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Baseline soap?

For hard soap, I would say Valobra Fougere, which is a freakishly good lather with a mild scent. For soft soap, give me a tub of Proraso in whatever scent floats your boat. Both are accessibly priced and pretty easily sourced.
 
Mama Bear's functions as my base, exhibiting the following characteristics:
- easy to load
- slick
- great scents

When evaluating soaps and, much more rarely, creams, it is these three attributes that come to mind. It's not exactly a "Are you better or worse that Mama Bears?" but rather a simple Yes/No "tick the box" evaluation.
 
I mean this with all due respect and coming from someone who has spent a lot of $ on artisan soaps.

I'm my unpopular opinion there is not a large difference in performance when it comes to most. The difference between elite and tier 1 is pretty small.

Find an artisan or a couple you like who add some extra skin conditioning items or make unique awesome scents and you are set. Find one with both and you are really set.

I'm just glad I haven't gotten sucked into the unique packaging some do.

For me I look at Stirling because I can get my favorite scent in literally everything! Body soap, bath soap, shampoo, shave soap, aftershave, cologne, and lotion.

Other artisans like CBL, Lisa's, MW, Soap Commander, etc. Usually it's a unique scent or they have that one extra ingredient I'm willing to pay more for in order to get better skin conditioning.

The best thing for artisan soaps and artisan products when you find a reputable one you can usually guarantee that you are getting a product with better ingredients that you can pronounce.

So baseline soap... I'm recommending Stirling or Razorock. Both are in the artisan world, budget friendly, and truly gives representation on how much better shave soap is than can stuff.

I've been burned by some artisans too though with over priced and under performing soaps.

As to the melt n pour soaps. Once I realized how thirsty they really are I started getting better shaves. But I see no reason to pay more than like $2.50 an oz for them. Just my opinion.
 
I started with VDH and Nivia ASB. Picked it up at Wally World on a whim. I think that’s a good baseline because it’s readily available, budget friendly and easy to use.

Everything after that is just benchmarks or preference. Start with the basics and develop your craft. We are not all looking to check the same boxes.
 
I started with Mama Bear but quickly found Stirlings. I would say that the the soaps I use as a standard would be Stirling, Arko and vintage Williams. I agree that Arko and William's are just plain old shave soaps. Get these right and you are all set to go.
 
I’ll chime in here that I started with VDH and Fine soaps, but I use Sterling as my yard-stick. So when I think about performance, I think of it in relation to Sterling. Not as a judgement factor, just as a touch stone.
 
Cvargo said:
I mean this with all due respect and coming from someone who has spent a lot of $ on artisan soaps.

I'm my unpopular opinion there is not a large difference in performance when it comes to most. The difference between elite and tier 1 is pretty small.

Find an artisan or a couple you like who add some extra skin conditioning items or make unique awesome scents and you are set. Find one with both and you are really set.

I'm just glad I haven't gotten sucked into the unique packaging some do.

For me I look at Stirling because I can get my favorite scent in literally everything! Body soap, bath soap, shampoo, shave soap, aftershave, cologne, and lotion.

Other artisans like CBL, Lisa's, MW, Soap Commander, etc. Usually it's a unique scent or they have that one extra ingredient I'm willing to pay more for in order to get better skin conditioning.

The best thing for artisan soaps and artisan products when you find a reputable one you can usually guarantee that you are getting a product with better ingredients that you can pronounce.

So baseline soap... I'm recommending Stirling or Razorock. Both are in the artisan world, budget friendly, and truly gives representation on how much better shave soap is than can stuff.

I've been burned by some artisans too though with over priced and under performing soaps.

As to the melt n pour soaps. Once I realized how thirsty they really are I started getting better shaves. But I see no reason to pay more than like $2.50 an oz for them. Just my opinion.
Click to expand...

Chad-My experience using soaps is similar to this. Virtually all are decent. Some quirks but you can get a reasonable lather and a good shave. Very few truly stand out for me. By the same token, very few truly suck.
 
I'd say a good baseline soap is either Arko or Derby stick.

For me they perform well overall. I'm sure some here may not care for it's sent. I don't mind it. But while they perform well overall. I don't think either of these soaps are the king of any one type of performance. They are just good basic soaps that get the job done.
 
Spider said:
I don't think Stirling is what I would consider a baseline. It's a step up from that. I"d consider it to be more of a staple. It's very economical and does everything it needs to. I recommend Stirling as a good starter soap for someone, but it's not a learning soap.

I agree that new folks should not start out with an amazing artisan soap. First of all they are kinda pricey, and when youre starting out, most folks want cheap. Secondly you need to learn how to lather! If you buy a $25 tub of soap that lathers instantly and has amazing properties all around, then you haven't learned anything..... and everything you use after that is a step down. You might use a lesser performing soap and say it's crap because your expectations are higher, when really your technique wasn't built up enough to get everything out of it.

While I agreee that vintage soaps could be a good baseline, they are out of reach for some new to wetshaving because they are harder to find and do cost a bit if you have to resort to ebay to find them. My favorite baselinesoaps are the melt & pour soaps. Things like Van der Hagen, Col Conk, or Mama Bears. These are perfect soaps for learning basic lathering skills. They are cheap, and easy to find. Most folks can go to the nearest grocery store and find a puck of VDH.

And while I wouldn't necessarliy recommend it as a first soap.... a great teaching soap is Modern Williams. If you can lather Modern Williams, you can lather anything!
Click to expand...
Hey i learned on modern williams it was my first soap and i get a great lather every time. So i guess i got the lather part down now then..
 
Jaro1069 said:
Hey i learned on modern williams it was my first soap and i get a great lather every time. So i guess i got the lather part down now then..
Click to expand...
Williams lather comes easy for some, but many folks struggle with it. They can make a lather easy enough, but it isnt stable and breaks down. The thing I love about it is that it is so slick. Even if it breaks down, you get a great shave.
 
Spider said:
Williams lather comes easy for some, but many folks struggle with it. They can make a lather easy enough, but it isnt stable and breaks down. The thing I love about it is that it is so slick. Even if it breaks down, you get a great shave.
Click to expand...
I guess i just got lucky because after my 1st or 2nd use of it ( dont remember which) i got very consistent lathers with it....i still have some i use sometimes....
 
Cvargo said:
I mean this with all due respect and coming from someone who has spent a lot of $ on artisan soaps.

I'm my unpopular opinion there is not a large difference in performance when it comes to most. The difference between elite and tier 1 is pretty small...
Click to expand...

I have been given a message to relay to you from various Youtube reviewers regarding your view on this matter:






dE4X73p.jpg



Ha! Just kidding!! I agree with your opinion on this 101%. ;)


IMO, a universal baseline should be either Arko or the vastly underrated Palmolive tallow stick.
 
As a serial flounderer, I am trying to stay away from ranking soaps these days. As to identifying a baseline soap, I feel like my knowledge base is somewhat limited never having used Arko, Proraso, Tabac, Cella etc. As a further testament to my abysmal level of knowledge on these matters, I stand in awe of those who can actually speak somewhat intelligently while taking a straight edge to their lathered face. So with these descriptors in mind, I offer up B&M Glissant as a baseline soap, having relegated such other soaps as Williams and Mama Bear to my personal dustbin. In my opinion, Mama Bear shaving soap makes a fine bath soap and there it shall remain. Having used Williams for years while wandering in the wilderness of cartridges, it would never occur to me to use it again.
 
Chris, I think you make a great point. Any given shaver's baseline is relative to how many or few soaps the shaver has used. Over time my own baseline for soaps and creams has changed the more different products I've tried. At this point after about 4 years of shaving the classic wet shaving "way", my baseline is no longer really a baseline. I now have a reference point which happens to be my best performing soap/cream in my rotation. And fairly or unfairly, my present reference point is a blend of Mitchell's Wool Fat and Haslinger Schafmilch (tallow version) in a 50/50 ratio. Time and time again this soap, now called The Fat 'As, gives me the best protection, slickness, cushion, post shave feel, etc. And the scent is a nice clean scent that I never seem to get tired of. Ironically, neither soap alone smelled particularly good but were admirable performance wise. But together they are far more than the sum of their parts. I wonder whether I will ever find a soap that will be able to compete for such greatness. I look forward to continuing that search for the rest of my life.
 
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