Reviews of 85+ Soaps

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

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  1. Bookworm

    Bookworm Well-Known Member

    Yes, I've found that Arko is definitely not a moisturizing soap, which a lot of folks seem to demand. However, for me, a slightly drying soap is much better for my face. DSDF.
     
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  2. FaceScraper

    FaceScraper Well-Known Member

    Very fair assessment of Arko, Randy. I like using it sometimes, but it ain't luxury. It's cheap, it lathers easy, and it gets the job done in a hurry. If I had to, I could use it everyday for the rest of my life. But, I don't have to, so I won't. I'll continue to use it the way I generally use it - for days when I'm in a hurry, but not in so much of a hurry to use Barbasol. Or if I'm just "in the mood" for an Arko day.
     
  3. BaylorGator

    BaylorGator MISTER Fancypants

    Before buying my puck of I Coloniai, I mistakenly purchased a tub of the cream, which has been sitting untouched for a few months. Today, on a whim, I decided to test them side by side. They were really comparable in every respect (not what I expected). So much so that I don’t need both and will probably PIF or sell the tube to make room in the den for other soaps. I also slightly downgraded the puck version of the soap to a B. It’s a good soap with an awesome scent and good slickness, but if It wasn’t unobtainium I probably wouldn’t have ponied up the bucks for it. Having said that, I plan to enjoy this tub for as long as it lasts.
     
    Last edited: Feb 18, 2018
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  4. BaylorGator

    BaylorGator MISTER Fancypants

    It's not Wednesday, but the showdown with modern Williams was inevitable. Would it lather? Would it not lather? I know... the suspense is killing you, right? So, I loaded up the brush and went to work. (By the way, for consistency I use a 26mm Maseto or a 26mm Stirling two band for all these reviews (including the side by side ones), so the soaps get not only a fair trial, by two good badger knots that perform almost identically. It also means the soaps have to lather up "Old School" without any boosts from the synthetics; the soaps have to do it on their own.) OK, anyway, the Williams did lather, but it didn't give particularly good lather in my opinion. Made me wonder how it'd compare to the free soap puck I got free with my first crappy $10 badger brush on Amazon. (I actually may have to dig that thing out and try shaving head to head with those two on a day I'm bored.) It also smelled like soap. If you like the smell of soap and are a purist this is fine. Having said that, if you are a purist you probably only need one soap, and I clearly missed that exit on the highway about three states back.

    So in conclusion, despite having learned many a shave trick and technique from Fuzzy, @wchnu and I are going to have to agree to disagree on this one. (Still love you, brother Fuzzy!)
     
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  5. wchnu

    wchnu Duck Season!

    Your Foodoo is weak.... It's ok though more for me!
     
  6. Bookworm

    Bookworm Well-Known Member

    I've been using Williams off and on for a year now, and I found a few things.

    Keep in mind, this is JUST me, and JUST a VDH brush.

    1) If I haven't used it for a while, or when it was new, I have to get the top of the puck soft. (blooming, or at least putting water on the surface to soak in a few times) Then I have to beat it like ringing a bell.
    2)If it's well 'bloomed', I'm using it daily, or at least it's sitting in the mug in the shower and every other day, all I have to do is toss a bit of water on top of the soap before the shower, take my shower, then lather it.

    After that, I paint my face with it - not quite face lathering, as I understand other folks, but a bit more than just laying it on the surface. More working it in. Then I get a good clean shave. It seems to stick around pretty well even after the first round of scraping the soap off. (for buffing)

    I can't do much comparison. In the last year, I've focused on three soaps only. VDH (Pink), ARKO, and Williams. Once I finish off the Williams, I'm going to try either Palmolive or Wilkinson Sword (in a bowl)
     
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  7. BaylorGator

    BaylorGator MISTER Fancypants

    Thanks to a very generous member on another forum, this morning I got to try the first of three samples of soaps that are new to me. This one is Antica Barbieria Colla, otherwise known by the Cool Kids as ABC. (Also known this way by people who don't speak Italian. I only belong in one of those groups, so I'll let you come to your own conclusions on that.) Anyway, this was my first experience with this artisan. When a soap I'm not too familiar with doesn't excite me at all, I just review it and move on. When it performs well, I will often wait to shave side by side against some soaps I am much more familiar with before reviewing it and posting it to the summary sheet. The latter is the case here. However, based on my first shave, I do have some initial thoughts: 1. The scent was a very pleasant almond. Kinda like Cella, but a little more "almondy" and less cherry cordial. Very similar to Klar Seifen, if you've ever tried that one. 2. The lather was really nice. Creamy and protective but still slick. Not as slick as my slickest soaps, but it had a similar look to the lathers of my top soaps. 3. Drama free shave with good results. Stay tuned...
     
    Last edited: Feb 22, 2018
  8. BaylorGator

    BaylorGator MISTER Fancypants

    There's no doubt if you want to go old school that Williams, VDH or Arko will get the job done as well as anything out there. I mean really, lets be honest, it's all just soap, for crying out loud. Having said that, I'm too lazy to souse, bloom, soak, flog or whip my soap, so that leaves Williams SOL for me. As I fell down the rabbit hole of soaps, to me it became more about unique scents and overall experiences. (Stop me if I start sounding too much like Peaches Sunshine, or whatever her name is.) Almost like a guy version of my wife's interest in the spa. Weird? Maybe, but it keeps me off the streets at night. Cheers to Old School, brother @Bookworm!
     
    Last edited: Feb 21, 2018
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  9. Bookworm

    Bookworm Well-Known Member

    Wasn't suggesting you go back to it - you're having fun. I'm just saying that the soap is enormously hard, and obviously not as easy to use as the original formulations. Once you get around that, then it's fine. I suspect that a synthetic might beat the lather better.
     
  10. BaylorGator

    BaylorGator MISTER Fancypants

    Agree 100%. We're on the same page. Any of these soaps should give you a decent shave. (In fact, I'd say Arko can give you a lot better than just a decent shave with very little effort, I just don't love the scent). The point being that a "bad" shave is a lot more likely to be caused by user error than by the soap. To many people blame the soap. Kinda like blaming the football for not being "catchable".
     
  11. Bookworm

    Bookworm Well-Known Member

    Well, I have at least one 'shaving cream' that I'm certain isn't usable. I'm very suspicious of the "Dr. Bronners" as well. Just like the unkickable football, I suspect there's a Lucy involved.
     
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  12. BaylorGator

    BaylorGator MISTER Fancypants

    Shaving with ABC on one side of the face and Boellis on the other side revealed these soaps to be extremely similar. Both generated nice, slick, protective lather and delivered great results. Both have very similar scents as well. I prefer Boellis a bit as the scent is a little stronger and has just a hint of cherry to it, but this is a pretty minor difference between the two. Net, net, both of these soaps remind me of Cella but in my opinion, are a grade better (a bit more refined scents and better performance).
    After shaving with them I looked them up online and discovered the ABC is $70 and the Boellis is $50. Do I think they are worth 4 to 5 times the cost of Cella? Personally, no. (Keep in mind that I rate Cella more highly than many other folks do, so you may find a bigger gap between these soaps than I do). Having said that, if you are a big fan of Italian Almond scented soaps and want to splurge on one of the best, either of these soaps would be an excellent choice.
    At the end of the day, these soaps won’t replace Cella in my den due to the cost/benefit proposition, but I’d still rank them higher and give both an A.

    (Note: after posting this, I did learn that Boellis comes in a large brick, so splitting it with someone gets you a little over 4 oz of soap for about $23. Actually, at that price it IS a good value proposition, and may end up eventually replacing Cella in the den.)

    Another note - for those of you not counting, we just completed review #50. More to come, but I'm running out of steam...
     
    Last edited: Feb 26, 2018
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  13. BaylorGator

    BaylorGator MISTER Fancypants

    The third soap PIF'd to me for review along with the last two was Santa Maria Novella. This is a much softer soap than the first two. Very croapy. (For purposes of this review, that was great, because it's easier to spread a small sample on the bottom of a bowl and lather it easily.) Since I just received a new tub of B&M Sinfonia I decided to shave side by side with them. This soap produced a lather that easily competed with B&M, and might have been a tad better. Rich, thick, slick and protective. (Normally when you get one you compromise on another, and this soap provided it all without compromise.) If you are a purist for performance this might be the soap for you.

    Where it ultimately gets downgraded for me is the two subjective areas that guide my rankings 1) Scent and 2) Comeback Sauce. As far as scent goes, this soap is extremely lightly scented. Right off the bat, that's a bit of a non-starter with me. Great shave, but lacking in the "experience" provided by many of my soaps. Since I have plenty of great performing soaps, I'll stick with those that provide a great scent that adds to the experience and makes me want to repeat it. Additionally, after shaving, I looked up the cost of this soap. $70. Not for me. Overall, it might have offered slightly better performance than the B&M, but both offered me a great shave, no feedback from the Alum. At less than a third of the price and a host of scents that transport me somewhere unique, B&M wins this showdown from me.
     
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  14. Fly2High

    Fly2High Breaking Frugal

    Can you give a description of the Sinfonia scent?
     
  15. BaylorGator

    BaylorGator MISTER Fancypants

    Apricot and Jasmine as advertised, but I get a little of something else uncharacteristic in there too. Hay? Soil? Maybe the apricot back end? Not sure what the third component is or how to describe it. Maybe someone better than me at describing scents can pipe up here. Pretty sure I read that @Drygulch had purchased this scent as well.
     
  16. BaylorGator

    BaylorGator MISTER Fancypants

    Today's contestant - Dirty Deeds (sandalwood). First the positive. This soap smells fantastic, and gave me a fantastic shave. The negative it lathers more like a bath soap than a shaving soap. The bubbles are big and dissipate quickly; so much so that for most of the shave there was no lather on my face. Can it give a great shave? Yes. Could I work with this soap to dial it in better? Possibly. Having said that, there are too many outstanding soaps in my den to go there. This puck was given to me as a gift (which was much appreciated) and this soap will end up being used as one fantastic smelling bath soap as I find its performance to be lower than average.
     
  17. rawfox1

    rawfox1 Well-Known Member

    DON'T STOP!!! you can now go back and start over again at #1. Don't burn out, take your time. This is a very enjoyable and informative post.

    Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
     
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  18. Drygulch

    Drygulch Snowballs

    There is definitely something more to the scent, it has a deeper layer, and it’s not as sweet as it would be with just those two scents. It’s good stuff.
     
  19. BaylorGator

    BaylorGator MISTER Fancypants

    Today's soap was brought to you by @SharptoothC, as he generously gave me his Lisa's Natural Herbal Creations - Black Velvet. Not knowing anything about the soap I wasn't sure if it was something he didn't like and wanted to pass on, or something he loved that he wanted me to try, so I really had no expectations going into this shave. Also, after reviewing over 50 soaps now, there are not that many that stand out above the pack to me, so maybe I should admit my expectations typically tend towards "most artisan soaps are a B". At this point in the game, very few stand out as being significantly better or worse than this , since I feel like I've reviewed most of the "heavy hitters". So, with that, my review:
    Let me start with the bad - the name of this soap has way too many words in it for me to remember without looking it up over and over again. (Yes, I'm being sort of tongue in cheek here, but I had to find something negative to say). On the good side, I have a lot to say. This soap apparently flies under the radar, as I really don't see many comments or SOTD pics of it. Your loss, folks; this is a great soap. Maybe it was because I switched up to my Thater 2 band, but the lather was easily on par with my favorite soaps. Thick, rich and creamy. Slickness and protection was more than sufficient, and the scent was absolutely fantastic. I really thought at this point in the review process I was winding down, and would not be purchasing any more soaps. This one proved me wrong. I've only had one shave with one scent, so I may come back and change my mind, but right now, this soap gets an A and is a keeper for the den. I anticipate buying more of Lisa's Natural Herbal Creations in the future (if I can remember the long name).
     
  20. SharptoothC

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

    I'm glad you enjoyed it. I am a huge fan of Lisa's soaps. I've shared a few pucks in a selfish attempt to get word out so that she keeps on making them.

    Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk
     

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