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This morning I had a great shave with one of my Puma 6/8 razors and Tabac Soap. I love Tabac. I’ll always have it around and it got me to thinking if there was no possible way for me to buy MDC or Castle Forbes What would be my favorite soap or cream? So I thought I’d ask my fellow straight razor shavers;
For me I think it would be Tabac and L’Occitane Soap and for Cream I’d go with TOBS.
If I had to pick only one? Tabac Soap
Taylor of Old Bond Street Sandalwood Shaving Cream or the similar scent from Cyril L. Salter. Both give great glide and my skin feels great afterwards. Don’t even need a pre-shave or aftershave.
Also shaved with Tabac this morning, and I just love the scent, the price, and the ease with which it lathers. :)
Tabac is a good one. There is also Musgo Real, LeToja, Spieck, Volobra.
Baume be shaving cream
I'm not the biggest fan of CF in all honesty
The list is so long I couldn't possibly write it here...check out this thread...and unholster your PayPal account:
https://straightrazorpalace.com/soap...ps-creams.html
Oh...the thread starts in 2015...enjoy! :-)
Any flavor of B&M. Castle Forbes didn’t even come close to living up to the hype.
I tried a sample of Baume.be last week and absolutely loved the performance. Can't imagine finding a better value in shaving cream, but for me the scent was rather bland compared to XPEC or CF Lime.
Speick stick is also a great soap for the money, IMHO. Reminds me of Tabac in scent.
I’m actually not a big fan of the mass produced soaps or creams. I always use American made artisan shave soaps. My top three currently are: Barrister and Mann; Wholly Kaw; and Grooming Dept. Talbot Shaving is another excellent soap maker, but as a hobbyist his products are hard to come by.
Id have to go with wholykaw or Oleo. I wasnt a fan of Tabac. But it came in a nice glass jar.
With the exception of a very, very small few, most artisan soaps are made from low quality cheap bulk order scents and soap bases, don't have great quality control, and are not far off or on par with basically the home candle makers, while adding cool, grungy sounding names with fancy pictures. The vast majority of artisan soaps I've tried have been utterly terrible, and most have been binned after one use.
if you couldn't get MDC or CF, what makes you think you can get the other soaps from across the ocean? Tc
Not fussed one bit if I could not get MdC or CF. I'm to the point of not ordering anymore of those two. I could easily live with locally available Maca Root or Proraso or order in Tabac
Bob
Yea, there are so many top tier soaps out there I agree the list is very long.
Personally my go to soaps there days are the Meisner lineup so if the two mentioned were unavailable it wouldn't bother me at all.
Only quality soaps I've tried are from Stirling Soaps and recently some samples from Gentlemen's Quarter. I've enjoyed both.
I'd go with Baume.be, Meißner Tremonia, Green Mountain Soap, Calani Seifenmanufaktur, or Esbjerg shaving cream.
Best regards,
Pieter
I would be happy to know I could use MDC for the rest of my life! :)
Attachment 290290
Tom would always find a way to trade for what he really wants, even if it takes two or three trades.
1. Soaps: Czech & Speake/vintage AOS soaps/Valobra (all made by Valobra), Tabac, Klar
2. Creams: Penhaligon's, Acqua Di Parma, Santa Maria Novella, Alvarez Gomez, Antica Barbieria Cola, XPEC
While I use and enjoy both MdC and CF, in my opinion they are really good products, but not as great as some of the others in my den.
BTW, straight razor shaving gave me a whole new appreciation of Tabac, and I agree 100% on that.
The others? The good Italians: Nuàvia, XPEC, SV, SMN, AdP-I could shave with any one of them for the rest of my life and be very happy.
There are also artisan soaps that are very, very good tallow-based soaps, specifically the Declaration Grooming soaps, Grooming Dept (phenomenal, both tallow and non-tallow), Barrister's Reserve, and the new goat's milk formulation from Ariana & Evans.
For me, any one of the soaps that I've listed above outperform both Castle Forbes and Martin de Candre.
We are spoiled, because if a genie made every soap and cream but MdC and CF disappear, I'd be a happy shaver.
But we live in such unbelievably great times for wet shaving that we have such amazing choices in soaps and creams!
HAR! I happened to pay MDC directly for that doomsday stuff! :pQuote:
Originally Posted by RezDog
:roflmao
Here's a not all-inclusive list that perform well for me, come in at a variety of price points, that easily can stand in for MdC or CF, and deliver a nice shaving experience:
Czech & Speake, Cold River Soap Works, Tabac, Klar, Penhaligon's, Acqua Di Parma, Baume.Be, Santa Maria Novella, Antica Barbieria Cola, XPEC, Eufros, and Esbjerg.
Fortunately for us wet shavers, there are a lot of excellent options available to us...unfortunately there are also quite a few dogs also, but that's one of the beauties of forums--word gets out fairly quickly on the dogs!
Do you mean 'can't afford' or 'not available'? It makes a difference as 'can't afford' takes ABC, SMN, AdP and the like off the table where 'unavailable' does not.Quote:
Originally Posted by Legman
Cheers, Steve
One soap that I really like that I can get locally is VDH luxury (not deluxe) shaving soap. The rest I have to order. MDC is still one of my favorites, but VDH luxury I would place in my top 5. Another one that I tried that I really enjoyed was from How To Grow A Mustache. I really like trying out new soaps, but there are some that I always rebuy and a few of those are VDH, MDC, Cella, and Proraso. Proraso is great for those early morning shaves when I need to wake up.
I have about 12 brands in regular rotation and Martin de Candre is among them.
For my favourite brands I sometimes have more than one scent, so I have plenty of choice.
Castle Forbes dropped out of this list quite some time ago.
If an admittedly very good product like Castle Forbes doesn’t make the grade, it only shows how many excellent products are out there.
If a single product would disappear, another one would fill the gap fairly soon.
B.
In apparent anticipation of a lack of MdC several years ago I acquired 6 tubs of that holy grail just in case I ran out. At my current use rate they will last at least 12 years, more than enough for the projected length of my life. It's good to be an old fart! Hahahaha
6 :dropjaw:
I got 2 and can see it's going to last a loooong time. Every time I think about buying more soap I remember how long the MDC is going to last and it settles me down.
Well, like I said I’m ready a soap guy. The only creams I have in my arsenal are Castle Forbes Lavender, TOBS Lavender, And Geo. F. Trumper Coconut. They are really nice. Castle Forbes impresses me with how little of the product will make a HUGE amount of lather. I like it enough that I may try it in Lime or 1445. For Soap, I am totally impressed with MDC. But, honestly if I only had Tabac, and D. R. Harris I’d be ok. I like the Men’s Soap Co. soap as well. Nice Soap for the money. I will not be trying expec or Aqua Di Parma. The $65 bucks I paid for MDC is as high as I,ll go.
So many out there. Some like some I don't. I like some others don't.
One thing I have been doing is retrying samples of some others like, yet I did not.
Different lathering techniques are yielding some great results on some.
Yet some....I cannot get past my nose.
TBH, a REAL luxury for me is the occasional shave with Trumper's Limes.
Getting thin, but a definite fave. Everyone has their faves!
I’ve heard good things about Barrister and Mann
Great example! So have I! Too many to buy.. :banghead:
Interesting thread to read. As far as MDC goes although it lathered well so does Tabac. As far as my experience goes MDC didn't offer the slickness or protection of others like MWF, Soap Commander, or Tabac. I found the post shave lacking as well and my face was left pretty dry. You can tell it's a quality soap but there are SO many others out there that it’s not a soap I held on to. I sold it off as I am going to do with my Oleo. Not a big fan of that either. So if I had to live without MDC well....I guess I wouldn’t notice. It’s like being wet when it starts to rain.
Your description is very similar to mine firs use of MDC. Problem was that I have loaded brush for too long and didn't ad enough water. After dialling in right amount of product and water it is now firm among top 5.Quote:
Originally Posted by Steel
GREAT POST! I shaved with MCD this morning and its good stuff but, I'm looking forward to shaving with Tabac either tomorrow or the next day. Great post thanks
I quit buying these weird smelling soaps and creams. As soon as I have all this crap used up there will be only 3 soaps and 1 cream in my cabinet. Tabac, Mitchell's Wool Fat, Taylor of Old Bond Street, and Penhaligon's Blenheim Bouquet. The old widow women and divorcees want me to smell like a man, not a walking fruit salad.
I'm not sure I agree with the words, but very, very, much the intent!Quote:
Originally Posted by Benz
There are lots of frags that are 'unisex' and quite good; all the citrus, rose, lavender, many colognes, most of the natural scents etc
But what I absolutely, no way, never ever want to smell like is Yankee Candle. No disrespect to Yankee Cancle scents, they're fine for candles. BUT NOT SHAVING SOAPS. HELLO.
Cheers, Steve
I’ve never tried Czech and Speake
If I could not buy Castle and Forbes or MDC it wouldn't change a thing. While CF is good I will take Barrister and Mann over it (and everything else) any day of the week.
I don’t use MDC or CF. I have been using JM Fraser’s daily for the past two months and find it performs better then either of those two and costs pennies per shave.
I'd be just fine with all of the other artisanal offerings available. I haven't used MdC or CF for over seven years and I am very satisfied. :)
