Shaving Soap Reviews

[Mark1966]

Long story short ...

There is a research base to suggest that assessments done by different people are more reliable and comparable when based solely on binary (yes/no) choice.

So I've been trying to think of ways of doing this with shaving soap.

This is what I can currently think of:

Is the packaging suitable for lathering in?
Is the packaging suitable for a (potentially wet) bathroom environment?
Is the scent pleasant?
Is the scent of strong enough during use?
Is the scent likely to interfere with a post-shave product?
Is is straightforward to create an acceptable lather?
Does the quantity of water have a significant impact on lather quality?
Does the lather last for all your passes?
Does the lather provide sufficient slip or glide for the blade?
Does the lather provide sufficient cushioning for the skin from the actions of the blade?
Does the lather have residual glide allowing touch ups without additional lather being applied?
Does the lather dry your skin?
Does the lather moisturising the skin?
Does your skin feel toned and tightened after the shave?

What other Yes/No questions are important around soap efficacy?

 

[todras]

Not strictly centred around efficacy per se but here are a few more questions as part of forming a metric (of sorts).

Did the lather cause a skin reaction such as itching, swelling not attributable to technique or blade on more than one occasion ?
Would you describe the soap as hard ?
Would you describe the soap as soft ?
Is the soap midway inbetween hard and soft. i.e. a Croap ?
Did you need to load a lot more soap than usual to make the lather required for your shave ?
Did you need to load less soap than usual for the lather required for your shave ?
Was the amount of soap loaded about the same as you would normally load ?

I'm thinking spreadsheet...General Ledger my good man!

 

[Mark1966]

Yes, most definitely a spreasheet @todras - I'm not capable of constructing an app

It will allow the user to weight the various parameters to customise the results and, based on pre-set thresholds, make a recommendation to buy, hold or sell in accordance with the total score.

This marvellous tool will provide 'scientific' justification for the instinctive thought 'I need that' - it will, indeed rate some soaps as a 'buy'

I might include drop down boxes for some of the options. Hmmm. I might even be able to host this online now I think about it ...

Any other questions from people? The soap makers? or lathermeisters?

 

[GregP]

Any other questions from people? The soap makers? or lathermeisters?

"Would you buy this soap again?"

 

[stillshunter]

Yep, it's official. P&C has flipped it lid

 

[alfredus]

I know these are not yes/no questions, but for me personally any review is useless without the following information:

Top Soaps
Least favourite soaps
Favourite brush
Other brushes you have (used with this soap)

And two yes/no questions:
Do you face lather
Do you bowl lather

If the answer to both is no, I guess you are by default @khun_diddy (palm lather)

 

[Mark1966]

After some reflection and research, including reading this interesting thread, here my is 'template' for future shaving soap reviews:

Name of Soap
Description
Size
Price [if known] (price per gram)
Type [hard/soft/croap/triple milled etc if known]
Ingredients list


Packaging
Is the packaging suitable for lathering in?
Is the packaging suitable for a (potentially wet) bathroom environment?
Do I find the packaging aesthetics pleasing?


Performance
Latherability
Is is straightforward to create an acceptable lather?
Is more or less soap needed than usual to create a lather?
Does the quantity of water have a significant impact on lather quality?
Does the lather provide even and consistent coverage?
Does the lather last for at least two passes?

Lubrication
Does the lather provide sufficient slip/glide for the blade? [lack of nicks will be factor here]
Does the lather provide sufficient cushioning for the skin from the actions of the blade? [absence of rawness will be considered here]
Does the lather have residual glide allowing touch ups without additional lather being applied?

Nourishment
Did the lather cause a skin reaction? [eg itching, swelling not attributable to technique or blade on more than one occasion ?]
Does the lather dry your skin?
Does the lather moisturising the skin?
Does your skin feel toned and tightened after the shave?

Scent
Is the scent pleasant?
Is the scent of strong enough during use?
Is the scent likely to interfere with a post-shave product?

Overall
Would I buy again?

Details of soaps used etc will be in my profile if people are interested too

A spreadsheet got too hard - so you can relax @stillshunter

Happy shaving folks

 

[Korbz]

Love a good template