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.
