Soaps or Creams? What's the difference?

Hi all,

So onto my newest topic of research... soaps vs. creams.

I am looking for advice and opinions on the differences between the two. I am noticing price wise that creams are quite a bit more pricey then soaps. However, does a cream last longer then a soap or is the cream simply more expensive because it offers a better lather and helps the razor glide easier over the face?

I'm sure it's another one of those "personal preference things" but I am still interested in YOUR preferences and why you have them. Also if you could post some links to some sites that offer creams and soaps you enjoy and the scents and or brands that would be great.

I have heard great recommendations for the creams and soaps Colleen (think that is it) makes, could someone post up a link to her site as it seems I have misplaced it.

Thanks as always,

Josh

It really is personal preference..

Tabac is my favorite soap, but other people cant stand it.

Proraso is my favorite cream, other people cant stand it.


Price....When you start looking around it is not necessarily true that the soaps are expensive :)

Cream can be a little easier to make lather with when you are first starting out, in my opinion.

Here is some more info from the wiki.


Preparation - Straight Razor Place Wiki

Quote:

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Foam vs. soap vs. cream

There have been many arguments which of these gives the best lather. It is generally accepted that canned products will not provide adequate lather. The main reason given for this is the inferior quality of the materials used for the foam. As for soaps vs. creams, the general consensus appears to be that it is a matter of personal preference. Most quality products will provide adequate lather.
When choosing your soap or cream, the minimum criteria to look for will be:

• Quality of raw materials
• Latherability, i.e. how easy it is to create lather
• Moisturising, i.e. whether the lather will leave your skin dry

While scent and price can and likely will also influence your decision, packaging should not. While glass containers may look good, they constitute a health hazard when dropped. And you will one day drop that container.

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You can get small samples of many types of soaps and creams here The Shave Den Store (Powered by CubeCart)
They are inexpensive at $1.00 to $3.00 apiece or so and you get enough of each to get 3 or 4 shaves out of a sample.

There are two distinct types of soaps out there. Glycerine-based soaps, and traditional hard soaps. The glycerine soaps tend to be fairly inexpensive (<$10/puck), are fairly popular, but don't last very long, only a month or so of daily use. Examples include the Classic Shaving soaps, the Col Conk line, and many of the small artisanal soap brands. The traditional hard soaps range from incredibly inexpensive (1$/puck for Williams) to incredibly expensive ($30/puck for Penhaligons), but tend to last a very long time, up to a year or more of daily use. By comparison, a typical tub of an English shaving cream like Trumpers or DR Harris will last about 3 months of daily use.

If you're the kind of guy that uses a different lather every day then you may not use up a puck of hard soap in your lifetime, so the price may well seem exhorbitant. But if you tend to stick with one product until it's gone, or only rotate between 2 or 3 products, then you're much more likely to get your money's worth out of a puck of one of the high-end soaps.

Colleen is a good starting point, her soaps lather easely and have gret scents, she has a sampler with 5 soaps and 2 cream wich would be a good starting point.

As for other soaps, I'm mostly a soap guy, you should consider trying on of the high end English soaps, I'm particularly found of D.R Harris and MWF.

D.R Harris also makes som very good creams, but for creams my favorite is Castle Forbes, it's pricy but I use less cream for each shave, so in the end it's not a bad deal IMHO:

Just in case you haven't found it on your own yet, HERE is Gssixgun's guide to making Uberlather. You will find that regarding the question of which is better, soap or lather, the correct answer is BOTH!

This is a subject where personal preference plays a very important role. There are both good creams and soaps in the market and from the performance standpoint alone there is no reason to prefer one over the other, although some people do. As Utopian mentioned, you can use them in combination to form uberlather. Here is a link that may help you form an opinion (67 posts):

http://straightrazorpalace.com/shavi...-vs-cream.html

In terms of the differences among them, I think that you may find these threads interesting as well:

http://straightrazorpalace.com/shavi...-opinions.html

http://straightrazorpalace.com/shavi...ine-based.html

In terms of preference, there are a lot of of factors involved. Some soaps work well in some faces but not so well in others. Also the scent of the product sometimes can mask the general performance aspect of the selection. For instance, it is very common that people prefer one "flavor" over another from the same manufacturer based only on the scent as the rest of the formulation is identical but I must point out that different scents can have an effect on the performance of the soap/cream as well. At the end, since you are going to be the one using the product, it is you who has to make the ultimate decision. Perhaps these threads may make that process a little easier:

http://straightrazorpalace.com/shavi...e-proraso.html

http://straightrazorpalace.com/shavi...ap-anyone.html

Al raz.