Shaving soap recommendation

[Wet Dottle]

Thanks for all the suggestions. AOS. I should know that. I've used their shave cream, but not the soap. Will get some at the mall this weekend.

Could not find Williams locally. Local drug stores carry Col. Conk and van der Hagen (I think that's what its called). Didn't get any of those, but this weekend I'm going to Edwards and there is a shave shop right across the street. Planning to return home with tobacco and shaving soaps.

PB, currently I'm using GFT Rose and Violet, and coral skin food. Never tried their soaps, but I like the creams more than those from AOS.

Thanks, Bullwinkle. You're right, I did say good stuff.

 

[puros_bran]

FWIW:  Dottle did I ever tell you I spent the tender years of 2-6 in Westminster on the NW corner of the fair city?  95th Street.   Sunset Ridge Elementary...  Fond memory's of Orange Crush days.

 

[apocrisiarius]

Geo. F. Trumper Hard Shaving Soap. It's not cheap, but an 80g bowl lasts for a long time, and it comes in a range of fragrances.  Glycerine based, lathers easily and provides a really close shave.

They have one or two shops in London (Curzon Street is the main one and has been there for 120 odd years) but i've got it elsewhere too.  

Don't be put off by the frangraces while some sound a little 'flowery' they are subtle and pretty masculine despite the names.

The brand comes with the personal approval of the Prince of Wales whom their barbers shave a few times a week. Bitta class.

 

[Wet Dottle]

FWIW:  Dottle did I ever tell you I spent the tender years of 2-6 in Westminster on the NW corner of the fair city?  95th Street.   Sunset Ridge Elementary...  Fond memory's of Orange Crush days.

Right now, I'm watching the Broncos play

Apocrisiarius, I love the scents in GFT creams. Truly an olfactory experience.

 

[PozzSka]

Any of the Italian soft soaps (hard creams) are awesome...look up RazoRock brand, P160 if you can still find it, Cella, etc.

Also, Mitchell's Wool Fat is a good one.

If you like Glycerin based stuff, then check our MamaBear's Soaps.

 

[Puff Daddy]

Cella is great because of it's performance and price, not so much the smell. I can tolerate the smell, which is marzipan or almond. It's OK, not offensive but not something that thrills me. It's just shave soap though, and for an everyday gotta get it done and go to work thing it's fine. The stuff lathers like a beast. A few seconds of swirling a brush over it and I have more lather than I need (I face lather and usually make 2 passes). I have a Semogue boar and a Simpson Colonel in Best and the soap gives it up happily to both brushes.

I've tried quite a few soaps, there's a lot of stuff out there and it can be fun to play with. Most seem to be modestly OK, meaning they lather alright and work pretty well, but most are really just about novelty scents that can quickly become tiring. A lot of them are rather pricey for what you're getting.

I finally got around to trying some creams other than Proraso, which was the only cream I'd tried up til recently. Got a tub of TOBS Eton College which I absolutely love. Have a tub of their new Peppermint cream in the mail. The TOBS cream is so easy, quick and good it kind of makes bothering with soaps a pointless exercise.

 

[flytyer]

I like the shave soap from Classic Shaving. Its a great soap for the money and is available in a wide selection of scents. It lathers well and I think for the $5.99 price its one of the better soaps out there.

 

[jvillaveces]

Tabac is my favorite shaving soap. It gives nice, rich foam; it smells great; a single cake lasts forever; plus, it uses the associations of "tabac" as a selling point. While traditional vendors such as Dunhill seek to make their brand independent from us smokers, Tabac (which doesn't smell of tobacco or contain any) uses that name to convey cachet and sophistication.

 

[Wet Dottle]

Thanks for the replies. I'll place an order soon and will show you what I get. I also ordered a new brush to be dedicated exclusively to soaps.

 

[Hawker]

Been using Williams Mug Soap for 25 years and if in a bind and can't find it Wilkenson does the trick.

 

[Wet Dottle]

Finally had my first shave with a soap. It was Cella, and it was fantastic. Lots of good, slick lather that left my face feeling great. Plenty of lather for three passes (maybe the brush had something to do with this, too), left the skin hydrated and without really needing an aftershave. The only thing I don't like very much about Cella is the scent: it smells like soap mixed with almonds. It's not bad, but could be much better.

Have other soaps coming and thrilled about trying them. Thanks for all your input.

 

[kennynogood]

Totally digging up an old thread here, but I've recently converted in regards to this topic.

**Disclaimer--what I'm about to say may TOTALLY be common knowledge and I'm the only one just now putting 2 and 2 together. If so...sorry about the re-hash on this post**

First: My facial hair is really coarse and a difficult to shave. Switching from a new-ish razor (Gillette Mach something) to a safety razor was helpful but still gave some serious razor burn.

Second: Thinking that a change of shave cream would help, I went from shave gel to a soap/brush combo. This too was helpful but STILL left razor burn regardless of the fact that I was using 20$ Mitchell's Wool Fat shave soap.

Third: A friend recommended using a little shave oil with my shave soap. This yielded mixed results--some days good, some bad..little relief.

Finally: The shave oil that I was using was the stuff you can buy at the drugstore (re: Walgreen's)--Somerset's Extra Sensitive Shave Oil. The stuff is like 6$ per small bottle, but you can get some longevity out of those bottles if you use the prescribed amount. One day I thought to myself, "What if I just use the oil with no soap...just to see what happens?" To my surprise I had drastically reduced my razor burn. I mean, with it was near non-existent with the oil. Perplexed, I continued the experiment and have yielded the same results EVERY time I've shaved for the past month.

I'm not 100% sure why this works for me...but I have a good educated guess. Oil is made of lipids (re: fatty acids). Lipids are slick and often used for lubrication in various settings. You put the oil on your face and it acts as a buffer between your baby smooth skin and the razor. Simple, right? Why wouldn't it work with the soap/oil combo then? I'm guessing it's the same reason why dish soap cleans grease off of pans and stuff. So you put the oil on your face, you then put the soap on your face, the soap breaks down the lipids in the oil, then when you shave it's like you never used the oil.

So, like I said, I'm still testing at this point. Things are working really well...sooooooo...I may just keep this little system.

 

[jvillaveces]

Before I grew out my beard I used Truefitt & Hill oil before the shaving cream or soap. It worked reLly well for me.

 

[monbla256]

We all have THE soap / creme that is the BEST but the one thing I've done all these years which was advice given me by a Barber that I used to get an occasional shave at was HEAT !! He would pull a hot moist towel out of a steam container and wrap that sucker on my face and let it set for probably 5 mins BEFORE he applied ANY soap/lather to my beard. He said if I did a similar thing with a hot moist towel at home I could use ANY soap/creme and get a good shave with a DE Safty Razor. :twisted: So I've wetted a towel I use for this in a pot of boiling water, wring it out and wrap my face BEFORE I apply my lathered soap and have had SMOOTH shaves for over 40+ years now. Remember HEAT :twisted: :twisted:

 

[puros_bran]

Kenny if Oil and no cream is what works for you then it's the right way.
I've heard half a million variations of products and procedures.. The only wrong way is following the crowd and suffering through it.

 

[kennynogood]

Haha! Monbla you are definitely rocking it OLD SCHOOL with the steamed towel. I love it. You can't argue with 40+ years of good shaves!

 

[RusenBG]

Tabacc and Palmolive stick are very good performers . I use Arco also in diferent combinations .

 

[nismo270r]

FWIW:  Dottle did I ever tell you I spent the tender years of 2-6 in Westminster on the NW corner of the fair city?  95th Street.   Sunset Ridge Elementary...  Fond memory's of Orange Crush days.

So, this thread got revived today and I was reading through all the posts and came across yours PB...Oh, what a crazy small world it is! You were just down the road from my cousins out there, who I would go visit nearly every summer growing up! They were right across Countryside Dr from Ketner Lake. We used to swim at the Countryside pool all the time.

Oh, as for the original topic, I suppose I should chime in to keep it somewhat on topic after it's hiatus

The last soap I used was Edwin Jagger's sandalwood and I had decent results with it, but not my favorite. I had the chance to try some of the Jack Black Beard Lube. It's not exactly a cream, but I thought it worked great. The consistency is almost like hair conditioner, more slick than creamy. One cream I've been using recently is Simpson's Cafe Latte and I'm loving it. Easy to lather and it smells great, although I think it smells more like Guinness than a cafe latte.

How's the S2 been treating you Wet Dottle?

 

[puros_bran]

And I'm just down the road from you now.. Don't pee in the pool.

 

[nismo270r]

And I'm just down the road from you now.. Don't pee in the pool.

And I meant to mention that too haha. Damn bluegrass gets the best of us! So...what if it's too late about the pool?