Poignant Words

Bogeyman

Bogeyman

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I read the following on another forum and wholeheartedly agree with it. It's sure to get the "juices" flowing here as it pulls no punches. Here it is (abridged version):


...I started wet shaving in January of 2018. Within a few months of working with a Merkur 34C, a 26" Yaqi synthetic brush, Astra SP blades, and a tub of Taylor of Old Bond street, I became infatuated with finding the best of all of them, or at least the top 3-5 of them. Of particular interest was finding the best soaps. I tried or owned many soaps over the years and I participated in a 400 soap pass-around about two years ago...Today I own 16 soaps across 8 soap makers.

It seems to me that many of the artisan soap makers have mirrored this endeavor leaning heavily towards maximizing post shave while holding shave performance or pleasure the same. For me, I found that the better the post shave, the worse the shave performance or experience. I finally gave up the pursuit this week in favor of sticking with the simple formulas that maximize shave performance and pleasure and leave the majority of the post shave performance to post shave products. I like Thayers witch hazel with aloe, another simple but very effective product. My soap keepers today are Caties, Mike's, Shannon's (original formula), PAA (Crown King formula), and Sudsy Soapery. The closest I'll go to the face food category is Wholly Kaw (original formula). These are the soaps I will continue to use and rebuy as long as they keep making them.
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I have, or have used, all those soaps he mentions except PAA and I can vouch for those I know as they are fantastic shavers. Soap makers are not dermatologists after all and it's foolish for anyone to want them to be.

This oughta stoke the boilers here. :D ;)
 
I absolutely agree! (Check my sig)

You'll know my bracket is somewhat closer to the classic end of the market, finding anything with post-shave consideration (you know, "butters" and the like) to be my hard stop. For that, I've pretty much missed the entire "artisinal" thing. My exception to the rule there is Wickhams 1912 that I truly adore but did tell him that I'd personally drive down and punch him in his privates if he ever thought of dropping shea butter in.
 
Boycie83 said:
I'd be inclined to agree with this. I've noticed some very butter rich formulas have been giving me spots lately. Annoyingly it's difficult to pinpoint which ones due to my eccentric and overly enthusiastic purchasing of them. Expect a sale of some from the Emporium soon.
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In your den, the stick of Arko with the Turkish man with a face of lather looks back at you and laughs.

Arko will survive shaving fads and a nuclear fallout.
 
Indeed you can shave with bar soap. Just as an experiment, after washing with Pears and finding it slick, I tried rubbing my badger on it (!) and I was totally amazed how much creamy lather appeared in the bowl in next to no time. Shave was close too, so it certainly works. Probably the cheapest shave you could have, but that's not my objective and I enjoy the luxury of a Cella almond oil soap puck. But you certainly can shave with Pears.
 
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