Stirling
CBL
Razorock
CBL
Razorock
What are you recommended first 3 artisanal soaps for a newbie?
- Thread starter Chizzer
- Start date
Welcome to B&B! You may want to consider a range of 2-3 shaving soap types in addition to SV to provide a better sense of what will work best for you. Some category options to choose from based on my experience and research:
- As noted above a classic English hard soap should be part of the mix. I enjoy my D.R. Harris Windsor and Cyril R. Salter (same base as D.R. Harris at half the price) soaps within this category. Both of these are tallow based. If you can find a puck of the now discontinued Mitchell's Wool Fat tallow formula it would be a great option. Currently my favorite soap.
- Another category is that of classic "old school" basic soaps. With all the discontinuations recently Arko, that works well for me, would be your best bet that is still tallow based. Two years ago I would have added Williams shaving soap to this mix but it is now discontinued and not worth the $20-$40 per puck we've seen it priced at.
- Next there are the Italian soft soaps or croaps. I've tried both Prorasso Red and the TFS Red Bowl. Of course there is the classic Cella that many B&Bers like. Italian Barber has a wide range of reasonably priced softer Italian soaps, I've a new tub of their P160 (includes some tallow in the base) in que once I 3017 on of my other soaps.
- Stirling offers a wide range of artisan (defined as small batch process production) shaving soaps that are well regarded my many.
- Finally there are some vegan hard shaving soaps that have worked well for me. I've found the new vegan formula Tabac to be excellent and on the budget side there are the Razorock What-the-Puck french milled soaps that are also very good.
P.S. Rayclem, who used to post regularly here, had the deepest expertise on artisan soaps owning over 200 of them. You may want to look at some of his posts. Note that he tended to prefer easy to load (10-15 seconds) softer soaps versus harder soaps that required 30 seconds plus to load so you should use his ratings in light of your own personal preferences. He shared his full evaluation criteria on some of his posts.
Be careful with the “artisanal” moniker, as it is not clearly defined and covers a wide range of meanings.
A lot of what goes as “artisanal“ nowadays is just another expression for made as a hobby, made by amateurs, not sufficiently tested (against skin reactions), made in someone’s basement or garage, or sold in a farmers’ market.
Mind you, I consider products from Razorock, Stirling, Fendrihan, Martin de Candre, Haslinger etc. not “artisanal”, but professionally done by respectable companies who have been doing this for a long time and who have established a solid track record, where a sizeable number of reviews is available.
If you are new to traditional wet shaving, I suggest you also include the likes of D.R. Harris, Mitchell’s Wool Fat, Taylors of Old Bond Street, etc. They may not be “artisanal” in the strict sense, but are companies whose products are not household names found in many drugstores.
Using above mentioned manufacturers, some smaller than others, will make it easier to establish a benchmark of what is a good shaving soap or cream.
As a rule of thumb, you might want to check reviews, discard the most flattering and most damning 10%, and get a feel for what the majority of shavers who have reviewed the product could agree on.
That will put you in a safe, enjoyable place where you will find few disappointments.
Later, when you have established a solid feel for what is good and what isn’t, might be the time to try “artisanal” products, but be prepared to find most of them rather disappointing.
Hope this helps,
B.
A lot of what goes as “artisanal“ nowadays is just another expression for made as a hobby, made by amateurs, not sufficiently tested (against skin reactions), made in someone’s basement or garage, or sold in a farmers’ market.
Mind you, I consider products from Razorock, Stirling, Fendrihan, Martin de Candre, Haslinger etc. not “artisanal”, but professionally done by respectable companies who have been doing this for a long time and who have established a solid track record, where a sizeable number of reviews is available.
If you are new to traditional wet shaving, I suggest you also include the likes of D.R. Harris, Mitchell’s Wool Fat, Taylors of Old Bond Street, etc. They may not be “artisanal” in the strict sense, but are companies whose products are not household names found in many drugstores.
Using above mentioned manufacturers, some smaller than others, will make it easier to establish a benchmark of what is a good shaving soap or cream.
As a rule of thumb, you might want to check reviews, discard the most flattering and most damning 10%, and get a feel for what the majority of shavers who have reviewed the product could agree on.
That will put you in a safe, enjoyable place where you will find few disappointments.
Later, when you have established a solid feel for what is good and what isn’t, might be the time to try “artisanal” products, but be prepared to find most of them rather disappointing.
Hope this helps,
B.
For newbies…
Barrister and Mann (Seville is their most popular scent)
Spearhead Seaforth! (Sea Spice Lime is their most popular scent. Black Watch is also great)
Noble Otter (BarrBarr is a great place to start)
Though Stirling does have a brick and mortor, as far as I know, Rod still makes all the soap. (Executive Man is their most popular. Haverford is pretty great).
Barrister and Mann (Seville is their most popular scent)
Spearhead Seaforth! (Sea Spice Lime is their most popular scent. Black Watch is also great)
Noble Otter (BarrBarr is a great place to start)
Though Stirling does have a brick and mortor, as far as I know, Rod still makes all the soap. (Executive Man is their most popular. Haverford is pretty great).
- Thread starter
- #45
Where I am, SV is not nearly as expensive as it is in the US. European soaps are a lot cheaper, Razorock and English soaps also offer much better value than in the US so the value proposition is a little different.
I really like TFS soaps from Italy.
If you prefer vegan soap like me:
- Cella bio: it is a cheap soap performing as well as artisan ones. The scent is discreete and nice
- Martin de Candre Nature: this soap is respectful of the skin with minimal components. Despite being called « Nature », it actually has a subtle soapy scent that I really like.
Finally I try to avoid tallow based soaps but barrister and mann waves has the best aquatic scent.
- Cella bio: it is a cheap soap performing as well as artisan ones. The scent is discreete and nice
- Martin de Candre Nature: this soap is respectful of the skin with minimal components. Despite being called « Nature », it actually has a subtle soapy scent that I really like.
Finally I try to avoid tallow based soaps but barrister and mann waves has the best aquatic scent.
Same. It doesn't build photo-worthy lather for me, but I get no better shaves than I do with GD soaps.
Yes, prices for many European soaps are 2-3x higher in the U.S. Have seen SV on Connaught Shaving for close to half the price from U.S. retailers. MWF, that a year ago had a list price of 7 British pounds (roughly $9 U.S.) is sold for $15 -$20 in the U.S. Proraso that others find for 2-3 Euros (roughly $1.10 per Euro) sells for $10 here.
We had a brief window of access to European prices for many soaps back in the Fall of '22 when the British pound collapsed and Connaught Shaving offered free air freight. For example MWF tallow version landed in the U.S. for under $6 per puck, D.R. Harris for under $10, Tabac for under $7, LEA 250g professional cream tube for under $4 and recall SV for under $30 U.S. Took advantage to stock up on my favorites and broaden my shaving soap range.
For some of the best of the best: Grooming Dept, Macduffs, Ethos Grooming Essentials... Those are probably the top quality I can think of in the scented soaps. GD has some very unique scents. Ethos uses some of the best scent ingredients and some top quality skin beneficial ingredients.
Like many others have said, and for good reason, Stirling is an amazing starting point. Great performer... Great price per ounce ... Easy to lather... A huge selection of scents... A very attentive owner (Rod and Mandy, two military Veternas, have been around forever)... AND very cheap, generous samples so you can find your favorite twenty soap scents. Lol.
Like many others have said, and for good reason, Stirling is an amazing starting point. Great performer... Great price per ounce ... Easy to lather... A huge selection of scents... A very attentive owner (Rod and Mandy, two military Veternas, have been around forever)... AND very cheap, generous samples so you can find your favorite twenty soap scents. Lol.
SP, how is that new barrister and man line ? I haven’t had a chance to smell it. I’m debating that one or the spearhead sea ice lime. Need something refreshing for summer.
