As has been seen in recent SOTD photos I have been using a shaving soap going by the name Butterface. Here is the description of the product from the seller. Get BUTTERFACE FRENCH MILLED Shaving Soap listing for one 3.5+ oz puck Barbershop Quartet Scent--a delicious traditional barbershop scent, from a blend of pure essential oils including Lime, Oakmoss, Vetiver, Lavender and Sandalwood. Bowl/brush/razor not included. This "Vintage" style mug soap is FRENCH MILLED (aka hand milled), which is the handmade equivalent to the triple milling process (a process that requires a large and expensive machine!). The French mill process extends the life of the soap by hardening and compacting the soap, and removing excess water. The result is an even more luxurious lather! The puck is a traditional 2.75 inches wide and about 1 inch high. Each puck weighs anywhere from 3.5 ounces to over 3.6 ounces, depending on how they molded and cut--also note that some pucks that did not mold perfectly may have indentation(s), however all soaps will weigh at least 3.5 ounces and will work perfectly or my name isn't BUTTERFACE! This soap creates a great feeling thick, rich and creamy lather that encapsulates and softens the whiskers. It has a rustic look because this is a hot process soap, which means the lye was cooked out. Hot process and hand milled shaving soaps last much longer than regular cold process soaps because they are fully cured immediately; they have a rich and thick lather, and the glycerin adds a nice slip to the lather! STAY WETTER LONGER with FRENCH MILLED Shaving Soap by BUTTERFACE! Here is the list of ingredients: Stearic Acid, Tallow, Shea Butter, Hempseed Butter,Coconut Oil, Castor Oil, Palm Oil, Avocado Oil, Cocoa Butter, Water, Sodium Lactate, Glycerin, Essential Oils. So this is a tallow based soap with Stearic Acid as the primary ingredient. It has a number of various oils and glycerin as well. Sounds promising, but we now move on to the use of the soap and my discussion points. The scent is mild and is a nice barbershop style scent. This is a big positive in its favor. The lather started out interesting. The first brush I used was the Vintage Reins Dachs Handle w/Mühle Ver. 1 STF Knot 23/53 mm. This synthetic knot from Mühle is excellent in terms of getting the most lather from a soap since the product will not absorb into the fibers. I lathered up and found that the soap was not generating a lot of lather at all. Very thin and runny. I tried to get more product on the brush but it still was not creating a good lather. Not like I expected. So I finished that shave and moved on to the second brush the next day. My thought were that I can lather with Current Williams better than this. The second day I used the Zen Shave Granadillo w/Custom Two Band 22/53 mm which normally generates lather easy with most soaps. I lathered up and found that the soap was not generating a lot of lather at all. Still thin and runny. I tried to get more product on the brush but it still was not creating a good lather. Again this was not like I expected. So I finished that shave and moved on to the third brush the next day. On the third day I tried the Restored Rubberset 6-100 22/54 mm Boar and I soaked it for about 5 minutes before use. On that day I found that the lather to be slightly better with a little more creaminess. I could work a little more product onto the boar and I was able to have a somewhat decent lather. At that point I decided to change up some things before writing this soap off. I decided to add some water to the sealed container and let it sit over night. The water was totally absorbed the next day and the puck completely filled the container. The next day I went back to the Mühle and found that the soap was somewhat improved. I was able to get a better lather. At this point is was on par with Current Williams as far as lathering went. I could get it to work up into a creamier lather and it had a moderate level of slickness. It tended to dry out a little fast, but since I was mug lathering, I could compensate with a little more water for the second pass. I decided on day 5 to try the boar again. By this time the soap began to make much better lather and open up a bit. I was able to make a thicker creamier lather without a lot of work. The slickness was still moderate and the overall experience was much better. So now it had stepped past the point of Current Williams and Vermont Country Soap (if neither one was modified) in terms of quality of lather. The following day saw the Custom Two Band and the quality of lather was about the same as the day before with the boar. For the next two days I decided to make a comparison with Vintage Williams made about 40 to 50 years ago. Lets simply say that the old Vintage Williams blew the Butterface away in every respect. It was not even a contest. Vintage Williams was far easier to lather. It produced a far thicker and creamier lather and was slicker as well. I note that the Vintage Williams first ingredient was tallow and then the next was stearic acid. In fact the next three ingredients in descending order were cocoa, water and glycerin. So the ratio of the primary two ingredients were the reverse of the Butterface soap listing. This is an interesting observation that I will return to later. For the remaining days (9 - 11) I used the Butterface and repeated with the Mühle, Custom Two Band, then finally the boar. By that time the Vintage Personna blade had expended all of its good shaves at 11 days. Nine days of testing with Butterface with a two day intervening comparison provided me with enough usage to review the soap. The remaining three days of lather were fairly easy and the Butterface provided a richer and creamier lather than days 1 - 6. It still tended to dry out and only had a moderate level of slickness but was overall had transformed into a decent soap. It improved dramatically after the first week of use but after that it settled in and would improve no more with additional use. So where do I fit this against my rotation of soaps based on multiple usage? The list below will go from lower level performers at the top to higher level performers (creams excluded). Please note that my area has very hard water due to limestone formations but it is filtered to remove some of the calcium. This affects the ability of soap so your results most likely will be different. Soaps that are too close to differentiate are on the same line (tie or close to a tie). Joshua Tree Soap Works / Derby Vermont Country Soap / Current Williams Butterface / Blueness Stick / Mary Kay Quattro TSD / Palmolive Stick / Douglas Cutlery Mama Bears / Füme / RazoRock / Matador Artisan / Proraso Soap Commander / Maggard Razor Orange Menthol / Taconic Wilkinson Shave Stick / Figaro / Fitness Vintage Old Spice / Vintage Williams So this leads me to a question. Does the Butterface soap have too much stearic acid and how does that affect the lather? I am not an expert on soap by any stretch of the imagination so first I went to a couple of sites to do some more research. http://www.soapmakingstudio.com/soapmaking-supplies/additives.html http://www.ecauldron.net/articles/archives/2006/04/entry_11.php http://www.teachsoap.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2972 What I found was that too much stearic acid can, in the opinion of these sites listed above, cause the soap to become very hard and will tend to make the soap tend to dry out in usage. Now I hope others that are more expert in soaps will weigh in on this discussion. Will I use this soap in my rotation? Yes but it would not be a favorite. Was I disappointed based on use? Yes compared to how it is advertised. Would I buy this product again? Probably not. There are other soaps that I will stick with that perform better for me. Thanks for reviewing and I look forward to constructive feedback.
I have heard before where sometimes there will be a thin layer on some soaps that can take a few lathers to get a GOOD lather out of it. I have been curious about this soap for a while now and I have learned my lesson from buying soaps that were unheard of on the forum but curiosity always gets the best of me . trial and error is how diamonds in the rough are found but its always nice to see what other people say about a product on here to save the aggravation. thanks for the review!!
I have ButtetFace Amrican barber shop in the vintage melmac cup. I had no problems using any brush with this soap. Perfect thick cushiony lather, slick as heck and very moisturizing. Maybe its your hard water, or more than likely your formula has too much butters as I have found out soaps with too much butters don't lather as well. Or maybe Butterface has improved, I don't but I love it.
I am glad to see you have success with this soap. In my viewpoint there are far better soaps available. As to the ingredients, Stearic acid should not be the primary ingredient in a soap. http://www.naturesgardencandles.com...es/item/ca-3/-stearic-acid---1-pound-bag.html Stearic acid is also added to soap to make it harder, and allows it to last longer. Add approximately 1 Tablespoon stearic acid per pound of soap. Stearic acid is a cheap way to make hard soaps but in no other set of shaving soap ingredients I have seen has it listed first (most dominant ingredient). http://goodnessmebathandbody.com.au/3-good-reasons-using-stearic-acids/ For handmade soaps, stearic acid is a used because soft oils that make soap that fall apart can be used on its own to create a very hard and durable bar of soap. This is a very economical way of making soap, since soft oils are cheaper than hard oils or butters. Without the use of stearic acid, more expensive oils and butters such as shea butter, cocao butter, coconut oil, olive oil and palm oil have to be used. Many other soaps (some less expensive) are able to perform in my water right out of the gate. This very hard soap seemed more like a modified bath soap with the first few tries. It was able to as well after a severe soaking in water but it never reached only average perfomance in the end. Again, there are simply better soaps on the market in my viewpoint both in performance and ingredient mix.
Oh I'm not saying this is the best soap out there. In fact I have better soaps, such as razorock, stirling, TOBS, Cella, Synergy, Mikes, Caties Bubbles, Proraso etc. But my point is for me (and it's all subjective aka ymmv,) I just got much better results with it.
A very thorough review. I am impressed by your effort to give this soap a proper run. That being said, I am curious about your impression of the Joshua Tree soap. Personally I am baffled that this soapmaker has received 5000 + in positive feedback on ebay. I have found this soap lacking on so many levels, but I am no expert and I reckon you are
Norseman, I am not an expert either but I concur with your opinion on Joshua Tree soap. I found the Joshua Tree soaps to have issues in generating lather even using distilled water. Yes, I went the last mile on that one when I tried distilled. I went through multiple uses and brushes as I did the Butterface soap. I had high hopes for the Joshua Tree soap as well, but when I returned to use it a couple of months later, it had turned rancid. I guess it was the goats milk that turned. I tend not to even consider soaps with goats milk without some preservative to to keep it fresh. At least the Butterface once enough enough water was absorbed into the puck was able to provide useable lather. I can lather current Williams soap with no problems, but Joshua Tree provides a thin lifeless lather. It seems to me like they just repackaged their bath soaps into a shaving soap. Sadly some artisans and even some big companies think bath soaps and shaving soaps are equal with no formula changes required. I think the other unwrapped Joshua Tree puck went into the traveling box. Never again on that soap.
[quote="GDCarrington, post: 867611, member: 5380" What I found was that too much stearic acid can, in the opinion of these sites listed above, cause the soap to become very hard and will tend to make the soap tend to dry out in usage. Now I hope others that are more expert in soaps will weigh in on this discussion.[/quote] Stearic acid is not the cause of the puck being too hard. The use of potassium hydroxide is what makes soaps softer. If they are using too much sodium hydroxide in their recipe and not enough potash, it'll create a much harder bar that isn't as easy to lather. Also, I hate seeing ADDED glycerin as an ingredient in any soap. This is usually a sign that it's a melt and pour base. Too much glycerin is actually really drying on the skin and can inhibit a good lather. Most soap makers that handcraft their soaps from scratch know that glycerin is a natural by product of saponification, and therefore is already in the soap without having to add more.
Stearic acid is not the cause of the puck being too hard. The use of potassium hydroxide is what makes soaps softer. If they are using too much sodium hydroxide in their recipe and not enough potash, it'll create a much harder bar that isn't as easy to lather. Also, I hate seeing ADDED glycerin as an ingredient in any soap. This is usually a sign that it's a melt and pour base. Too much glycerin is actually really drying on the skin and can inhibit a good lather. Most soap makers that handcraft their soaps from scratch know that glycerin is a natural by product of saponification, and therefore is already in the soap without having to add more.[/quote] Thanks for the information on this. I used this soap today and found it made a solid lather, but yes it was slightly drying.
