A Few Artisan Soaps

Way back on June 10 (yes, June 10 feels like months ago to me) I attended the St. Louis Wet Shavers' Meet in Tower Grove Park. I had a great time and the only disappointment was that I was only able to find one other SRP member there, the always to be respected Lynn Abrams. It was a fantastic afternoon among other shaving enthusiasts, even if most of them tended to favor safety razors.

While I was there I perused the vendors and the adoption table and actually came home with a purchase or two and a number of freebies. Since that time I've added to my AS collection thanks to Chatillon Lux but it is the soaps that I picked up that I'm here to talk about at the moment (I'll be posting an AS review in the near future...promise).

The reason I mentioned Chatillon Lux is because one of the soaps I picked up was a special collaboration soap between Shawn at Chatillon Lux and The Sudsy Soapery. The fragrance is based on Chatillon Lux's original offering, Treget de Delor. Here's a quick description from CL's website:

The original scent from Chatillon Lux was inspired by Carondelet's original resident and founder, Clement Delor de Treget. As a French Spaniard who was the highest authority in a lowly trading town, Delor de Treget represents the humble magnificence of Saint Louis.

The rich smell of bergamot and cedarwood is rounded out by the sweet smell of orange and calming lavender. Underneath it all, a brooding undertone of labdanum supports it.

This scent is more rugged than masculine, suitable for anyone preparing for a long day collecting pelts, pushing pencils, or anything in between.

I'll be honest, the soap itself I would consider a solid second tier soap, it is a solid performer but I don't consider it outstanding. The most interesting thing about the soap itself is that it is whipped prior to being "tubbed" so its seems to be a relatively hard soap that loads more like a softer soap. The scent is a bit different than that of the AS that inspired it. The soap is a touch sweeter in scent and the orange tends to be a bit more prominent but the fact is that I find the stuff intoxicating, it is, without a doubt, my new favorite and I terribly lament the fact that it was a special offering and I have but one tub.

Sudsy offers a number of great fragrances with the Twice Mint and Lavender & Peppermint being strong contenders for a future purchase.

The second soap comes from the Black Tie Razor Company and may just be one of the more unique ideas that I've come across as of late. Essentially Black Tie offers a single soap, their No. 13 Premium Shaving Soap. It's unscented and is the only soap they sell. As far as fragrance goes they offer a number of Shave Oils that you add to the soap prior to loading your brush. In my case the proprietors were nice enough to dig out a bottle of their Lil Bit O'Texas oil as I wasn't terribly interested in the offerings they were handing out in their gift bags. Seriously, I was very favorably impressed by guys who will hand me something they brought to sell because I wasn't attracted to their other scents. Let me be clear here, the scents were all of good quality but muskier than I tend to gravitate toward, particularly on a hot St. Louis summer day.

Unfortunately I haven't had the opportunity to use this soap/oil combo as of yet but it is near the top of my to-do list this week. Once I get get a chance to put the soap through its paces for a couple of shaves I'll update the thread with my impressions.

Folks in the double edged safety world love Above the Tie and their razors. I'm not surprised by their new approach with soap. I'll bet it will be a good soap.

I've never used Chatillon Lux before. L&L Grooming, who mainly makes shaving razors, partnered with them to start the soap part of his business.

Folks in the safety razor world have really liked the partner soaps, though I don't know if they use the same base as the Chatillon brand.

The interesting part is that Shawn at Chatillon Lux doesn't sell any of his own soaps at this point. Instead he has chosen to partner with a number of different artisan companies to provide offerings using his scents. I do know that the latest round of collaborations with L&L was, in part, to celebrate Chatillon Lux's anniversary of two years and included some limited edition scents of Chatillon Lux AS. I'm very quickly become a big fan of Chatillon Lux and look forward to getting up a review for his products in the next couple of days.

The nice weekend score for me was a second tub of the Treget de Delor soap from Sudsy. This morning my wife and I decided to take a trip into the city to the Soulard Farmers' Market. It seems that the gentleman with Sudsy sets up there on the weekends and he happened to have one last tub of the Treget de Delor on hand, a tub from his personal stash that he decided that he could part with. This lucky guy happened along and I now have a reserve of my own! My lovely wife was also kind enough to buy me a tub of the Lavender & Peppermint, along with matching splash, as well as a chunk of bath soap for herself.

The second soap I was talking about is from Black Tie Razor, not Above the Tie. I don't know much about either company but I'll post my report on the No. 13 Soap and Lil Bit O' Texas shave oil once I give the combo a try.

Okay, I've been rather busy as of late and haven't posted my review on the Np. 13 Soap yet. I finally had to opportunity to use the soap yesterday (more on that later) so I have a few quick observations before I post a more in-depth review, after I have the chance to use the soap a few more times.

First and foremost I was very impressed by the cushion, particularly knowing that the proprietors don't use straight razors or shavettes. Knowing this I also expected great glide and while it was decent I wouldn't call it exceptional by any means. Last but not least it seemed to dry out quickly, a complaint I rarely have since I tend to make my passes rather quickly.

Remember, this is merely a first impression. I hope to play with this stuff a bit more over the next week and I'll update you once I do so. I also acquired another variety of the Sudsy Soapery's offerings, Peppermint & Lavender, and I'll let you know if it is consistent with how the Delor de Treget performed.