Not a user, but when one has been in this hobby for a while, you tend to pick up a few names that get mentioned frequently. Martin de Candre is perhaps the top of the heap when it comes to French soap, and has the price tag (and longevity) to match. Their simple recipe and clearly explained production process is directly responsible for many artisan copycat 'French style' soaps. I consider them to be one of the main creators of the modern artisan soapmaking industry. (Our own Joanna @Queen of Blades is another, though less influential). Pre de Provence, Savonniere du Moulin, OSMA, Moulin Lambert, Institut Karité, and Creed are some others off the top of my head. This list could easily be expanded to about twenty different brands, some very well known, others, quite obscure. Monsavon au Lait is the French equivalent to what Williams used to be in the U.S., available everywhere, and can be picked up in France for a few Euros. OSMA is probably the worst performing of the soaps listed, from what I remember reading. Not a terrible soap, just outclassed by most of it's local competition. Beautyways also has a website, and offers free (U.S.) shipping above $35, if I remember correctly. They have an extensive catalog of European brands. I didn't know they also had a presence on eBay. I will be keeping an eye on that seller. Their eBay prices are higher, but free shipping offsets that, if you are just buying one or two cheap things. Pre de Provence is generally considered a very good soap, if not quite on the same level as Martin de Candre.
Yes, that is lucky. Unfortunately a great many of my blind buys didn’t turn out that way. I and my wife are scent sensitive. I don’t appreciate strongly scented, in your face with massive sillage products. Mellower scents are more to my liking. Mrs. chazt tends to wrinkle her nose at most shave product scents, so I’ve had to break her in gently over the years. Due to circumstances, there are times when I go unscented (soap and a/s) for a week or more at a time. My biggest disappointment was the A&E cannabis-whatever-they-call-it. No cannabis, just blech
Agreed...love Speick sticks. All of their products are good, but their aftershave splashes in particular is phenomenal. They even did okay with their stick reformulation.
Have been into Italian soaps for a while. Have tried three now Cella, Prorazo and TSF..the TSF winning that contest. They seem to be as great a deal as you can get in a soap. The Italians are as good performers as anything out there IMP and are really easy to get hold of with no fear that your favorite soap is going to be suddenly discontinued or it's formula adversely changed. Bravisimo TFS..
Interesting. I'd heard that the TFS self branded red wasn't as good as Cella or Vitos. I know they make Razorock's P.160, which is a step down from Vitos, and was on par with Prorazo IMO, but it was made to RR's specifications, not TFS's, which can make a difference. And the Italians aren't immune to discontinuing or reformulating products, they just are a bit slower about it than some other countries. I've seen a few of the great historical Italian soaps and creams go the way of the dinosaurs since I started wet shaving.
I've gotten the TFS to just the right consistency now and had better luck with it than either Cella or Proraso but YMMV as always. What I like about TFS is that they make a clean soap with a minimal ingredients list and is vegan. Proraso has a rather bulky formulation possibly due to their marketing in the retail stores. I haven't yet tried Vitos but the soap has a good reputation. I have heard that Proraso likes to modify their formula every ten years or so but people seem to be happy with these changes from what I've read and their latest formulation has pretty decent performance.
