Among the better artisans, there really isn't a bad shaving soap!

i have been going through a variety of shaving soaps from the passaround box. I have tried Stirling, Dapper Dragon, Caties Bubbles , Mama Bear, Saponificio Varesino, Castle Forbes, Barrister &Mann, Trufitt & Hill to name a few. In addition to these, I have tried the king of shave soaps, Martin de Candre. All have their followers and with some level of tuning and decent water, they are all very good to excellent. I doubt you can go wrong with any of them.

Is this typical of most artisan soaps and big name soaps?

Have you found this also true?
Have any disappointed?

Have I just been lucky or lack the ability to truly know what a good soap is?

 

You answered your own question - you're dealing with the better artisans.
There's a reason.

 

Try Route 66 if you get the opportunity. @Salty Belle can make soap brother.

 

Sure we all can have a bad experience or grab a scent we might not care for.

Just curious if I still need to attain the skill to either build lather that will show the differences or they are just too tight

 

I grabbed some samples from the ones the vendor sent. I am looking forward to trying them as well. With all the great reviews, its got to be good

 

True. It's more a matter of avoiding the few bad ones out there. (And finding the right load plus water-to-soap ratio for each one, because this differs, and some soaps have a narrower sweet spot than others.)

For some people it's also a matter of avoiding allergens.

 

Well, I tried Rt66 Cranberry Citrus and must have mucked up the water ratio because it was thin, slick and shiny but dissipated quickly. Being a sample, I grabbed what I had left and it did help but the typical teaspoon of water than is usually insufficient for Stirling and many others seems to be too much for a demitasse spoon of Rt66 soap (1-1.5 gr). Using more soap made it usable but it was not up to the Stirling or other better standards. I could not for the life of me get a full bowl of lather as well. All the soap I used and it would not build loft.

I have other Rt66 to try but I did not do them justice. Will need to try another Rt66 sample with very little water and start from there.

 

I won't mention any names but I came across an artisan who is no longer in business. His soaps were the worst I ever tried. I bought two of them and the scents were good, but the performance was terrible. I also paid way too much for them. It's possible that even Williams works better than these two pieces of junk.

 

Theyre all pretty good, you will find that some soaps dry out your skin more than others.

 

We're very luck right now, great products at very competitive pricing.

 

i am happy with all my soaps/creams.will try new ones as i use them up.some i will reorder,others not.we have tons of great products today.makes good shaves better shaves. imagine if only williams existed today...

 

Arko!

 

Artisan huh?

 

I guess he was more of a scent-man than any other aspect of a shave soap.

 

After my use of it this morning, I now look forward to trying a warm-weather brand. Course Arizona heat is drier than here.

 

The soaps had good scents. One was lavender and the other was nondescript but it had a nice scent. The lather was no good at all.

 

I think it's art.

 

Kevin of Country Club for Men made me shave soap for my expensive Creed colognes Spice&Wood and Bois-du-Portugal. At the same time he began offering his own soaps on his site. I really enjoy the soaps he made and he is an expert at scenting them too. I even manged to get aftershaves and deodorant sticks of the same scents from him. All excellent. He's an ace at making this stuff. I wish he would expand his product lineup a bit more because he made great stuff. I think people should check out what he sells. People should ask him to make them some of the Spice&Wood or Bois-du-Portugal stuff. I want him to carry those scents permanently because he is the ONLY vendor I know of who can make soaps in those scents for my $300+ colognes and make them a convincing enough match that I can pair them and not even know anything different is at play. I would say that Kevin's soap that he made me reminds me a lot of PAA's soap.

https://countryclubformen.com/collections/vegan-shave-soaps

 

I've been seriously loving Soap Commander as a fantastic artisan. I've especially loved their scentless. Integrity - an amazing latherer and new champ in my den. I've been diggin' non-tallow based soaps lately.

 

Why you crackin on Williams?

A lot more people would be loving the Williams goodness.