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Have and enjoy some nice croaps, Tcheon Fung Sing Figaro, Valobra and Proraso White.
Have tried Tabac and MWF, both of which do nasty things to my skin.
Want to try some hard soaps, any recommendations?
Also am in UK so no artisan soaps from across the pond please. Was thinking of trying some Conk glycerine or EJ aloe vera. Don't want to spend too much And then throw away of turns out not good for my skin.
I'm a little sensitive to soaps and creams with fragrance. D.R. Harris Arlington is one soap that doesn't irritate my skin. Pre de Provence is another soap that might be good to try.
I had to smile at leatherstockings' post.. I use a different soap every day yet just happen to have used Pre de Provence today.
The odd thing about soap sensitivities is that each of us is different and no two supposedly identical scents are formulated the same way so there is no choice but to just keep trying them. For example, there is one brand of Bay Rum that just lights me up yet none of the other Bay Rums I've tried bothers me. Also, I'm surprised that you are bothered by MWF - it's one that we often recommend for those with sensitive skin.
That said, since you can get Valobra there I assume that Lea is available as well (another Spanish soap). It has a very mild fragrance and is a good performer. The aforementioned Pre de Provence is worth a try; it's an excellent all around performer. You might also try Palmolive stick. It has a distinctive scent but is a very mild soap, is a top performer and is very inexpensive so it'd be a cheap experiment.
Good luck.
rs,
Tack
Valobra is easy to find on amazon. Palmolive stick have tried and was also not good. Worse than either Tabac or MWF.
Is the Lea a hard or hardish soap? Really like the hardish italian soaps, just want some different things in rotation. Variety being the spice of life.
MEISSNER TREMONIA Puristic or Pots of Milk. From Germany.
dmnc,
You could try the tallow-based Valobra hard soap - Connaught has it :
Valobra Shaving Soap Tub 100g
Have fun :)
Best regards
Russ
TOBS Jermyn Street Shaving Cream is a good one also
dmnc,
I have heavy beard and ultra-sensitive skin, which is a bad combination. Since you ask for hard soaps and not creams, the following soaps work well for me: Lea, Provence Sante (both scents), Institute Karite, L'Occitane, Meisner Tremonia (lavender and unscented), Muhle aloe vera, Edwin Jagger aloe vera, The Art of Shaving (lavender or unscented, old formula if you can find it), Mike's Natural soaps (barbershop for me) and Martin de Candre, of course.
You may try to avoid animal fat based soaps like Tallow also many people are allergic to lanolin so try to experiment with soaps that don't contain these. I personally love these ingredients but I don't have any allergies that i know of.
Are the Italian croaps not tallow based? These are the only soaps working well for me so far. Being allergic to lanolin wouldn't surprise me. Am also allergic to fish but not shellfish. Backwards me. Unsurprises am allergic to best sensitive soap. Also love MWF smell.
The Lea is about the same as Valobra - maybe a little harder. I put both in stick form and face lather so cannot comment upon bowl behavior.Quote:
Originally Posted by dmnc
rs,
Tack
Its a tough thing to isolate a product if you have this issue. I would look for a soap that had the least amount of additives and scents. Most soaps are a blend of many different types of fats, caustics, stabilizers, fragrance and or essential oils etc. Its going to take some deductive reasoning. lets say you tolerate a soap that has say tallow and coconut oil you might have to differentiate say what else does another similar soap have that might be the culprit. You mentioned Tabac bothers you, well that soap has a lot of fragrance components to it bergamot, neroli, lavender , tobacco, oakmoss and vanilla. Thats a lot to consider. Also make sure the reaction you are getting is not from maybe your after shave or any other post shave products you might use this could get complicated you have to simplify your process to come to a conclusion.
Was using MWF quite a bit, thinking that the razor rash was down to subpar lather. Tried face lathering on a day when I didn't need to shave. Made lovely lather and face burned lightly. This is my new soap test. No shave, face lather and leave on for few minutes.
dmnc,Quote:
Originally Posted by dmnc
The Lea I use, made in Spain, comes in a hard puck in the wooden bowl. The soap lathers well, has a clean and woodsy fragrance, and works well for my sensitive skin. I liked the soap enough to order another puck, because you never know when the world will come to an end.
Not sure I saw Poraso white suggested that has oats and green tea extract I believe and that cooling sensation after the second application for the 2nd pass. Just a thought. I have seen a few post where people are not happy with MWF but I so far have had great results from the Fat!