Best luxury shaving soaps
- Thread starter Fido
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Ha, there's more info here:
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.soaps-martin-de-candre.ic-sites.com/craftsman-soap-factory.html">http://www.soaps-martin-de-candre.ic-si ... ctory.html</a><!-- m -->
They do indeed employ a hot-process process (AKA semi-boiled process) and mention they don't use artificial ingredients and only vegetable oils. The wooden bowl and glass jars indicate that their shaving soap is soft, you can easily observe that the soap is pressed into the bowls and the jars. This suggests that it is a primarily palm oil/coconut oil (since they mention coprah on their web site) soap with mainly potassium salts. That would make it a good performer, but not necessarily an excellent soap. The softness suggest that they do not use pure stearic acid to boost the stearate content. Stability thus needs to come from palm oil and latherability from potassium and from coconut or other short fatty acid (palm kernel or similar) oils.
I wouldn't be surprised if this is a good shaving soap; I WOULD be surprised if it turned out to be as good as its hefty price tag suggests.
Henk
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.soaps-martin-de-candre.ic-sites.com/craftsman-soap-factory.html">http://www.soaps-martin-de-candre.ic-si ... ctory.html</a><!-- m -->
They do indeed employ a hot-process process (AKA semi-boiled process) and mention they don't use artificial ingredients and only vegetable oils. The wooden bowl and glass jars indicate that their shaving soap is soft, you can easily observe that the soap is pressed into the bowls and the jars. This suggests that it is a primarily palm oil/coconut oil (since they mention coprah on their web site) soap with mainly potassium salts. That would make it a good performer, but not necessarily an excellent soap. The softness suggest that they do not use pure stearic acid to boost the stearate content. Stability thus needs to come from palm oil and latherability from potassium and from coconut or other short fatty acid (palm kernel or similar) oils.
I wouldn't be surprised if this is a good shaving soap; I WOULD be surprised if it turned out to be as good as its hefty price tag suggests.
Henk
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- Thread Starter
- #19
"Martin de Candre - the most expensive and wanted shaving soap of France"
Someone made this claim. No idea of it's authenticity.
Someone made this claim. No idea of it's authenticity.
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- 1,241
- Location
- Almere, Netherlands
Fido said:
Well, from what I see, I can easily believe the 'most expensive' part. Maybe I should make a nice artisanal website like that, significantly improve my packaging, and start asking 206 Euro per kg for my soap... That way one could actually get rich selling homemade soap.
If you are ordering some of this soap, I'd really like to know what you think of it. Did I send you a sample of mine?
Cheers
Henk
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- #23
Continuing my research I came across this in another place where most contributors had been pouring scorn on the price of this stuff:
I just purchased this soap. Used it this morning for the first time.
I bought it in the beechwood bowl. When I unwrapped it last night, my first thought was it looked like one of those decorative candles you see in a fancy knick-knack store. There's no top to the bowl; the soap literally rises up & above the rim. It looks like frozen lather, or bumpy ice cream. I expected to see a wick sticking out of the middle.
Scent-wise, the description is lavender & mint. I'm not sure that's what it smells like to me but whatever. It sure smells good -- fresh, gentle, soapy & clean. Shave-wise, this stuff's amazing. It produced a thick, unctuous lather that lasted through my 3-pass-plus-touchups shave with plenty left over for more. I used a 5 day-old Feather in a Slant and only got one little weeper at a very sensitive point on my neck. Otherwise, the shave was smooth, comfortable & BBS. I didn't want it to end.
It's expensive but to Joel's point above, you get 6 oz. of soap -- almost double the size of most pucks. I'll have this thing forever. Highly recommended, gents!
[attachment=0]
More views still sought from anyone who has tried this.
I just purchased this soap. Used it this morning for the first time.
I bought it in the beechwood bowl. When I unwrapped it last night, my first thought was it looked like one of those decorative candles you see in a fancy knick-knack store. There's no top to the bowl; the soap literally rises up & above the rim. It looks like frozen lather, or bumpy ice cream. I expected to see a wick sticking out of the middle.
Scent-wise, the description is lavender & mint. I'm not sure that's what it smells like to me but whatever. It sure smells good -- fresh, gentle, soapy & clean. Shave-wise, this stuff's amazing. It produced a thick, unctuous lather that lasted through my 3-pass-plus-touchups shave with plenty left over for more. I used a 5 day-old Feather in a Slant and only got one little weeper at a very sensitive point on my neck. Otherwise, the shave was smooth, comfortable & BBS. I didn't want it to end.
It's expensive but to Joel's point above, you get 6 oz. of soap -- almost double the size of most pucks. I'll have this thing forever. Highly recommended, gents!
[attachment=0]
More views still sought from anyone who has tried this.
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Err, I think it was a quote...
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Err...your'e right. Wow, I was thinking that Fido really has come on in a short time using a slant, 5 day old feather and BBS. :shock:
For the same expenditure you could purchase 3 x assorted DR Harris in bowls. then you really would be set for life.
Tell the Mrs to buy it there's only one way to find out.
For the same expenditure you could purchase 3 x assorted DR Harris in bowls. then you really would be set for life.
Tell the Mrs to buy it there's only one way to find out.
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henkverhaar said:soapalchemist said:Take it you've moved on from ziplock bags then Henk
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
Only joking Henk, didn't really think you were going to market the soap in bags, novel though that idea may be. I like the pots; I sell a travel version of my soap in the same. Handy for putting in a wash bag.
G
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Fido said:
Return plane tickets to Turkey and buy a suitcase full of Arko.