Wilkinson Bowl (however the stick is one of my all time favorites) Vermont Country Store Shave Soap (fantastic scent but suds up like a bath soap and leaves no real moisture or protection) Joshua Tree Soap (again like a bath soap with lots of suds leaveing no real moisture or protection) Derby Soap (simply meh) I can even get good lather out of any glycerin based soap and even Current Williams, but the four above I have tried them repeatedly and don't enjoy them.
Tiki WSP Sterling Cella Derby Proraso Arko B&M Tabac Cream Omega Valobra Stick Mama Bear Conk Razorock
Of all the soaps I have purchased, the only one I will not likely buy again is Williams. I actually like it, but I have two pucks, and I just don't get to it often. In reality, I haven't purchased a soap that I just didn't like. All the ones I have tried have been pretty good to me.
It bleeds my heart, but I have to put Palmolive soap stick on the list. I re-purchased it last week, but remembered instantly why I got rid of it in the first place.. performance is just not on par with Proraso and other cheap soaps. Okay I know, the Palmolive is, at 1.5 USD a much cheaper product than Proraso at 5 times more, but I'd rather do without it and use something that works better for me, no matter the cost.
Too bad we're on different continents. I'd take that off of your hands in a heartbeat. I love the stuff.
I know it's loved, which is why I tried it again. But now, 6 shaves in, and I still can't get the performance I'm after although the lather looks and feels excellent otherwise. I think I'll keep it for travel, because it's not a bad performance, just not in the top for me.
Wilkinson blue bowl...although i have said that before, something just makes me buy it again months after i throw it away...it's dirt cheap and i just can't give up trying
the only soap that comes to mind is C&E Indian Sandalwood soap. The scent was great, but I couldn't get it to lather to save my life. I didn't listen to the warnings and I got burned lol. I have gotten lucky before and found a product I love that most people cant stand, as we say YMMV. this was the only shaving soap I turned into a bath soap because the lather was that bad. However, I do like their older formula soaps (Nomad, ets.) and find them much easier to load, and they make a much more stable lather. The wet shaving market is flooded with great soap makers and I have been happy with most of the products I have tried.
Probably Tabac -- Good soap, neh great soap, but as I use it more, and maybe it is just me, but my nose picks up urine. I can roll with some funky scents, but in the words of Meatloaf..."I won't do that." Stirling Soaps- Middle of the road to me. I get just as a good a shave from VDH soaps as I do from Stirling, at 1/4 of the cost. honeybee -- just meh. Again, VDH is just as good, readily available and Razorock Mudder Focker. It is a good soap, but I like XXX better.
These soaps, because their lather disappears almost instantly: Badger Navigator Class Shave Soap Herban Cowboy Dusk Shave Soap And the plethora of artisan soaps I have tried with "vanishing lather" And this soap, because it gives me a burning sensation: Kell's Original
Ingram shaving cream...Love the smell but its full of water and the company should be taken to court for the amount of water that runs out the tube.... Billy....
The only soap that I was disappointed enough with to put on my NEVER AGAIN list is Captain's Choice. I absolutely love their aftershaves, but there have been two attempts to concoct a shaving soap with this wonderful scent: Razorock made one, and now Captain's Choice is offering their own formulation of their Bay Rum. Both of these two soaps have only the faintest glimmer of a scent. Most of the reviews of the stuff were either positive (from folks who only like very mild scents) or negative (from folks who thought, like me, that it had almost NO aroma at all!) I gave them the benefit of the doubt for the first attempt. The second, quite similar failure puts them out of bounds for me. I have to add that both of these soaps lather very well indeed -- just no smell!
