Have We Reached Peak Soap?

I have a large collection of soaps. I have tried the latest offerings of Ariana & Evans, Australian Private Reserve, Barrister & Mann, CBL. Chiseled Face, Declaration Grooming, First Line Shave, Gentleman's Nod, Grooming Department, Highland Springs Soap Company, Hub City Soap, Murphy & McNeil, Noble Otter, Oleo Soapworks, Saponificio Varesino, Shannon Soaps, Talbot Shaving, Tallow & Steel, Wholly Kaw and Zingari Man along with many others. There has been a tremendous improvement in the quality of soaps over the past couple of years. The best soaps in my den were released in the last year, one was released only last week. When I first started evaluating soaps about four years ago, I noticed significant differences in the performance. Some soaps were hard to lather. Some lathers were bubbly, or dissipated during use.Some soaps weren't quite slick enough. Some soaps had little residual slickness. Some soaps did not provide a great layer of cushion to protect my sensitive skin. Some soaps left my face feeling tight and dry.

Today, I really have to pay close attention to detect differences between the best soaps. The best soaps are all easy to lather, producer a smooth lather free of large bubbles, are incredibly slick, remain slick even when no visible lather remains, and provide a nice film of protection between the blade and my skin. Finally, the best soaps leave my skin feeling soft, supple, moisturized and conditioned within minutes after the shave and leave my skin feeling wonderful for the next 24 hours. Can shaving soaps improve beyond this level? Probably, but at this point, I believe most improvements will be incremental.

I think the real challenge for soapmakers is not going to be producing a soap better than all others, but being able to produce a soap of very high quality without the cost of the soap becoming so high that a majority of the wet shaving market either can't or won''t pay the price. A few years ago, many soaps were selling for $3 per ounce. Then soaps went up to $4-5 per ounce. Now we see soaps at the $6 - 8 per ounce price. Fortunately, the quality of soaps has gone up as the cost has increased, but will people still purchase soaps that cost $10 - 12 per ounce. I do not mind paying $6 - 8 per ounce for a superb soap, but beyond that, I am not sure.

A lot of very good points in your post and as a soap maker and addressing prices.. ( can't speak for all ) but one thing I'm seeing which I'm sure everyone is seeing in our daily lives is look no further than the price of meats and other food items since the Pandemic shut us down they have increased dramatically in some cases. Supplies that I use in my Grooming products have gone up; and in some cases as high as 20% and I've seen even higher on a few items. Of course that includes all ingredients as well as Aroma ingredients. So in some cases you either got to do one of 3 things. Use lower quality ingredients and scents, put the product in a smaller containers and not sell through suppliers but directly to the customer from the website. I'll add a lot of ingredients suppliers are out of stock on some essential items I need and when they do get them back in stock they go fast and shipping is taking a lot longer than normal due to decreased employee's. I had to wait 2 weeks for an order that would normally day 3 days so it changes a lot of dynamics of doing business.

Also to consider is if I take the same Shave soap formula and add a inexpensive fragrance oil commonly used in candles, bar soap making and yes shave soaps my soap would be less expensive. If I move to using let's say a Lemon Essential oil which is not a terribly expensive EO but it's definitely more expensive than the fragrance oil and then lets step it up and let's say I use a East Indian Sandalwood, Authentic Jasmine, Ambergris, Rose absolute, Agarwood well then the price would go way up.

So one soap maker who makes a great base could use inexpensive fragrance oils in their soap so they can keep their prices where their customer base likes them and will keep buying from them. There are so many variables to consider though when purchasing a soap. Unfortunately sometimes I think some folks not all bunch up all soap makers into one group and say how come they can sell their soaps at $18 and the other company is charging $24 for the same sized tub.

As an old man stuck in my ways, I think soaps reached their peak of quality with the vintage Floris, Penahaligon's, and C&E tallow-based soaps. Nothing else since has improved on them.

I'll agree with that... I used C&E Nomad (good formula) a day before I used a loved modern soap (doesn't matter which) and the C&E was every bit as good.

good lather has no suds

Trumpers Eucris (oh wait, they screwed up their base).

Wait, they did? When?

good lather has no suds

As an old man stuck in my ways, I think soaps reached their peak of quality with the vintage Floris, Penahaligon's, and C&E tallow-based soaps. Nothing else since has improved on them.

It is never too late for an old dog to learn a few new tricks.

I am not knocking your choice in soaps as I have not tried them. However, there are some superb options available today. If you have not tried these options, how can you say that the vintage soaps are the peak of quality.

As we age, it is important that we take care of our skin. Some of the newer soaps specifically contain a variety of ingredients specifically designed to moisturize and condition your skin. The will help your skin look good for as long as possible.

I find this discussion very interesting.  The beauty of it all is that no matter what our skin type is we can probably find something that works and forums have helped men like DanLaw and others who may have extremely sensitive skin or other issues related to whisker type learn about and sample alternatives that have helped them achieve at least tolerable shaves.  Its too easy to just say - "if you're so sensitive why don't you grow a beard?" But that isn't always the answer, you may work in a job where you can't wear a beard, you may not like the way your beard grows or you just might prefer to be clean shaven. The point is, with innovation its becoming less uncomfortable for many men to shave the way they want and that's a great thing.

I think cost is only a consideration at this point relative to the market - nobody is saying that they just can't afford to buy the latest soap, what they're saying is why should I pay $28 for a soap when another guy sells his soap fo $15.  In absolute terms, given the utility you get out of a tub of soap there isn't going to be that much of a difference on a price per shave basis.

I've always been intrigued by creativity (and the innovation it leads to) - I'll look at Instagram at 10pm on a Friday and Mohammad of Grooming Dept will have just posted pictures of a concoction he's been working on for 7 hours.  A total science experiment that may or may not become his next shaving soap base.  I think that's amazing.  He is never satisfied and he never rests on his laurels calculating the return on investment on a particular soap base that he can exploit for a specified period of time before he has to tweak the formula to keep sales in the target window.  Or if he does it doesn't show.  I know this drives some people nuts because if you liked a particular base - scent combination that Mo released a while back you can pretty much be sure its not going to be re-released.  Its never going to be made again so you may as well sit back and enjoy the one you have and savour it down to the last drop and look forward to the next amazing thing that comes out of Mo's amazingly creative brain.  

Another guy who is constantly innovating is Sri Ram of Wholly Kaw.  I remember trying the first generation Chypre Rose Concerto soap several years ago - it was excellent.  Then came donkey milk, also excellent and now siero, order of magnitude more excellent.  Each version was a significant improvement over the previous one and again the process is driven by Sri's relentless pursuit of innovation and creativity.  If you want to get an idea of what goes on in Sri's brain give a listen to Episode #016 of the Lather Talk Podcast.  Amazing.

The beauty of the wet shaving world is that there is room for everyone - those that crave or actually need innovation and those that are happy with the place and the soap that they've found and have no need or desire for anything else and everyone in between.  

The beauty of innovation, however, is that it doesn't get you to where you've wanted/expected to b e, it takes you places you never even knew existed until that moment.  So, looking at it form that perspective, no I don't believe we have reached peak soap and as long as there are creative, mad genius soap savants out there we likely never will. 

"Peak" as regards ACTUAL & FUNCTIONAL shave quality, yes years ago. Scents and PSF are entirely separate issues and are subjective at best and in the end add nothing to........here it comes again......actual & functional shave quality. I can get just as perfect a shave from a Stirling soap as I can from any other artisan. For that matter, I get perfect shaves from tallow Palmolive sticks. The PSFM (Post Shave Feel Matters) crowd has fueled the industry due to a few "influensters" more than anything and this has played into the hands of those artisans trying to make a $, but that's what a free market is about. Let the buyers decide. 

I just coined that term PSFM. Patent pending.    

Without reiterating my previous post and with all due respect, commenting that post shave healing is not an integral part of shaving soap reflects a bias from the perspective of a person blessed with average to good skin and facial structure. For those of us, admittedly a minority, actually afflicted with the aforementioned maladies, post shave is amongst the most critical element of a soap’s characteristics: literally a matter of health preventing infection. Many many more than actually have bad skin claim so but that doesn’t negate that there is a significant minority absolutely reliant on the strides made and underway in the skin revitalization properties of modern soaps. Conflating superficial scent properties (which, let us face facts are what sells the preponderance of soaps, including amongst some claiming soap technology advances matter not or are nonexistent) with a genuine property critical to performance such as post shave skin healing does a disservice to the debate.

"Peak" as regards ACTUAL & FUNCTIONAL shave quality, yes years ago. Scents and PSF are entirely separate issues and are subjective at best and in the end add nothing to........here it comes again......actual & functional shave quality. I can get just as perfect a shave from a Stirling soap as I can from any other artisan. For that matter, I get perfect shaves from tallow Palmolive sticks. The PSFM (Post Shave Feel Matters) crowd has fueled the industry due to a few "influensters" more than anything and this has played into the hands of those artisans trying to make a $, but that's what a free market is about. Let the buyers decide. 

I just coined that term PSFM. Patent pending.    

I disagree, but I digress as others have already touched on my point AND there's a more important point missed here...

I refuse to buy into your statement that we are exactly the same as the early / mid 1900s. Really... Palmolive?! It shaves well enough, but it also leaves you needing a shower and a confession booth. However, it is formulated to go on like a smooth, safe household lead paint. Ahh, it'll go so well with that thalidomide!

If you said we haven't made a big improvement in the last 3 years, I'd ponder it. Since the Palmolive days?!? Nope.

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As an old man stuck in my ways, I think soaps reached their peak of quality with the vintage Floris, Penahaligon's, and C&E tallow-based soaps. Nothing else since has improved on them.

It is never too late for an old dog to learn a few new tricks.

I am not knocking your choice in soaps as I have not tried them. However, there are some superb options available today. If you have not tried these options, how can you say that the vintage soaps are the peak of quality.

As we age, it is important that we take care of our skin. Some of the newer soaps specifically contain a variety of ingredients specifically designed to moisturize and condition your skin. The will help your skin look good for as long as possible.

True. I have tried many of the newer soaps, including quite a few from artisan makers, and I have ended up passing them on because for me they just didn't match the total experience quality of the old ones I mentioned. I am fortunate to have skin that is smooth and relatively young-looking, without many lines or wrinkles despite my years of abusing it, so at this point I am not very concerned about trying to condition it.

"Peak" as regards ACTUAL & FUNCTIONAL shave quality, yes years ago. Scents and PSF are entirely separate issues and are subjective at best and in the end add nothing to........here it comes again......actual & functional shave quality. I can get just as perfect a shave from a Stirling soap as I can from any other artisan. For that matter, I get perfect shaves from tallow Palmolive sticks. The PSFM (Post Shave Feel Matters) crowd has fueled the industry due to a few "influensters" more than anything and this has played into the hands of those artisans trying to make a $, but that's what a free market is about. Let the buyers decide. 

I just coined that term PSFM. Patent pending.    

I disagree, but I digress as others have already touched on my point AND there's a more important point missed  here...

I refuse to buy into your statement that we are exactly the same as the early / mid 1900s. Really... Palmolive?! It shaves well enough, but it also leaves you needing a shower and a confession booth.  However, it is formulated to go on like a smooth, safe household lead paint. Ahh, it'll go so well with that thalidomide!

If you said we haven't made a big improvement in the last 3 years, I'd ponder it. Since the Palmolive days?!? Nope.

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Where did I write what you said?