I had the pleasure of meeting the fine soap makers of Southern Superior Shave from Baton Rouge, Louisiana the other day. I was hitting up a local farmers' market last weekend that I had not been to yet. I came across the table at Southern Superior Shave and noticed the bath soaps, shave, soaps, aftershaves, shave oils and beard oils. I am always willing to take a look at a new shave and bath product, especially if it is a local small business. In these weird times...it's more important than ever to support local businesses. But I never have any luck with shave soaps at farmers' markets. The soaps found at these places...at least in my experience...are usually...sub-par to put it kindly. Southern Superior Shave is definitely the exception. Don't ever say that packaging doesn't make a difference...because if this soap was in a mason jar with a ribbon on the lid...it would have been a hard pass. But the Southern Superior Shave products have a very finished and professional look to them. Yes...this made the difference for me in purchasing a shave soap.
I went with a tin of Rue Bourbon shave soap, because the scent was more to my liking. A nice sweet and spicy scent...the official scent notes on this soap are oak, sandalwood, and of course, bourbon. The wife even likes the scent saying it is a manly clean scent. This is important because the wife is pregnant and she doesn't approve of many scents right now.
The soap itself comes in a metal screw-top tin with a nice waterproof and professionally printed label. You get 4.7 ounces for about two sawbucks ($19.99). This is pretty much on par for a good quality shave soap. It's less expensive than some and more expensive than others. I think the price point is about on target.
Ingredients of this soap are as follows: Stearic Acid, Water, Tallow, Coconut Oil, Potassium Hydroxide, Glycerin, Shea Butter, Fragrance, Sodium Hydroxide.
I have performed two shaves with this soap. Both shaves I face lathered. First shave I used my Tech Hive Synthetic shave brush and the second shave I used my Saponificio Varesino - The Shaving Cadre collaboration brush (Two Band High Mountain Manchurian White Badger Brush). Loading with either a badger or synthetic was super easy. About a 20 second load and I had more than enough soap to paste on my face. Lathering was easy as well and I pushed the water limit pretty far and was rewarded with a super slick lather that provided really good protection and glide. The nice lightly sweet and spicy scent is definitely enough to capture your attention during the shave, but not overly potent to be distracting. The scent lightly lingers just long enough to decide which aftershave or EdT you would like to use. Three passes with my Gillette Psycho Tech (circa 1972) with one of my favorite blades, Gillette 7 O'clock Super Platinum, and this soap left my face super smooth and feeling clean as well as moisturized. Rue Bourbon did not leave my face feeling dry at all. It also didn't leave my face feeling greasy. This is a "Goldilocks" type of soap as it leaves my face feeling just right.
This soap definitely fits in well with my collection of shave soaps. Some of my other favorite soaps are the likes of: CBL Premium Shave Soap, Lisa's Natural Herbal Creations, Stirling Soap Co., Ariana & Evans, Declaration Grooming, and Wholly Kaw (among others). If I had to make a direct comparison to another shave soap...I feel that this would best be compared to Wet Shaving Products (WSP) Formula T.
If I had a complaint with this soap...and it is a minor complaint...is that I really wish the container was larger. The soap fills this tin to the brim and is approximately three inches in diameter. I tend to use 26 mm brushes and while I have no problem loading from this tin...I wish the container was much wider to get a fuller load of soap on my brush.
Currently, it seems that Southern Superior Shave only has two scents in their shave soap arsenal...Rue Bourbon and Kingfish (sandalwood, ambergris, and lemon verbena). However, talking with the owners it seems they are close to releasing another scent in the shave soap. A quick sniff of their bath soaps, I informed them that my recommendation would be a shave soap in their Parrain bath soap scent. Parrain is a Pipe Tobacco and Bourbon scent. and believe me...if Southern Superior Shave makes a shave soap in this scent...I will buy it just for the scent alone! It's a sweet, spicy, tobacco scent. Reminiscent of cherry and tobacco without the super fruity note. It is a good one.
You can find Southern Superior Shave products on their website: Southern Superior Shave
I believe they also have a presence on social media.