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I've been using SRD soap, and like how it's slicker than the Bigelow cream, but wish the lather was a little thicker and stayed wetter longer. Are the Tabac, Harris, Trumpers or MWF soaps any better than the SRD soaps in terms of their lather's cushion, glide, and "stays wet" times ? (ie: Is the extra cost versus the SRD soap because it's imported ?)
ps: Scent is not important to me, and I don't have hard water.
Experimentation is one of the fun parts of this hobby. I just got some samples of SRD soap a week ago. Try a pea sized drop of the Bigelow cream in with the SRD soap and see what happens. (Uberlather?)
The SRD soaps are very good IMO.
I would actually rate it higher than Tabac and on par with the others you mention.
Only a few soaps have performed better than the SRD soaps for me, Martin de Candre and Czech and Speak's 88 are two of them.
That said, there are lots of variables affecting the outcome though.
Water quality, hardness and temperature seems to change performance on most products I've used.
The suggestion Joe makes is a good one.
Überlather is fun to play around with:)
Good luck finding your own favorite soap:)
JohnG10: I dare say the soap with the "best lather" does not exist. With hundreds of soap brands produced worldwide how does one determine the one with the best lather? It's impossible. Not only that, but with millions of people using these soaps one can expect millions of different opinions.
The soaps you mention in your post are all quality soaps, each with its own characteristics and following among gentlemen shavers. Which has the "best lather" is, again, difficult to determine. Best lather for whom? Are Mitchell's Wool Fat, Tabac, Harris, Trumper better than the SRD soap? Some will say yes and some no — and we're back where we started.
A quality soap must have luxurious lather that is moist and that provides good cushion and glide. Yet, there is another requirement: How does that soap leave one's face after the shave? All these questions can be answered, but not completely, because faces are different, techniques are different, and individual requirements are different.
The proper way to determine which soap has the "best lather" — for you individually — is to try all. Stay well.
From best to fantastic for Me, YMMV. All are straight soap non Uber.
RazoRock Artisan
MDC
Castle Forbes
Cella
La Toja
tie(Col Conk and SRD)
These are the only soaps I have but I have multiple scents in CF and SRD. I did not rate Tabac as I hate it. Again YMMV but it is a thin weak lather for me and the scent is iffy. All the rest are Creams. That being said I have a ton of them. Geo F Trumper, TOBS, Acca Kappa, Truefitt &Hill.
All of these are fantastic performers. I have yet to try any others Except the Tabac(which I hate!!!). So that all being said, If I could only have one soap the rest of my life it would be ....... RAZOROCK ARTISAN!!!!!Attachment 77751
Try adding a few drops of glycerin. I stopped using Col. Conk soap awhile back because it would dry out real fast. Last week, I decided to try to add some glycerin, 5-6 drops. It really helped out.
JohnG10,
+1 on Obies' observations.
For me, the best performing soaps are amongst the least expensive :
1) Cella
2) Palmolive - the tallow based shave stick made in Germany
For others, different soaps may work better for them.
The only way of knowing of a soap is good for you is to try it. A bear I know !
Adding a small dollop of 'personal lubricant' can add a lot of extra slickness to the lather, and will also thicken it slightly. I use 'KY' for this purpose.
Good luck in your Quest !
Have fun !
Best regards
Russ
I also find the Palmolive tallow based stick to be a bit of a miracleQuote:
Originally Posted by PhatMan
I have (very) hard water, and it still produces an amazing amount of thick creamy lather.
It is also the princely sum of 34p(€0.39/$0.54/Aus$0.51)
The type of brush you use will also affect the performance of one soap/cream against another - that is to say soap A may be the best for you with a boar brush, and soap B the best if using a badger brush.
Well you are going to get 30 different answers if 30 people post on this. Fact is, with so many products out there and everyone having a personal preference there are just too many variables to give a good answer to this.
For me, a good soap has to be able to take a ton of water without the lather collapsing so that I can get a nice slick shave.
Top of the line for me are:
MdC
AOS (Valobra and C&S use the same formula and are excellent as well)
MWF
I could live on these 3 alone. For budget soaps nothing beats Palmolive tallow stick, speick stick, or cella. Excellent soaps as well. As with everything YMMV
This is a tough one because like everyone has said it's so individual.Every time I get a soap I think is the best Mr Soap Enabler (and you all know who that is) comes along and puts me back to square one.
I think once you get to brands like Harris, Trumpers, MDC, Castle Forbes and similar you reached that upper tier and the differences are small between them. Then it's the subtle qualities that make the difference.
Get some Cella and post me back!! And in 2nd place is a puck of Ogalla Bay Rum soap at West Coast Shaving for 4.75.Both of these are in my rotation and when they run out ,i will reorder them.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnG10
One important point is that "lathering" can take practice.
So tinker with it.
You can take a poor mans soap like Williams and with
practice make a lather that is better than the lather
many beginners generate.
You can use hot water cold water, lots of water
a small amount of water. A little bit of work a lot
of brush time... You can abuse a $7 boar brush
seven ways to saturday night if you like.
If you have Bigelow cream try adding a pea size bit on
a hard soap like Williams.
I never toss a soap unless it makes me sneeze.
I tinker with the ones that seem unsatisfactory until
I figure them out or they are gone down the drain.
It is possible to make a lather a dozen times a day.
Shaving a dozen times will turn your face into hamburger.
Soaps like razors, strops, and even brushes all have pros and cons. If you want a soap with great fluffy lather then you sacrifice moisturizing properties, the reason for this is the best all around bubbly lather comes from coconut oil.. but with that it pulls more oils out of the skin and causes your skin to dry... Now a creamy lather is properties of a moisturizing oil.. like Olive oil and castor oils will give a creamy lather BUT because it doesn't "Cleanse" as much the lather isn't thick.. There most definitely is an in between but it is hard to obtain because creating the perfect mixture is hard to do because even though you get close there are also other factors... Like how pure the oils are, what type of water.. you name it..
Now many people do several things.. Milling is one, and it does improve on the soap performance for several reasons.. the inside of a soap puck never really cures all the way and retains a portion of the water.. so milling it down and pressing it into a mold.. increases the surface area and exposes the inside of the puck to the air thus allowing the water inside (yes I know its minute but it actually makes a difference) to evaporate. Now if you do this three times then it's triple milled... The reasoning is the less moisture in a cold processed soap will increase surface area and allow the entire puck of soap to Mellow, and the true properties of the soap can shine.. The other thing is to mix the soaps to get an Uber lather.. it's just taking the high properties of one soap and mixing them with another.. so you have two performing to desired lather.
Just like Niftyshaving said.. tinker with it.. you will find the combination you want eventually, or look on here to people who have already combined many soaps for this purpose. Another thing that will help is adding glycerine it helps with hydrogen bonding on ANY lather...
I should also note that some folk have issues
with their water.
It is easy to test lathering with purified water.
Most markets have jugs of deionized
or distilled water for use in cloth irons. Compare
and contrast your water with mineral water.
Water softeners will often exchange one ion
for another Na for Ca and the result still has a lot
of dissolved solids (TDS) but the result is a water
that does not react "badly" with some soaps.
Distilled near 0 TDS
Deionized near 0 TDS
Pierre 475 TDS
San Pellegrino 960 TDS.
Local tap will range from 5-500
Dissolved solids are often desired as
they can much improve the taste of
water. The wrong dissolved solids
can hurt the taste.
Filters like the Brita filter help some tap
water.
I think "the soap with the worst lather" would be an easier question to deal with. There are far too many great performers out there to nail it down to a few top contenders, let alone #1.
Nifty is absolutely correct. I have a water softener here and I never have an issue with lathering at all. At the house before I had a 5 stage RO filter at the kitchen sink and the rest was just standard tap and if I used the tap water my soaps didn't usually lather very well, but if I used the water from the filter system then it lathered great.. My MWF was the telltale on water quality at the other house... And Ryan82 is right as well.. too many factors to figure out which is the best.. Generally most do a great job...Quote:
Originally Posted by niftyshaving
I've been using TOBS lavender soap for a while with good results, but just picked up some Mitchell's Wool Fat after hearing so many others talk about it. I find the MWF gives me significantly better lather in terms of volume, and seems to stay 'wetter' for longer on my face. The only downside is that the MWF doesn't have the nice smell, so I may start adding a small amount of TOBS cream to solve that problem.
I also concur with all the others that suggest adding a bit of glycerin - works wonders for any soap.
Smoker?Quote:
Originally Posted by SFshaver
MWF is light and subtle...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Birnando
+1 to this. MDC is probably the best soap I've used to date. It's almost like shaving cream. C&S 88 is awesome to. You can get the traveler's size 3 pack, here:
Cambridge Chemists - Czech & Speake No 88 Travellers Shave Soap Refills) This is a good deal, as C&S 88 is expesnsive.
I've always been impressed with SRD's soaps, the performance as well as the fragrance. My favorite remains the Bulgarin Rose Otto. It seems that expensive oil, not only smells intoxicating, but also helps out the lather....Maybe they'll bring it back one day....
I also agree with Obie, Using Shave soaps and creams can be very subjective.
