I have been realizing that I now find lathering easy with a synthetic brish and bowel. Usually I lather on my neck too and spend only 20 to 30 seconds making a great lather. Recently, I thought I might try some bar soaps for shaving. I tried Zest green, and it was okay and smelled good. I tried some white Costco bar, and it was similar. I tried Irish Spring Original, Icy Blast, and Moisturize Blast. All of them beat Clubman and lather decently! I tried Leaver 2000 and it also made superb shaving cream. I am less convinced that special saving soaps are really anything special. A cheap brush does better than any canned goo with consumer-grade body soap! Crazy how many years I bought canned shave gels because it’s how I was taught and it just made sense. I do think Parasso does slightly better and Taylor of Olde Bond street is the best even beating Stirling. That said, I am not convinced the right bar soap and brush won’t be just as good.
The big problem for me (and maybe not for you) is that bar soap will dry your skin out and is not as lubricating. I’ve tried shaving with bar soaps after someone else mentioned it years ago. Got a rough shave and dry, irritated face from it. YMMV……
Bar soap for the shower, shave soap for the shave. And as long as I can afford both... But that's me. It's your shave. Enjoy it your way.
There's a difference between a good lather and "pretty" lather - a lather that performs well vs a lather that just looks good.
I have shaved with bar soaps quite a bit. My number one problem with them is that they get 'crispy' fairly quickly. By 'crispy' I mean they seem to dry out and disappear far quicker than shaving soaps do. This can be partially alleviated by either mixing them slightly wetter, or adding more water to them in between passes. Dove+ Men Care has a 3 in 1 soap bar that they say on the packaging can be used to shave. I see it at the Dollar (25) Tree periodically, and I've used it to shave more than once. I've also used some of the tallow-based Yardley soaps. Lots of people report they have success using Ivory, and decades ago Ivory even advertised their product as being suitable for shaving. Pears makes a facial bar that also shaves well for me ( pictured below ) My follow up issue with bar soaps used for shaving is that many of them start to irritate my face after repeated use since most of these are soaps tend to be drying to skin. So occasional uses are fine for me but it's not something I tend to do long term. If it work for you then that's actually very cool. Pears ( also makes a great pre-shave soap ) Yardley Lavender Dove
Where do you get Pears and Yardley soaps? Obviously, Dove is easy to find. Here is my take on any shave soap whether it is intended for shaving or showering... Put it into some kind of bowl or mug Use high quality water if you don't have soft water you might want to try some distilled water Make the water very HOT and put a good half cup or more on top of the soap and let it sit for 20 seconds to a minute to soften. The above softens the soap, so it will lather extremely well! Pour the water off into the shave brush to wet and heat the brush.... then make a LOT of quality lather. Pre-soak/pre-heat your face a bit, around the time you are preheating your soap...
both pears and yardley soaps are available at select drug/grocery stores as well as dollar stores here in canada.as is dove men 3 in 1 soap.all lather well without drying skin. Imperial Leather bar soap works very well also.very slick..and available at some stores and online stores.
I don’t like body wash. It smells good and works but lasts about a week, creates a bunch more plastic waste, I shaved with Ivory today and a shave brush. It made good lather but didn’t hold up great in that the bubbles popped a bit early. It was slick enough to shave with, but I didn’t care for the smell. Also it left my face slightly itchy. Not saying it was a bad shave only that I have had better.
Personally I think Dove Men + care 3 in 1 makes a great rich, long lasting hydrating slick lather. I prefer to shave and press a bar into a bowl and puck lather adding a bit of water as needed. I've tried it next to a few great shave soaps like Tabac Arko and Cella, The Dove lathered just as well. I have noticed that many shavers here gather the soap off the a hard soap, then lather in a bowl, I think Dave and hard soaps was made with on the puck lathering in mind. I was taught by my Dad and Uncles, that the use of an empty bowl was for a cream out of a tube or jar, but that was over 60 years ago. Don't mind me, I sometimes forget there is not much of a wrong way to shave.
