank you for posting. Appreciate your acknowledgement that you can generate similar lather with other shaving soaps. Plan to try it with some of my shaving soaps instead of my normal face lathering.

Regarding the Sebum Shaving Soap it looks like you are loading at least the equivalent of a teaspoons worth per your picture, likely 3-5x of the gram or so of soap most of us use. To fairly evaluate the soap against other brands one would need to lather them with a similar technique.

Since the Sebum soap comes in a 7 oz. jar that gives us roughly 200 grams or around 50 shaves at 4 grams per shave. At the $145 now being charged for this soap, versus $75 for spares back in 2022, that comes to just under $3 per shave.

That's a low cost if a spare is available. If not one has to purchase a shaving set with serum for $415 or roughly $8 per shave. Perhaps if one is able to stretch the serum across two soaps then the $560 cost will cover 100 shaves for $5.65 each. Of course with a $700+ Deluxe Custom Package one could be up to $14 per shave! Note that the current Sebum business model does not allow purchase of a soap without a serum unless the soap is a spare.

In reality there are quality shaving soaps available for the cost of 1-2 shaves with this product. Your conclusion above that you would not purchase this soap again given the cost makes sense. Glad that you found some more economical ways to acquire your Sebum and have enjoyed using it.

I posted on this roughly a year and a half ago noting that a video used to promote this product was not very impressive. Especially when compared to the same YouTube shaver using the same technique with other soaps (his Arko shaved looked better). Massive weeper during the Sebum shave. Link to the thread is below though the videos are no longer available.

While I respect YMMV I can understand why one might like the customizable high end packaging and scents I struggle to understand justification for the product's pricing.

$2 versus $700 Shaving Soap Videos, Which would you Prefer?

The Sebum Gold web site features a promotional video from Shave 326 who does a lot of YouTube videos demonstrating various wet shaving tools and products. Found it surprising that a vendor would use a video to tout its custom process that includes what appears to be a less than ideal shave with...

www.badgerandblade.com

Don’t struggle with trying to understand the product’s pricing…the question and answer is meaningless in your everyday life (mine as well)!

There are people that will pay the price the vendor sets…and that is all the justification he needs to request what he does for his products.

 

[Steve56]

When you read soap threads you will quickly discover that price is not the only criterion that people use to make purchasing decisions. To each his own, there’s no right or wrong.

Personally, I avoid most artisan soaps these days because of mostly 3 qualities, scent, scent strength, and yes, value. Artisan soaps IMO, in general have scents of lower quality (mainstream manufacturers can afford a perfumer), too much scent, although they are catering to the ‘dead nose’ crowd (Tabac is a mainstream soap in this category, nice scent, just 10x too much), and poor value - many are selling water at soap prices.

I would choose Acqua di Parma v3, Santa Maria Novella v3, ABC cream, 3P over any artisan that I’ve tried, and with the exception orf the ABC cream, all are better values than you might expect. I order 2x AdP at a time from an overseas vendor and I can get a 2 pass shave using a 24mm or smaller brush with 1/3 gram. That makes a 125g tub last about a year for about $50. Like high end fragrances, these more expensive soaps tend to be very concentrated.

Part of the issue with trying to discuss the pricing topic is ‘price’ vs ‘value’. Price is what you pay for a container of soap, value is price per shave, or price per year of shaving. There are people who set a limit on what they would pay for a soap even though a more expensive soap may be cheaper to use.

Artisan options that satisfy my criteria are few, but Stirling (the lower scent strength and lower menthol option) and Martin de Candre are always good choices.

And if I were in the EU zone, a brick of 3P at about 15€ is simply unbeatable for value and performance, artisan or mainstream.