Quote Originally Posted by icecow
Do you have any newbie-to-newbie input about soaps for me?
Ice: They may decide to relocate this thread to the Soaps forum, but that's OK... I haven't started in on any serious "soap alchemy" quite yet (aside from a drop or two of pure glycerin on top of my hard soaps now and again before taking the brush to them…), but I have been sampling several pre-made soaps and creams. Thus far, I have tried:

Creams:
Taylor's Lavender
Taylor's Shaving Shop
Trumpers Sandalwood
Proraso green label (eucalyptus)

Soaps:
Classic Shaving Menthol
" " Lavender
Mama Bears Bay Rum
" " Lavender (yeah, I like lavender...)
Col. Conk Bay Rum

Still want to try:
Tabac
Colleen's Desert Ironwood
Col. Conk Lime
Proraso red label (w/wheat germ oil)

I’d have to say that so far my favorite by a nose has been the Col. Conk Bay Rum, followed by a tie for 2nd place between Mama Bears Lavender and the Classic Menthol. I really like the bay rum scent from Col. Conk, and the lather for me anyway is consistently excellent. I’ve been using the Proraso green (eucalyptus) for travel (it comes in a tube, so I find it easier to pack), and while I like it (the scent is very refreshing), the lather it produces I find does not lubricate quite as well as my favorite soaps. I’ve ordered a tube of the Proraso wheat germ oil cream – I’m anxious to see if that gives me a better lubrication action and closer shave with the Feather.

The only one that I was little disappointed with was the Mama Bears Bay Rum. Great scent – really liked it a lot – but it irritated my skin a bit. No knock on MB’s in general – I’m using the Lavender and loving it. I plan to try some other Mama Bears scents as well.

So my experimentation to date has been mostly around ‘packaged’ products, although I’d like to do some mad scientist stuff eventually… Oh, one last thing I’ll mention. I read Chris Moss’ great straight razor shaving primer (http://www.shavemyface.com/downloads...zor-Shave.pdf), and he sings the virtues of Trumper Skin Food as a great post-shave treatment. I highly concur on that one – that stuff (I’m using the Coral, which has a mild rose scent) is tremendous!

Yeah… nothing like a bunch of manly men hooking up on the internet to discuss rose- and lavender-scented grooming products, huh? My wife has already begun to bust my chops about how all my elixirs and concoctions and brushes and mugs and hardware are starting to encroach into her space in the medicine cabinet!