The Handmade Soap Company - Shave Soap Review

hitemfrank

I've tried this soap a few times now so I thought I would post a review of it.

The first thing that struck me about this soap was the scent. It smells like a very subdued version of Vicks Vaporub. It's not unpleasant but not a scent I would like to use regularly.

I tried face lathering with the soap yesterday and it was poor. What little lather that was generated disappeared quickly. So after that failure I tried to bowl lather with it. This was more successful but the lather still disappeared qiuckly. I tried to bowl lather with it again this morning and here are the results;
I spent about a minute with a damp badger brush on the soap to load the brush. The first picture shows how much was in the brush before going to the bowl. The second picture is after bowl lathering and adding a few drops of water.



It looks okay after the bowl lathering, perhaps a bit airy but I've shaved with worse. So I applied the lather to my hand. The first picture is just after applying the lather and the second is after 2 minutes. It goes on quite thin and after 2 minutes a large amount of it has disappeared.



For a comparison here is some Speick lathered in pretty much the same way (both soaps had water on them before use). The only difference was that I only spent about 15 seconds loading the brush. As you can see from the pictures the lather is much more stable the the homemade soap company shaving soap. Again pictures just after it was applied to my hand and after 2 minutes.






The 'Shaving Soap For Him' by The Handmade Soap Company just isn't suitable for shaving in my opinion - the lather just isn't stable enough. I would love to see a good quality shave soap made in Ireland but that doesn't really seem too close to happening at this point.

One plus I will mention about this shaving soap is that the Handmade Soap Company only use essential oils in it but I think they are out of their depth with shaving soap.

Hopefully this review is of use to someone, whether you already have some of this soap or were thinking of buying some.

Anyone who does have some of this soap, I would like to hear your thoughts on it.

Keith.

CrowdedHouse

Thanks - was going to try this soap but I need not bother now.

The lather looks sad

You definitely should send this to the makers, maybe they might be able to improve it.

Would be nice to have/support an Irish made shaving soap

donagh quigley

My name is Donagh Quigley and I am responsible for The Handmade Soap Company. I design the range, formulate the recipes and make the product.
Thank you so much for your review. As The Handmade Soap Company is still a very young company we appreciate all reviews of our products and openly seek customer feedback.
Just to let you know a little bit about where we are coming from....... we have taken a lot of time in designing all of our soaps.
Concerning our Shaving Soaps in particular, we have designed them not only to perform but to have a wonderful moisturising after effect on the skin. We chose not to use any harsh foaming agents such as Sodium Laurel Sulphate and have tried to keep the ingredients on our soap as simple and natural as possible.
Instead of using foaming agents which can quite often be drying on the skin we have chosen to use castor oil which is not only a wonderful moisturiser for the skin but also creates a denser lather than any of our other soaps. The castor oil acts as a humectant by attracting and retaining moisture to the skin, the idea being it gives a nice smooth shave and does not leave the skin feeling dry afterwards. We also ‘superfat’ our soaps which means that we leave excess oil in the final bar of soap to act as a soothing moisturiser. Again this is of huge benefit to the skin but we probably sacrifice some of the lathering qualities of the soap in order to have these benefits.
It’s a constant search to find the perfect balance between function and nourishment for the skin. And I like to think that we have definitely found that balance in most of our product such as our Hand Cream which has just won the ‘Best Hand Cream’ award in 2011’s Irish Tatler Beauty Awards. Many people who use our shaving soaps find that the lasting effects of using our soap regularly leave their skin in fantastic condition so while the lather may not be as substantial as other shaving soaps the after effects can be much better, however we do completely appreciate your opinion.
I’d like to take the opportunity again to thank you again for your review. We are always striving to make the best quality product for our customers and take on board any feedback that we receive and should anyone have any other feedback you can also contact us directly through our website www.thehandmadesoapcompany.ie and leave us a message.

hitemfrank

Hi Donagh. The amount of lather - even if not ideal - can be something to be worked on by the user. I have found there is generally a different sweetspot for different soaps so the amount of lather I generated wasn't too much of an issue for me.

The main problem I found with the soap was how quickly the lather disappeared once applied to my face or hand. It just wasn't a stable enough lather for shaving with. That I do believe would have to be something worked on by your company for the shaving soap to be a good product. Your company is not the first and certainly won't be the last to make a shave soap with a lather that's not up to scratch. Hopefully you will look into the stability of the lather because to have an Irish made shave soap of good quality would be great. Not to mention the good price it is currently at (especially for an artisan soap). This price could obviously change if you do change the formula but if the soap performs well, people will buy it.

Part of the reason for this thread was also to get feedback from others who may have used it but I only got some from 1 person in a PM and he too found that the lather disappeared much too quickly.

Hopefully you take the review and my response as encouragement for you to improve the soap.


Also a quick question about your site. Any plans to include a way to pay without going through Paypal? I can pay through Paypal but it's just a bit of a hassle for me (I'm lazy, what can I say?).

MadsL

Hi Donagh,

Welcome to the forum. First of all may I say that a soapmaker such as yourself is very very welcome in Ireland and contributing to this forum. May I also say that you sir have a fine taste in hats!! Soap and Hats! Welcome to the forum

I was the person who originally bought this shaving soap, and was rather underwhelmed by the results. (Have to say the wife LOVES the lip salve however) Now I did want to give you the feedback, but wanted to get some feedback of my own to eliminate the possibility this was my bad technique.

I put up a thread offering to send out a sliver to anyone interested in trying it. Due to a mix-up with the moderators here (they felt I might be shilling these wares) the thread was deleted. Now hitemfrank was the only one to get a sample, hence this review.

I echo hitemfrank's experiences but also his desire to see an indiginous company do this well - especially at this price point

I don't wish to appear to be educating you, and know next to nothing about soap making, but if I could share my thoughts (both myself and hitemfrank shave with straight/cutthroat razors, others here largely shave with traditional safety razors, straight razors or some with the Mach3) ..the three things a traditional shaver needs are lubrication, cushioning and moisturising. Of those three, the first two are paramount, the third nice to have. There are plenty of pre and after shave balms, skin foods and the like to take care of number three.

So a nice amount of soft microbubbled lather is essential for a good shave. The lather must be durable (and also not dry out on the face) both in the bowl and on the face as traditional razor shaving takes that little bit more time.

You mention not using foaming agents such as Sulphates, but taking a look at handmade soaps which get a cult following by traditional shavers in the US http://mamabearssoaps.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=1 they seem not to use them either.

Here's what is in their soaps;
Ingredients: Coconut Oil, Palm Oil, Castor Oil, Safflower , Glycerine (kosher, of vegetable origin), Purified Water, Sodium Hydroxide (saponifying agent), Sorbitol (moisturizer), Sorbitan oleate (emulsifier), Soybean protein (conditioner), Wheat protein and fragrance either natural or synthetic.

The key ingredient I suspect missing (and again I repeat I know nothing about soapmaking) is Glycerine (are you going for veggie soaps, I also see that you don't use tallowate?) Another 'cult' shaving soap is Mitchell's Wool Fat Soap, far from veggie, but Ingredients: Sodium Tallowate, Sodium Palm Kemelate, Aqua, Parfum, Glycerin, Sodium Chloride, Lanolin, Cl77891, Tetrasodium EDTA, Tetrasodium Etidronate.

I suspect that adding Glycerine will 'fix' the issue with lather. I'd like to try to confirm but I lost my bottle recently (I bought in Tesco and it never made it home, buried in the bags somewhere ) - this video seems to support that. That and the four or five other brands in my bathroom that contain Glycerine. I'll give it a spin once I get to Tesco again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2w3JRmActHE

So I'm wondering if you might give a batch a go with added Glycerine, I'm sure you will get volunteers to roadtest for you here

I'm sure (if I can be cheeky and speak for the 'trad' shavers here) we would love to support you in your venture though, especially as (I understand) you are a hatwearing, soapmaking thatcher!! We like your sort round here.