Thread: good first soap

I'll say without a doubt from what I've tried Mitchell's Wool Fat is the best for my skin. HOWEVER, I feel like it would be a crappy first soap because it is a little finicky. Go with proraso. It is great and easy to use and cheap. However it has menthol, dunno if that will hurt your skin or not.

+3 on Tabac. The scent is not really that strong, it lathers great, moisturizes, provides a nice glide, and is inexpensive and lasts forever.

Probably the best and easiest to buy in person is not a soap, but a cream, CO Bigelow (ie. Proraso) from Bath and Body works.

Hey there! I'm a newb and I've only tried one shaving soap so far, but here's my experience...

My skin is fairly sensitive. It HATES some dyes and chemical-y fragrances. This is part of why I wound up using plain soap to shave for years - all that foam-in-a-can crap was just loaded with chemicals that made my skin burn. So I just used plain, unscented, white soap. Most of the fragrances in soaps these days just smells like a chemistry lab to me - maybe because I know what it's going to do to my skin.

I was lucky enough to try out Mama Bear's Chocolate Mousse as my first soap. I was a bit concerned about it being scented, but I had a look at the site and it has a very "home-made" feel to it, unlike most of the soaps/foams I tried, and it also smelled much more agreeable somehow, so I decided to go for it.

Holy cow. It's an entirely different animal.

My skin felt perfect afterwards, despite my ailing blade (long story short, I kinda killed it whilst stropping - it will be back any day now!). Soft, no burn, no redness.

Mama Bear's also lathered REALLY quickly and REALLY well, even on my first attempt, and despite my hard water. So that was another awesome aspect.

Basically, I love it all-around.

But I suspect this also has something to do with its intended purpose. It's relatively easy to make your own shaving soap (hard to master, but easy to start anyway). Most of the ingrediants are pretty simple things, and it's intended for your face - some of the most sensitive skin on your body.

So really, I suspect this is true of many brands of shaving soap. But, as I only have experience with Mama Bear, I can recommend that highly. I think there is a selection of "natural" scents, as well as unscented. Have a look.

Originally Posted by khaos

I'll say without a doubt from what I've tried Mitchell's Wool Fat is the best for my skin. HOWEVER, I feel like it would be a crappy first soap because it is a little finicky. Go with proraso. It is great and easy to use and cheap. However it has menthol, dunno if that will hurt your skin or not.

I would be careful with the Fat. I know it's recommended for sensitive skins, but as the lanolin content is so high, it has made some people get a stinging sensation. I remember it went up my nose (sic) when I tried it and I got quite a stinging sensation, which meant I was left doing nose-gargles. Yes - I'm serious!