Thread: Am I a bad man?

I've been sampling a whole bunch of soaps, and I notice that the more specialty/boutique-ish the brand, the worse the soap handles. In my limited experience of course. The 'bigger' brands do a lot better. I happen to love my DR Harris (what a joy!), Tabac (classic, such ease and fun), Cella (el cheapo classic), MWF, van der Haagen (cheap but surprisingly pleasant) and even Arko gives a pleasant lather, although the smell needs to be masked.

The smaller specialty ones come both from producers that don't have it as their main product, but still sell it, as well as soap-only manufacturers. I haven't had much luck with a range of soaps from a smaller producer. Difficult to lather, which gets me grumpy and just makes me rinse the scuttle and brush to go back to a favorite.

Am I stupid or evil for liking the slightly bigger dogs better?

I'm a little hesitant now to try TGQ, although everybody raves about them.

You must find your bliss

Originally Posted by Hillie

I'm a little hesitant now to try TGQ, although everybody raves about them.

Get off the fence and give Colleen's soaps a try and you will be raving like the rest of us! Until you do this you are indeed a bad man!

Originally Posted by Hillie

I've been sampling a whole bunch of soaps, and I notice that the more specialty/boutique-ish the brand, the worse the soap handles. In my limited experience of course. The 'bigger' brands do a lot better. I happen to love my DR Harris (what a joy!), Tabac (classic, such ease and fun), Cella (el cheapo classic), MWF, van der Haagen (cheap but surprisingly pleasant) and even Arko gives a pleasant lather, although the smell needs to be masked.

The smaller specialty ones come both from producers that don't have it as their main product, but still sell it, as well as soap-only manufacturers. I haven't had much luck with a range of soaps from a smaller producer. Difficult to lather, which gets me grumpy and just makes me rinse the scuttle and brush to go back to a favorite.

Am I stupid or evil for liking the slightly bigger dogs better?

I'm a little hesitant now to try TGQ, although everybody raves about them.

Not stupid or evil.
What works for you, works.

You must invest $2.00 in a puck of Williams!

Lather is a combination of water, soap, brush, practice and you.

Skin prep is mostly a matter of giving your skin
and whiskers time so the whiskers soften and
the skin gets slippery but not an hour in the hot
tub soft.

Shaving is a combination of your beard, your skin, your blade,
your lather and the hand you shave with.

Too many differences for one size to fit all....

FWIW: Shave soaps have two key qualities that boutique
soaps often lack. One is ingredients that build a stable lather and
second a little bit of clay for glide. Boutique soaps tend to
have fragrance as the primary value add and then skin
restoring oils (vitamin E and friends) that go rancid too quickly
(IMO) to have much shelf life.

None of this is news to the soap world so some boutique shops
are turning out some very good shave soaps..... some are relabeled
and resold by some of the sponsors.... other have a fan club here.

The issue of rancid oils is my pet peeve... It applies to common
kitchen oil, fine nut oils and fine olive oils. When rancid and used as a
pre/post shave they give me a rash as well as STINK. When they
are used in a dressing in the kitchen the STINK and wreck the
entire meal. That second half of a quart of avocado oil that made
such a fine shave soap six months ago is only good for tiki lamp fuel
today.

Ogallala Bay Rum Soap pucks. 5 bucks and EXCELLENT

Hillie,

No at all...It is neither stupid nor evil to have a preference in soaps.

Variety is the spice of life--and in shaving soaps. Don't judge yourself, but the soap.

Take care...

Originally Posted by OLD_SCHOOL

Sounds like you just prefer mass produced stuff that has little character.

Actually not. I prefer non-masses stuff in general, and the same with shaving stuff. For some reason I just haven't had much luck there. The Ogallalla (give or take a few L's ) sampler I have has been doing great work as a hand soap, because I had lots of trouble getting decent lather. I'll try some more flavours, but so far not lucky yet.

I will try TGQ at some point, because I just have to. I do hope it'll turn out to be great.

I love TGQ cream, it's a little fickle though.. I haven't had much experience with Soaps from them, but what I had was GOOOOOD

Of course your a bad man don't you know that the botique shops have the best of everything......

now where did I but that CF, TGQ and Alraz's bomb

Hillie....

I unloaded my TGQ soaps. I don't like to have to work for a lather, and boutique glycerin-based soaps haven't been that great IME. That includes Ogallala (which is good, just not great). I prefer Ogallala to TGQ.

The one boutique shop that stands head and shoulders above the rest is Prairie Creations. It's tallow-based and has explosive, slick lather. The bay rum scent is intoxicating. I have two pucks of Fitjar on their way to me. I've heard good things about them so stay tuned.

Like you, I also love DR Harris and other mass-produced soaps as my go-to's. My favorites are L'Occitane, Tabac, DR Harris, Pre de Provence, haslinger, and AoS.

It's all about what you like. I'm in the small minority here that thinks MWF is a terrible soap. That's fine with me.

Cheers!

G