What do you prefer, soaps or creams?

Please tell us which you prefer, why you prefer it, and which products you like best.

I just thought I would add that though I haven't tried many of either yet, of the ones I have tried I've found creams are easier to lather, but it's more difficult for me to achieve a slickness level with cream that's equal to what I get from a soap. For me, EASY lather doesn't necessarily mean SLICK lather.

 

To make it easy, I moved this to General and deleted the duplicate. That way everyone can follow along.

 

I prefer creams. I especially love the creams from The Gentlemen's Qarter, The Gentlemen's Refinery and The Shave Den.

I'm not sure why, but it seems that I can get a better quality of lather with creams than I do with soaps. Plus, the cream from TGQ nourishes my skin better than the soaps.

 

I almost exclusively use soaps, primarily tabac, and occasionally AOS sandalwood. I do like TOBS Rose shave cream as I think its the best cream I've sampled. Tough to beat the shave I get with tabac.

Steve

 

I actually prefer both...

I love the mama bear soap ive been using...

and the TOBS Lavender is good too...

I really like to mix a little soap with a little cream...i think it makes a really good lather...

 

I use both, but prefer soaps with a straight and creams when I used a DE... I get better slickitude and feedback from soaps and I like that with a straight. I prefer the additional protection when using the DE.

Jordan

 

I lean to soaps, as I've tried a few creams that just don't work for me, but every soap has been at least good. Favorite soaps so far are MWF and TSD. Favorite creams are T&H (1805, almond, or West Indian Limes), and Kiss My Face Key Limes. I really like a slick lather, and these soaps and creams are very slick. TSD is a somewhat the oddball, it is slightly less slick than my other favorites, but has such great scent, softening, and cusion I don't view it as a drawback. Overall top 4 are 1 - MWF, 2t - TSD SS, 2t-T&H SC, 4 - KMF

 

I started with cream, but over time have migrated to soap 95% of the time, and that is only because I need to use up some of the cream I still have.
I'm a MWF guy. Slick and nice to the face.

 

What is MWF?

 

Miniature whale fart. I mean mitchell's wool fat. Tallow based soap that is very moisturizing but the scent isnt all that

I have to come to the conclusion that I love both and dont really favor one over the other. Stuck on an island for a very long? soap, but there are some creams that equal in performance.

 

Very good point made here.

 

Great thread. I've been giving this some thought lately. Since I started out using a DE and Tabac I really always considered myself a soap guy because of the massively superior shave Tabac provided. As time has gone by however, I've tried numerous other soaps and creams. I have found that very few soaps perform for me. Tabac is tops. Mama Bears with menthol works pretty good. And most recently I have enjoyed a TSD sample. I have a full puck on the way and expect it to be in the rotation.

During my journey to discover the best products I also discovered that a few creams actually do provide nearly as good a lather and shave as Tabac. I am totally sold on the TOBS line; particularly Eton College and Avacado. The Body Shop cream performs nicely. CO Bigelow and recently Omega both work very well. KMF works great considering it's cheap price.

So for a "soap guy" I actually have more creams that work than soaps! Never the less my absolute best product is still Tabac. Second and third place and so on are all kind of jumbled up and could change from day to day. All provide me with excellent shaves. If pressed I would rank the top three as follows:

Tabac
TOBS
Omega

 

I started out in August with creams (TOBS Sandalwood then Avocado). About the end of October I received my Tabac, and have used that exclusively unil I just recently received some IK. I'm now trying to figure out the IK. I hope to be getting some more creams to try out in the very near future.

For an actual preference, I'd have to say soap, specifically Tabac, hands down. Having used only that for so long, I've really been able to get it down pat and can get a perfect (for me) lather every time now.

 

Of the soaps and creams I've tried here's how I'd rank them:

Tabac
Proraso
C&E

Those are the only 3 I've tried. I've still got my MWF (and I should've remembered what MWF was, I have a sample), P160, Taylor lavender, and IK samples to try, and I have some KMF on the way.

 

C&E didn't work very well for me. Just as well since it's fairly expensive. The MWF is a triple milled, fatty soap like Tabac so you should enjoy it. I didn't find its shaves to be quite as good as Tabac and the scent is pretty blah. A lot of guys really like it though so you should definitely try it. Never tried the IK. You guys will have to post your thoughts once you do. Another hard soap that gets good press is AOS. Talk to Rolls about that; he loves it.

 

I really like the way my skin feels after using IK,and it has a good clean soap scent. during the shave, lather is ok takes a bit more work to generate lather and not as thick nor as much cushion as Tabac, pretty slick again maybe beat by tabac. Some people with sensitive skin seem to not do well with it, ask JimR.
AOS is very similar in performance to valobra stick, (there is talk that the AOS is made by Valobra)
Harris is another good soap, as is penhaligons (get it before the quit making it with tallow)

 

I use both equally. There's good and bad soaps and creams.

 

I started out with soaps and then I used creams for a while and now I'm using soaps a little more often again.

I really like the scents and the latherability of creams. And I can get a thicker, more satisfying lather with creams, but in terms of performance I haven't paid enough attention to see a difference. I get good shaves with both.

 

soaps. soaps only. the word *reams freaks me out b/c of my OCD

 

That's what I'm finding with the IK. Today I made a discovery though: along with the more work needed, it really likes a lot of water. For me, anyway.

The jury's still out, however I'm not as impressed as I thought I'd be. It's only been a few tries though - I think I just haven't found the sweet spot yet.