Thread: Sensitive skin! Which soap?

Hi,..
Which shaving soap would you experts recommend for sensitive skin?

Retro, I am not a dermatologist, but I have found, from experience, that many of the French soaps laden with shae butter do well for sensitive skin. Also soaps with aloe. Martin de Candre, Provence Sante, Institute Karite, eShave, and O'Occitane comes to mind. The aloe soap by Edwin Jagger works, too. I would also recommend to avoid soaps with heavy scents.

@ Obie

Thank you

Originally Posted by Obie

Retro, I am not a dermatologist, but I have found, from experience, that many of the French soaps laden with shae butter do well for sensitive skin. Also soaps with aloe. Martin de Candre, Provence Sante, Institute Karite, eShave, and O'Occitane comes to mind. The aloe soap by Edwin Jagger works, too. I would also recommend to avoid soaps with heavy scents.

In addition to what Obie says I would also recommend the unscented soaps from Moma Bear and SRD if you like the glycerin based soaps. My skin is relatively sensitive and does well with the Palmolive cream and the Real Shave Co cream (although the stuff from Real Shave Co. doesn't provide as high quality a lather as the palmolive but it is available at rite aid here in the states).

Retro, Thx for asking this one.

FWIW, the honorable Obie and Bharner, I think are giving you very good input. I've wondered if Obie talks to God about soaps & creams. There's no input I've found better. I've not tried each of his recommendations, but have eshave, I Coloniali (recommended in another thread) on the way, and my all time fav was his recommended Provence Sante. I hope to be in a tax bracket to try Martin de Candre some day.

I enjoy a deficit in the sense of smell, which lets me focus on the shaving properties. My first few shaves w/ Provence Sante, required no after shave treatment of any kind. 'Skin was moist without any further treatment.

I'd second the shea butter component. My normal treatment after shave is a splash of cheap witch hazel, and a mixture of 100% Aloe gel with Jergen's Shea butter hand lotion. If you check ingred. on the Jergens, Shea is, I think, the 3rd ingredient, indicating a generous amount. It may be the combination of heavy beard and sensitive skin (his description) that enables Obie to search for and find the good stuff for sensitive skin. We're all better for his recommendations.

Mitchell’s Wool Fat soap is the most protective soap according to my opinion.

I even use it as aftershave treatment applying leather after the last pass and leaving it for 2-3 minutes and then removing it and going ahead with the balsam.

MWF contains lanolin, that some are irritated by though. But it's a very moisturizing soap for sure.

unfortunately I can only find Edwin Jagger, Mitchel Wool Fat and Palmolive here in denmark.

Do you know any thing about a brand called Nanny's?

If you have hyper-sensitive skin you never know what will give you problems. You probably need to check the ingredients and see if there is anything that is harsh or that may give you problems. Most manufacturers will tell you what's in their soaps.

Originally Posted by Blix

MWF contains lanolin, that some are irritated by though. But it's a very moisturizing soap for sure.

I have heard that some classic shavers have reported irritation using a lanoline-based soap such as MWF. However, this is the exception of the rule, the rule is that lanoline protects and calms the irritation of a sensitive skin in most cases according to my opinion. I insist that MWF soap is a very good solution for sensitive skin classic shavers like me.