What is the best of the best?
- Thread starter Monty1
- Start date
I'm amazed at the performance of synthetic brushes. When one was recommended to me I scoffed at the idea. How can the same bristles as in a dollar store paintbrush be any good as a shaving brush. How wrong I was...
Boar knots will combine, or mix, the water and soap just as well but it takes a whole bunch longer and you'll use a whole lot more soap getting there because they hold more water than a synthetic.
When I use my synthetic with a cream I start with a dry brush. I dip the tips in the tub of cream and give it a twist, then I dip them into the water and start a face lather. The lather just explodes and then I dip them again, and yet again. Because a synthetic knot holds very little water and I only add a little at a time, especially this time of year with the furnace running, the lather in the brush can dry out between passes.
You might try CRS cream and Wickham 1912 soap. They both offer the same or better performance level of WK at half to 1/3 the price and it takes half the product for me to get the same level of performance.
My CRS Wild Rose was $13 and change Canadian and a 164g tub. My Wickham English Rose was $22 and change Canadian and a 140g tub. My WK Chypre Rose Concerto was $39.99CAD shipped and a 114g tub. My CRS Wild Rose scent is easily the nicest Rose scent of all 3.
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Which begs the question as to whether any of the people who suffer from dry skin due to many soaps are washing their face with a state of the art facial cleanser post shave and/or applying a superb moisturizer as well, e.g., CeraVe, Normaderm, Neutrogena, etc.? Always wash the soap away with a good cleanser and not some bar of normal shower soap. This would alleviate all but the most severe cases such as eczema & rosacea.
I've tried hundreds of soaps and have a current rotation of 80 or so. I'm just saying this to provide perspective. My favorites are the ones that get mentioned all the time in these types of threads (DG, GD, T&S, B&M, etc.), but I also wanted to throw another soap out there - Catie's Bubbles. Their deluxe base is crazy slick for me. I don't know if it is just my water, my skin, or some other variable, but this one performs exceptionally for me. It also doesn't hurt that their soaps are relatively inexpensive and have creative, original scents.
SR guys have to hone, DE and SE users have to blade bank and change. I don't know SR guys feeling, just this one though.
Jason Rudman (Rud Shaves) puts Catie's Bubbles at the very top of his soap ranking along with Barrister and Mann as well as Talbot Shaving, basically his top 3. In all fairness, he provides this caveat that these are the top soaps FOR him. Why Catie's Bubbles does not get mentioned as often as other top-tier soaps by other members of the wet-shaving community remains a mystery to me. I've never tried it, but very eager to do so.
I would encourage you to check them out. You can find 2-ounce sample sizes of their soaps for very little money, and the containers they come in are big enough to load your brush in.
Catie's Bubbles is superb. Shaved with Tonsorial Parlour yesterday.
Sometimes we get carried away chasing the newest & most exclusive soaps and forget older vendors such as Catie's. Another older vendor I will tout is Mickey Lee Soapworks. Reunion scent is simply fantastic and the performance is top tier IMO.
A little talked about issue, and paramount IMO to a great shave, is what a person uses as a pre-shave face wash/scrub. This is the "X" factor that is little understood as it is surely scientific. As an example, I have found that charcoal washes/scrubs strip too much and make the successive shave rougher for my face. I use either CeraVe facial cleanser or the generic version of the Neutrogena pink grapefruit scrub and IMO these "pave the road" so to speak for an excellent soap to work even better. More research needs to be done on this clearly.
Most of the highly touted shave soaps are tallow based soaps, although the tallow may derive from a variety of different animals. Cattie's Bubbles is a vegan soap, so it often gets neglected. However, remember that what is important is soap making is the ingredients and not the source of the ingredients. Stearic acid is one of the critical components of shaving soaps. Tallow is a good source of stearic acid. However, some vegetable oils and butters like Shea butter and Cocoa butter contain an even higher percentage of stearic acid than tallow. If properly formulated, a vegan soap can be every bit as good as a tallow soap.
My top two are veg soaps and creams. CRS and Wickham 1912. I was sold on tallow soaps previously, but no longer.
I haven't noticed in using soaps that have clay added that I've gone through blades any faster than I normally do. I'm on a few of the shaving forums and I don't recall reading about anyone avoiding it for this reason either. So while the theory that clay would dull and edge does make logical sense I'm not sure that it does so enough to make a noticeable difference or outweigh the benefits of adding it. I wouldn't avoid it if I were making a soap.
Sudsy Soapery is another very good soap that uses clays. I believe that it has some beneficial skin care properties and it adds a bit of slickness to the soap.
Grooming Dept is my #1 over everything.
Hey! I'm not dull. I don't dull blades
For me, two above all others right now. New B&M base and Grooming Dept.
for me, Sudsy soapery comes first and then Mystic water.
If your last experience with artisan soapmakers was a couple of years ago, you are missing out on a real treat. Stiff competition between the artisans have caused them to go back to the laboratory to reformulate their soaps trying to garner top honors. Some artisans who have made noticeable improvements to their formulas over the past year are: Ariana and Evans goat milk, Barrister and Mann Reserve and new Excelsior base, Cold River Soap Works Glide, Declaration Grooming Icarus, Grooming Department, Lisa's Natural Herbal Creations sheep milk, Wholly Kaw Donkey Milk and new Buffala base with water buffalo milk. There may be others I have not yet tried, but the ones listed are wonderful. These soaps are not inexpensive, but they provide a luxurious shaving experience.
Pretty much the only one I haven't tried from the above is Catie's Bubbles, but I have to say in the last few years I've found even inexpensive soaps have been very good, so artisan soaps (and old standards) have really come a long way. My particular favorites are Tabac, B&M, MWF, Stirling, CFG, Captain's Choice, Saponificio Varesino - and yes, even Trumpers, TOBS and DR Harris, in no particular order. I've also found the brush and the water (a water softener) make a huge difference. Recommendations for those willing to explore - Dapper Dragon, Ogallala and Shannon's. Nice to have choices....
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