Thread: Shaving soaps?

Originally Posted by JTmke

*SNIP*
Martin de Candre (MdC) is great but very pricey mainly because the only shipping option is air from France.

MdC is available from The Olde Town Shaving Company (you have to contact them for pricing).

I like the soaps from Queen Charlotte Soaps (they do samples!), and look forward to trying the stuff from Wm. Neumann & Co. (I love their aftershaves!).

Mike's are great soaps. If you shave in the evening I can highly recommend his Hungarian Lavender. It is made from an intoxicating essential oil and is like aromatherapy and highly relaxing before bed time.

That sounds quite nice. I have an appreciation for those who can paint pictures with words... particularly, of the experiences of the senses.

I've run the gamut on soaps, Mike's, MWF, and MdC is where I've landed.

I want to try that Michaels wool fat soap I hear it has superior glide but the fragrance is either a love or hate it type thing. So far green prorasso is my go to soap.

I really like the green Proraso. I just have to be in the mood for menthol. I use both the green pre-shave and the green soap. The pre-shave under a hot towel is just outstanding. I like it so much, I have just gone with the pre-shave, hot towel, and then used a different soap.

The small amount of soap lathers up in a hot scuttle to make a mountain of great lather. Oddly the lather must be insulating to some degree, because I have frequently seen the lather heat up and be hotter on the pass two application.

I definitely love the scuttle and hot lather, and it may be my imagination but it seems easier to whip up good lather in the heated scuttle. It is also nice to use to apply lather for a hot towel and lather beard prep pre-shave. When I return to shave the lather in the scuttle is still hot.

I am really working on getting the barbershop experience at home. The green Proraso definitely comes very close, and shave comfort is very good. I am just not in the mood for menthol all the time.

Anyone sing the praises of their other products? The price on the green pre-shave and soap is not bad for as well as it works.

Best,

Ed

RollinCoal69,

Thanks for the tip on Gary's Sample Shop. I have some samples on order. I'm looking at the rest of the recommendations too.

Thanks,

Ed

So the Mitchell Wool Fat soap came in, and I purchased the ceramic MWF dish with cover to go with it. For some reason I like the cups and dishes for the soaps and have a small collection started. Someone suggested this soap doesn't melt well and recommended grating it to fit the soap dish. So I grated up the cake and pressed it to fit in the dish. I compacted the grated soap using a bartender mulling tool. It worked great.

MWF soap for me has a subtle talcum scent with a light floral note I really can't place. It isn't particularly fragrant from my point of view. It certainly doesn't linger on the skin or compete with the after shave lotion. The scent is pleasant enough for me, but the real benefit is the glide and the lanolin soaking into my skin.

I use a scuttle. I really haven't yet found anything that doesn't lather nicely in the scuttle. MWF soap was no different. It lathers nicely. Lots of little bubbles, holds water well, thicker than some soaps, and it takes a long time to dry on my skin. I've only tried a couple of shaves now. I don't know if this a new go to brand, but I certainly like the results. It works very well.

Thank you all for the tips on MWF and the ideas for how to get it in the dish. MWF works very well indeed. I'm going through this thread and will definitely try the other recommendations. I like having different soaps to rotate through. I bet as I get more experience I'll develop more refined views of the qualities of the different soaps.

Best,

Ed

RollinCoal69,

The samples form Garry showed up. I'm working through them. Tiny shot sized bottle still seem to be enough for perhaps three shaves. This is a fabulous service. I rather like some of them just by smell and definitely don't like some of the others as well. I'm trying them on my skin as I shave to be sure. Pinaud Clubman made the cut early and is on order.

Thank you again. This is definitely the way to try out these scents. I'd hate to buy a bigger more expensive bottle of something I definitely don't like. it is interesting, I have a stronger reaction to the after shave scents. I have soap scents I like better (right now Col Conk Almond and Mama Bear's Aged Spice are my favorites), but I haven't found any soap scents I just don't care for. That has not proven true with the after shaves. Some of the more floral aftershaves are just not my cup of tea.

Someone else mentioned Maggard for samples -- anyone else have a good sample shop recommendation that hasn't turned up in this thread yet?

Best,

Ed

A recent addition to my stable is the Baum Be soap-cream really. It's top notch stuff and I pretty much have all the top soaps (C&S, MDC, Xpec, CF, etc) and I think it's at least as good as X-Pec maybe better.