Thread: 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.