You are far more likely to run across Prorazo products, which are also excellent, and far cheaper. Bolzano blades are made in Italy, and would be another thing to keep your eyes peeled for.
a bit late to the party, but Spain, Greece and Ukraine are turning out some amazing soaps, and apart from a handful of U.S, Canadian and U.K artisans make up over a third of my soap collection.. Los Jabones De Joserra Xabons Xavieiro Eufros BBS Grooming Cult HAGS Savon Mystere Areffa
I wasn't either until he sent it. Hard to describe. I'd say it qualifies as one that can support any aftershave. The soap itself is very good.
@Jayaruh, can you help @jwr3265 find info on making a purchase of that Ukraine soap? He appears interested. I told him to contact @wristwatchb , since he PIFed it to me, but I see you sent it to @wristwatchb in the first place.
Late to the party, but I have my list of past and current. Past would be English, Italian, French. Current would be Italian, French and various artisan's that pop out everywhere. I'm glad I stocked up on the old English soaps before they deteriorated to a point, it is hard to use. I still have loads of old Penhaligon's English Fern, Blenheim Bouquet, Floris 89, and some others.
Every time I try to list some soap artisans I like, others come along and I end up ADDING to the original set. But that's a nice problem to have.
This I never knew. By the way the Netherlands has some fantastic artisan soaps such as Scheermonnik, Biolijf, and Brick. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
In my honest and unbiased opinion South Africa has a LOT of great artisan soap companies. Some of them which come to mind are: Master Soap Creations Bundubeard Simply Bee Wriggly Tin River Valley Trading Rondavel Gilly’s Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I'm glad you have Mystic Water among who you call top tier soap makers...I may try that artisan sometime. I have a Mike's, but his unscented offering. I like it though.
I just bought two Master SPLASH Creation aftershaves-perhaps along the same line as Master SOAP Creations?
I remember hearing a lot about South African shaving soaps several years ago, with many positive comments. Thank you for reminding us! It is good to have so many artisan soapmakers around, especially with some longtime soapmakers going out of business. Mitchell's Wool Fat closed its doors, as did Kiss My Face. Fortunately, the latter was revived by an investment firm, but it is still good to have all the artisans as a backup.
This thread has been an interesting read. I don't consider myself experienced enough with traditional-type shave soaps yet to rank countries. I started safety-razor-shaving with foam-in-a-can products. Soaps I've had very good to excellent results with on my sensitive (fragile??) skin came from: Spain (LEA), Italy (Saponificio Verasino, Proraso), USA (Moon (very best), Stirling, Rex, Zingari Man) France is not on the list, though I have used Martin de Candre. It is a thoroughly adequate soap, it just isn't any better for me than those above, and in fact is slightly below the best I've had. I've tried others, like Edwin Jagger's hard pucks and some additional American brands, and also found them to work well. Some of them just work _differently_ though, and scent is an entirely other matter for me. I'm _very_ sensitive to scents, and so super-particular about them. Overall I've had better performance from tallow-based soaps, but don't claim that's exclusively BECAUSE of the tallow vs vegetable fats. I only comment on performance outcome for me.
