I bought a puck today. Smells like freshly cracked black pepper to me. Will give it a whirl later.

Sounds yummy.
(do not eat it!)

Oh, I'll just grate it up and use it to season my dinner

That seems like a fair compromise.

Sooo...gave it a try this morning. I could not get the lather to last from one pass to the next. Didn't get a particularly close shave. However, I will say that six hours later my face still feels moisturized, how weird is that? The scent is different, and I like it. As I said before, mostly notes of black pepper.

Maybe someone with softer water will have better luck with this one. I'm going to add it to the traveling box when it arrives.

Sounds like it would be a nice bath soap, then.

Another one? Just like the Herban Cowboy, NYR Men and Route One Pumpkins soaps. I have tried a couple more that were the same way, and also read accounts of other soaps that had the same characteristics.

I don't get it. Why do some soapmakers make shaving soaps this way? Don't they ever test their products before offering them for sale? If not, then why? If so, then why were the problems not fixed before the soap was offered for sale? There are plenty of artisans and companies who do get it right, so it is quite possible to create a good shaving soap.

Maybe these are simply bath soaps repackaged as shaving soaps?

Not quite as simple as that. For as many people that like how a particular soap performs there are as many that doesn't.
It often comes down to what type of water you have but also things like what the person have used in the past and can use as reference, skill/technique, face vs bowl/scuttle lathering, type of brush...phase of the moon.

So no, these are most likely not "bath soaps repackaged as shaving soaps" and I'm pretty sure the vendor tried the formula out a number of times - but as I said soaps often perform differently from person to person. Just like razor blades, razors, balms and aftershaves...

With all respect, you may be jumping to a conclusion on this soap. I bought a puck and it is getting regular use. Nice scent; slick, comfortable lather. No regrets; would buy again. Great shipping.

Same here?

Except f0r the phase of the moon part, I agree with that. If one compares a soap to canned foam or gel, they will have a different opinion of it than if they have used excellent soaps such as Mike's Natural. Just for the record, here are some of the soaps that have worked particularly well for me:

• Arko shave stick
• CVS Sensitive Skin Beauty Bar
• Institut Karite
• Kell's Original
• L'Occitane Cade
• Mike's Natural
• Prairie Creations Tallow and Lanolin
• Tabac
• Valobra Crema di Sapone Purissima
• Van Der Hagen Deluxe

These soaps also worked well:

• Em's Place
• Col. Conk

My Whole Foods has an assortment of Badger products in addition to other soaps/creams. I was surprised. I've yet to try them- probably should check on-line prices first.

Perhaps you are right, so I bought a puck and have been using it for the past week. What I found confirmed blanka's take on the soap, although it smells more of bergamot than pepper to my nose. Scent is very subjective, though, and the soap ingredients list does show both scents. I also found that some aspects of the soap are very good. Here is my review:

Badger Shave Soap Review

This review is motivated partly out of curiosity and partly from varying opinions of this soap in this thread. Some posters gave it a thumbs up, while others said the lather was poor. One poster stated that the shave was not all that close. It is often opined, with some justification, that water hardness can inhibit soap lathering. The water is relatively soft where I live, so water hardness won't be a factor in lathering the soap. Does it rock? Does it suck? And how about lather quality? OK, time to find out for myself. Here is what I found.

Website: www.badgerbalm.com




Overall: (7/10)

What I found was that Badger Shave Soap is not terribly bad, but also not particularly good. As with some other shaving soaps, this is primarily due to a very short-lived lather. In all fairness, I have used some truly outstanding shaving soaps, which sets the bar higher than if I had used only canned shaving cream or gel previously. Compared to canned gel, Badger Shave Soap does deliver a better shave.


Ease of lathering: (8/10)

The soap is about average in the ease of lathering department. It is not super easy to lather, but is by no means difficult. Lather can be generated using little or much water in the brush, with the consistency varying accordingly. It readily face lathers, too. It is easier to whip up a lather with the boar brush than with the badger brush, as is the case with some soaps. Except when face lathering, I lathered this soap in a mug.




Life span of lather: (4/10)

The lather starts disappearing almost immediately after being applied to my face. As with other soaps that exhibit this behavior, a thin, clear lubricating film is left behind after the lather vanishes. This film dries very quickly, so re-lathering once or sometimes twice was necessary for each pass. Each pass needed to be done quickly due to the short-lived lather. I tried lathering with much water in the brush, little water in the brush, boar brush, badger brush, mug lathering and face lathering. The lather longevity was pretty much the same each time.


General skincare: (9/10)

Badger Shave Soap is certainly not lacking when it comes to skincare. It leaves my face feeling very good indeed after the morning's shave, and not greasy at all. In fact, my face still feels really good several hours later. High marks for Badger soap in this regard!


Lubrication: (7/10)

This soap is slick enough to do the job, but is a less slick than most other shaving soaps I have used. With a really good razor and blade combination, there was not any great degree of tugging and pulling. It did require more passes to get a reasonably close shave, however. Five or six passes were required, as opposed to the usual three or four with most soaps that work well for me. Even then, the shaves are not particularly smooth, and that with a razor and blade combination that has delivered some very smooth shaves in the past.


How protective: (9/10)

One would think that with such a short-lived lather this soap would not be very protective. Surprisingly, the exact opposite turned out to be true. Badger Shave Soap is very protective. I got zero nicks, cuts, weepers or irritation when using this soap, ever with a six-pass shave. Kudos to the Badger for a job well done in this category!


Scent: (8/10)

The soap smells like the fragrant Earl Grey tea, which is expected as both contain bergamot. Badger shave soap is very lightly scented. I don't like soaps with an overly strong scent, but even I find this scent very faint. I do like the Earl Grey tea/bergamot scent, though. Scent is highly subjective, however, so your take on this might well vary from mine.


Price: (7/10)

This soap was $11.99 at the local Whole Foods market. This seems to be a little pricey for what I am getting. The Badger Shave Soap puck is 2-3/4 inches (69.9 mm) in diameter and 3/4 inch (19 mm) high. It weighs 3.15 ounces (89.3 grams).


Would you buy again: (4/10)

No, probably not. The very short lather lifespan is the deal killer. For me, it negates the soap's good qualities.


Shaving soap ingredients:

As shown on the box:

Badger Shaving Soap Ingredients: Sodium Palmate (Organic Palm Oil & Sodium Hydroxide), Sodium Cocoate (Organic Coconut Oil & Sodium Hydroxide), Water (Aqua), *Glycerin, *Butryospermum Parkii (Shea) Butter, *Citrus Aurantium Bergamia (Bergamot) Peel Oil, Sodium Citrate, *Vetiveria Zizanoides (Vetivert) Root Oil, *Aloe Barbadensis (Aloe) Leaf Juice, *Santalum Album (Sandalwood) Oil *Elettaria Cardamomum (Cardamom) Seed Oil, *Vanilla Planifolia (Vanilla) Fruit Extract, *Piper Nigrum (Black Pepper) Fruit Oil, *Commiphora Myrrha (Myrrh) Resin Extract.

* = Certified Organic


Brushes used:

Dovo 918052 pure badger
Omega 50014 boar travel brush

Note that although the Dovo brush is sold as a pure badger, the brush characteristics and cost indicate that it is actually a better grade than pure.

My water hardness:

53 ppm as CaCO3 (soft)

The water hardness was taken from my utility's latest water quality annual report. The scale below was used to correlate water ppm to the soft/hard rating, and is from the

US Geological Survey website.

Water hardness scale (as CaCO3):

0-60 mg/l: Soft
61-120 mg/l: Moderately hard
121-180 mg/l: Hard
Over 180 mg/l: Very hard

mg/l is milligrams per liter
Some utilities give water hardness in parts per million (ppm)
1 mg/l = 1 ppm (not exactly, but very, very close)

Great review. I almost used my puck tonight but will probably use next shave.

I picked some up last time I was in Denver (Whole Foods, maybe). I enjoyed the scent but that was about it for me. I found it lacking but that's JMO.

Nice review!

The mixed results and high price of this one make it one I'll definitely skip. Too bad, because the scent sounds like something I'd like.

I have tried it. My girlfriend bought me some as a gift. I hate it. To me, it is average in nearly every single way. The exceptions are the package, which is above average, and the lather quality, which is below average. If it was a couple bucks, it wouldn't bother me a bit. But for $12, I am very disappointed with the quality. Maybe the problem is me, I am certainly willing to consider that, but I cannot get a good lather out of this stuff. I have tried boar, badger, hot water and cold, dry brush, wet brush, dry puck, moist puck, soaking the puck, you name it. And at best I get a loose soapy lather. Like you might get lathering hand soap. But YMMV and all that. Me and this soap just might not mix. I have certainly read similar reviews for soaps I love and thought 'how is that soap not working for this guy? It's great stuff!'... apparently now I am that guy.

Hmmm... possibly, but I and at least one other person also had problems with the lather. Some folks here reported good results, though. Hey guys, those of you who get good results with Badger Shave Soap, could you do your brothers in wetshaving a solid? Please let us know what brush you were using, amount of water in the brush, water hardness, etc. If there is a known good method to get this soap to work well, I would certainly like to know what it is. Such insights would benefit us all.

Another excellent review. Looking at the list of ingredients I only note one item that can reduce lather (under certain combinations) and that is Shea Butter. This is like another soap I have tried that has the same problem of a great scent and not so great lather. That soap is Vermont Country Store shaving soap. The lather disappears before the first pass is made at times. I do like the scent though.

CVS Sensitive Skin Beauty Bar worked as a shave soap?