Thread: What are the "Must Have" Soaps & Creams?

Soaps:

MWF
D.R. Harris Almond
TGQ Desert Ironwood
Fitjar Woods


Creams:

Castle Forbes Lime
La Toja Sensetive
Fitjar has a nice range of creams.


This is the products currently on my "buy it again" list.

Originally Posted by richmondesi

Do any of you guys have an opinion on them?

There are several detailed reviews on the review forums. Stress being on detailed, ideally with a useful benchmark. Skin products can be very personal, especially the scented ones. Knize "Ten" will certainly not gather a lot of fans, Villoresi likewise. Bay rum appears to be infinitely more popular in the US than in Germany. Stuff like that, you know?

I've been benchmarking creams against Castle Forbes (and lately Caraceni), and I would be wary of reviews that lack such a benchmark. "Best stuff ever!!!!" from a member with 7 posts might not work too well for anyone else.

Regards,
Robin

My dear Tolly,

You cannot go wrong with the great suggestions offered here by these gentlemen. I have used some of the products mentioned and look forward to using many others. Currently my rotation includes Truefitt & Hill's soap as well as the scent-free Ultimate Comfort cream, Taylor of Old Bond Street Rose cream, and Tabac. I like all. I need to clear some space on the counter first, though, before adding to the rotation.

The one cream I especially would like to try is Domenico Caraceni "1913" which Robin (Berlin) has spoken highly of. Since I have the highest respect for Robin's opinion, my next purchase will be the Caraceni.

Regards,

Obie

Dear Obie,

Many thanks for your kind words. I think, though, that a word of caution is in order. Let me quote myself:

Bronnley "James Bronnley" Shaving Cream
"Having been asked yesterday how I go about my reviews, here is a quick run down of what I do:

1. Get a sample. Thankfully, I usually get a full package, which I return after reviewing it. It then becomes a tester in the shop.
2. Ensure optimum preparation, i.e. use boiling, filtered water, my Old Traditional shave mug, a razor I know is shave ready (for this review, my Dorko 300) and stropped on either an SRD Premium I or an Old Traditional Natur. I normally use a stiff brush (such as my Simpson), as most of you seem to be using these.
3. Next, I try lathering the cream a few times, using different amounts of water. I do this to see how easy the cream will lather up, and how consistently.
4. Then, the fun part: shave. I apply one round of lather before stropping to see how well it will keep its condition. If the lather dries up in the process, I will not even review the cream.
5. Use an alum block and cold water to rinse after the shave.
6. Do not apply an aftershave for at least 30 minutes. A premium cream will provide enough moisturising for this to work. After that, apply Dr Hauschka Facial Toner and Skin Oil. If that fails, an aftershave is in order, but that also means that the cream will not make into my rotation."

Lots of hoops, as you can see. I think that reviews can be horribly mis-leading, and I cannot stress enough the fact that they are very personal. Which, incidentally, is why we decided not to offer ratings for scent. But most everything else is relative as well.

For similar reasons, I am not reviewing razors. I have shaved with maybe 75, and I think that is not quite enough to give an objective view of a razor. I came to this conclusion after I re-read my own razor reviews, and compared them to e.g. those written by RayG. That said, I think the forum could do well with lots more razor reviews.

Just thought I should mention it.

But do get the Caraceni cream if you can. It is fantastic stuff, and little known.

Best regards,
Robin

P.S. Shameless plug: http://straightrazorpalace.com/revie...templates.html really helps

My dear Robin,

I like the way you think and reason about such a subjective and, therefore, difficult topic of shave creams and soaps. Your review methods are especially impressive, because they try to create an optimal stage to be as objective as possible. Well done, and thank you for sharing.

Regards,

Obie

D.R.Harris Arlington soap
Crabtree&Evelyn Nomad soap
Talylor of Old Bond Street creams
Bodyshop Maca Root Cream

Skip the Tabac cream, it is not very good.

Tolly,

An inexpensive cream that I think works very well is Speick. "I leick Speick," or so it would go if Speick were running for office.

As I understand it SRD will start offering some Speick products soon, so it might be worth the wait as they also carry some of the products others have recommended.

good shaving

Soaps:
1. Tabac
2. Mama Bear (All of them!)
3. Proraso
4. The Shave Den: Mojito (Great smell!)

They are all good choices, no one mentioned SRD's soaps. They are the most overlooked soaps and probably the best. (Lynn and Don) Lynn is the founder of this forum. They are excellent. We just had a group buy for Rose Otto soap and they still have some left. They have other fragrances to choose from, and from what I understand, they may have some new ones coming out. It's probably the best lather I've seen in a soap. I tried em all..Give SRD's a try. you won't be disappointed....IMO many small soap vendors are way overrated. My Opinion....This is not the case with SRD. If you don't like there soap, I'll buy it off you.

Also, for homemade "Tallow" based soap try Prarie Creations, The girls name is Krissy. That stuff is supposed to be off the hook too.

P.S Tabac is excellent soap. It too is "Tallow based" you can't get better than that....Some guys don't like the smell, other's love it.

Rich

MUST HAVE:

Those are the key words...

There are tons of great suggestions already here, in fact I have most of them...

In all the soaps and creams I have tried so far, which are quite a few, there are only two that I would consider must have...

Soap = Mitchell's Wool Fat

Cream = Castle Forbes

I still in my mind compare everything else I try against these two...