Best luxury shaving soaps

Fido

Fido

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6,286
Location
New Forest, England.
When I first joined the forum I asked for suggestions limited to the use of a silvertip brush and shaving bowl. Now I have other brushes and am happy to face lather. And Christmas isn't far way. My lovely wife wants to include a high quality shaving soap among my gifts this year. So I want to tell her what the shaving aficionado's think is the best soap that money can buy.

You have about two months to help me decide what to suggest.
 
Can you tell us what you've tried to date ? (so we don't go over old ground)

Based on my shave this morning, I'd have to say l'Occitane Cade is worth a bash.

Also Tabac, Mitchell's/Kent,... Seems that the highest quality soaps aren't necessarily the expensive ones... so you'll just have to get more :D
 
Having tried most of the traditional English soaps (which are the best in my opinion), I'd say the most wonderful of them all for me have been Mitchell's/Kent or the Harris soaps. Harris almond or lavender smell heavenly and shave like a dream. Tabac shaves as good, but smells less luxurious to my nose.

Personally, I'd rate Trumper, Taylor and Truefitt&Hill just a little bit lower. Superior soaps for sure, but not in the MWF/Harris league.
(To further complicate things: for scent, Trumper beats them all: their sandalwood would make an awesome winter scent for shaving during the cold christmas holidays... And their rose is perhaps the greatest classic amongst British shaving soaps...)

edit: just saw your last post: I'd say Harris or Trumper!
 
Try Art of Shaving Sandalwood, I think the Gentleman's Shop still has it. I have heard it's made by Valobra.

Only £19 for the refill cake! :shock:
 
Even though I have more than enough soap to see me through the next few years I think I might need to pick up some of the Harris almond now.Thanks Frederick ;)
 
The Harris Almond is a superb soap. It's a bitter almond scent, a lot different to the sweet marzipan almond scent of the Italian soft soaps and it's well worth a try. As with all Harris soaps it has excellent lather, in my opinion the best of all the English soaps.

Pete
 
This will be on the short list:

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://savonnerie-martin-de-candre.ic-sites.com/index.php?cPath=23_31&osCsid=6ffb10e8303a34cf0af2ac066f855031">http://savonnerie-martin-de-candre.ic-s ... 066f855031</a><!-- m -->
 
OUch. They don't even TRY to make their soap look good. Straight from the hot-process vessel into the wooden bowl...

And the price is exorbitant. 32 Euros for an (admittedly glass) jar with 170 g soap. I won't tell you how much the ingredients for a kg of soap cost, but let me assure you that at 32 Euros for 170 g, even assuming that the jar will be about Eur 1.50 wholesale, they must be making a hefty profit...

Henk
 
soapalchemist said:
Take it you've moved on from ziplock bags then Henk ;)
Click to expand...

The ziplocs were for the samples I sent out. My first 'real' batch has now been transferred to plastic jars, like these: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://hekserij.nl/verpakkingen.htm">http://hekserij.nl/verpakkingen.htm</a><!-- m --> (search for 'gel pot')

Henk
 
What do you reckon Henk? Don't you think Fido's on a hiding to nothing with this artisan "happy" soap?

They didn't mention using any surfactant's ;)
 
antdad said:
What do you reckon Henk? Don't you think Fido's on a hiding to nothing with this artisan "happy" soap?

They didn't mention using any surfactant's ;)
Click to expand...

Mmm, don't know whether I completely understand your question -- you're asking about the potential quality of the soap? I can't say anything about ingredients, since they don't list them -- OTOH, an artisanal soap company that doesn't use synthetic surfactants would usually proudly state that fact...

You can make a good shaving soap either way.

The pictures show a material that looks like it could be a decent soap, only prohibitively expensive...

Henk
 
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