Reviews of 85+ Soaps

Discussion in 'Shave Soaps' started by BaylorGator, Sep 2, 2017.

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  1. Paul Turner

    Paul Turner outside the quote(s) now

    Is it a Hawaiian sandalwood, or more manly(such as from Wet Shaving Products)?
     
  2. BaylorGator

    BaylorGator MISTER Fancypants

    Not sure I'd know the difference Paul. Most Sandalwood scents smell a bit different to me. It was a unique smelling soap with a scent I really liked.
     
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  3. Fly2High

    Fly2High Breaking Frugal

    When comparing soaps, do you find any general trends that can be ascertained from your preferences?

    For me, I find heavily buttered and oiled soaps tend to provide better moisturizing abilities and richer lather. These , so far, tend to be tops for me. I have found that vegan or tallow can make a great soap but I still tend to lean more often towards tallow soaps. I prefer a denser and thicker lather and tallow tends to have those attributes. Then again, I have found some vegan that can out do tallow as well.

    When you have a chance and/or when all is said and done here, it would be cool to see what your conclusions are and if any insight is gained such that prognostication of an unknown soap could be performed as to whether you might have a preference.
     
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  4. BaylorGator

    BaylorGator MISTER Fancypants

    Hoping to wind down my own soaps before box #4 gets here, I pulled out some early "mass market" creams that I bought when I was first introduced to traditional wet shaving. Proraso (cream) and Body Shop Maca Root (cream) were inexpensive and so much better than canned goo, I thought they were the greatest thing since sliced bread when I bought them. Now having sampled so many great soaps since then, I'd say these two are good, but not in the same league as my favorites. Side by side comparisons completely surprised me as the Maca Root clearly made the better, slicker, more cushiony lather of the two. Not much residual slickness out of either one. I know there are big fans out there of both of these creams, and again, they are good products. Just not enough comeback sauce for me to keep either one. PIF time soon.
     
  5. SharptoothC

    SharptoothC I bite..........

    I agree that Maca Root is the better of the two. I still use mine on occasion, and am almost always pleased when I do.

    Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk
     
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  6. BaylorGator

    BaylorGator MISTER Fancypants

    I see why, Chris. It's a good cream. If it had a standout scent I'd bump it up to where I have TOBS ranked. I just don't gravitate to mildly scented soaps & creams.
     
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  7. SharptoothC

    SharptoothC I bite..........

    Oh I totally get it. Scent is a large part of the experience for me too.

    Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk
     
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  8. BaylorGator

    BaylorGator MISTER Fancypants

    This morning's shave was my first with Wild West Shaving Co. I'd heard a great deal of buzz about them, so was curious to try them out. For me the buzz was a bit overblown. Let's start with the good, though. Overall, the soap provided me with a nice smooth shave. Not a standout in any particular area for me, and I felt like protection might have been lacking a bit as I really "felt the blade" this morning, but all in all still a good shave. Now, the reasons why it won't end up in my den: 1) The puck itself was way too small to use for loading a brush. It's two ounces, but in one of the smallest diameter plastic tins imaginable for the puck size. If I were to keep and use this soap, I'd have to spread it out in a larger tin for it to be usable at all. Annoying. 2) The scent didn't thrill me. I used "James and Artemus" which is described as "Rose, Bourbon, Leather, Vanilla & Steam...Punk!" Strange combo. Unique for sure, but not really my thing. Could a better scent and a larger tin change my mind? Maybe, but at this point in the game there are just too many soaps that just reach out and grab me to mess with any that don't. Having said that, this soap is small and inexpensive enough that it's probably worth a flyer if you think it might be your thing.
     
  9. SharptoothC

    SharptoothC I bite..........

    Pretty much nailed my assessment of it.

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  10. Paul Turner

    Paul Turner outside the quote(s) now

    As I believe I wrote in an earlier post, I'd like to see him get his soaps to 4 oz. That will attract me more. But his scents sound pretty good.
     
  11. BaylorGator

    BaylorGator MISTER Fancypants

    This whole review thing has shifted my view of soaps and creams a bit. Today I shaved with Pacific Shave Co.'s Caffeinated Shave Cream. I bought it because of an online review (I think Sharpologist) that rated it highly, and I have commented in the past how I've enjoyed this cream. Now I find it just average. There's nothing wrong with average, mind you. It gets the job done, and allows this cream to land in a spot at retail where it's available at a great price to the general public. Is it worth more than the $5 price tag? Absolutely. It's a good cream. A bit drying (maybe the caffeine), but still a good shave, all in all.

    So why am I willing to pay $20-30 for a soap, if this one is out there getting the job done for $5? I hate to admit it, but after reviewing 50+ soaps, average doesn't do it for me anymore. Yes, it gets me from point A to point B without incident, but shaving has become more of a Zen thing for me now. It's been at least a year since I transitioned from the "save money on carts" phase and moved into the "maximize the experience" phase. Does this make me a soap snob? I dunno, one of my favorite soaps is Stirling, which will give you an outstanding 1 oz. soap sample for about $3 and will last you more shaves than most tubes of cream. It's not about price, it's about experience.
     
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  12. BaylorGator

    BaylorGator MISTER Fancypants

    Today, after jettisoning some of my creams, I came to the last cream in the Den; Speick. I'm not sure if I automatically prefer soaps for superior slickness and protection, or if there are just so many soaps out there as compared to creams that the best performers (and some of the worst performers) just happen to be soaps. I'm curious what others think or have experienced about this. Either way, I expected to jettison my Speick after this shave, particularly after the first pass lacked a bit of slickness and protection. Adding a little water improved things, and by the third pass I'd gotten close to a BBS shave. I think I'll have shave it head to head against TOBS and/or Maca Root to see if the rest of the tube stays or goes. Hard to argue with the results, though.
     
    Last edited: Mar 8, 2018
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  13. BaylorGator

    BaylorGator MISTER Fancypants

    Wow. How many more soaps could possibly be out there? The just keep coming. They also are having a harder and harder time standing out. Today was a side by side shave between Castle Forbes (cream) and Dapper Dragon. Both provided great results. Although a bit expensive, I think castle Forbes is as good a cream as you can get as long as you like one of their relatively straightforward scents. Dapper Dragon Tiamat is a great barbershop scent. Both of these soaps rate a solid B for me, but depending on your scent preferences might be bumped up a bit as their performance is really solid.
     
  14. Bookworm

    Bookworm Well-Known Member

  15. BaylorGator

    BaylorGator MISTER Fancypants

    Chiseled Face - Ghost Town Barber is a great scent - Barbershop and has a bit of gunpowder scent in it.
     
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  16. Paul Turner

    Paul Turner outside the quote(s) now

    A reviewer for Ghost Town Barber said that it has a nice mix of manly ingredients. I agree.
     
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  17. SHAVEWIZARD420

    SHAVEWIZARD420 Well-Known Member


    I actually like that Wild West offers soaps in 2oz size. It makes it easier to try multiple scents to find what you like best, some of them are pretty complex and we'll blended. I usually treat it like a cream and scoop some out to bowl lather, but could transfer it to a wider Container.

    As far as performance, it is a great soap, but have noticed the water tolerance gap is not that wide. Lather seems to work best when I use less water than other soaps, which takes some getting used to since I like to add as much water as possible to lather. Not the best soap I have used, but the more I experiment with it the better it gets.

    Russell is a great artisan to do business with, shipping is fast, plus he threw a tin of 2017 Seasonal soap in my last order which is a great scent, although one I wouldn't have ordered based off scent discription. Plus he has a utube channel with lather videos n stuff showing the kind of lather one can get with Wild West soaps.
     
  18. BaylorGator

    BaylorGator MISTER Fancypants

    Today I squared off two old school shaving sticks against each other; La Toja vs Palmolive. I gotta be honest, I’m not much of an old school shave stick guy, so I’ve gotta rank these just below Arko. Both provided a more than adequate shave; just not my thing. YMMV. I did, coincidentally, read a thread today discussing how well softer soaps perform as shave sticks, so I may make up a frankesoap from some extra Stirling soap I have on hand. I’ll be combining Pharaoh’s Dreamsicle and Orange Chill into “Pharaoh’s Chilly Orange Creamsicle”. We’ll see what happens.
     
    Last edited: Mar 13, 2018
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  19. SHAVEWIZARD420

    SHAVEWIZARD420 Well-Known Member


    Palmolive is a great shave stick. I grated mine and put it in a plastic tub since I prefer to lather a puck compared to a stick but it's personal peeference. Palmolive has that clean soapy type of neutral scent. Not as Polorizing as Arko that's for sure.
     
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  20. Giova1949

    Giova1949 New Member

    Then? Since March 11th, you haven't written. We're in pain.
     

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