Review - Fairhope Men's Him Collection

Company: Fairhope Soap Co.
Product: Him Collection
Italian-Style Shaving Soap, Balm, Bath Soap
Founder: Deborah Bruijn
Location: Fairhope, AL

Today I’ll be writing about the Men’s collection called “Him” from Fairhope. I talked to Deborah Bruijn the owner and she was gracious enough to send me the “Him” collection of products for review.

So let me talk a little about Deborah. She was raised in San Diego, California and now is a proud Southerner settling down in Alabama’s Gulf Coast in a beautiful small, arts and craftsy town of Fairhope.  She has a chemist degree who has worked for 10 years in the biopharma industry took time off to have a family and now has turned her talents to soap making.  She belongs to the Society of Cosmetic Chemists, Handcrafted Soap & Cosmetics Guild, Alabama Soap and Candle Association.

The “Him” collection includes shaving soap, balm, and bath soap. The packaging for this shaving soap is very similar to that of another artisan called Soap Commander. It’s in a round black plastic 5oz tub with the screw on lid. The labels are waterproof so no issues of them getting damaged or coming off during a shave.

The scent that I will be reviewing is called Key West. I have to say I really like the scent but for some of you who like strong scented soaps this is not one of them. The first time I tired to lather this soap was back a few months ago. I tired everything. So I sent a letter off to Debbie and she was well aware of the problem. She was heading off to have fun in the sun and would be back later in the month. Debbie explained to me that she made changes to the original formula and would be switching back with the new one she would be sending me.

So in mid Sept the package with the original formula had arrived. As soon as I opened the lid I saw the difference right away. I just had to to try this. Loading the brush from the tub was effortless. I had no problems with face lathering. This soap produced a very rich creamy lather with slickness and glide throughout the entire shave.

Let’s talk about the “Iced Aftershave Balm” If you are a menthol head your going to love this balm. It’s about to dethrone some of the top performers I’ve been using. I’ve found myself reaching for it constantly. The protection is amazing and cool feeling you get is a winner for sure. Get It!!

The Key West bath soap is a great performer as well with no issues and the scent is spot on with the others in the collection.

I really liked the Him collection and when you use her products you can tell that Debbie really knows her stuff. I highly recommend them.

Shaving Soap 5oz $15.00
Iced Aftershave Balm (Unknown Price)
Bath Soap $6.00

So take a look at how things turned out
Here is the Link to The Video Review -  The Him Collection Video Review

I just looked at the ingredients and I do not understand what is "Italian style" about this soap. It's ingredients are not like Cella, Vito's, Panna Crema, Valobra and various other Italian classics. In fact it looks like the French style soaps (modeled after MdC I think) that consist almost entirely of saponified stearate. It seems that in the last couple of years there has been a proliferation of artisans riding the saponified stearate wave. That said, good luck to Fairhope et al., I just don't feel the excitement.

I guess she can call her soap anything she wants. Yes I do see your point. I was still happy with the results of the shave if you could ever get a sample you should give it a try I think you might like it too.

I agree that it probably is a good performing product. Aside from MdC, Catie's Bubbles and 3P are similarly formulated and quite good.

Hmmm... Sounds like a really good soap. I will put it on my to-try list. Thank you very much for that review!

We were passing through Fairhope this summer and I stopped by their store and saw that they made shaving soaps. They had a sink and brush and sample container available to give their soap a lather. It seemed to hand lather really well so I picked up their Havana scent. Havana smells like a nice cedar humidor. I've been using the soap quite a bit lately and I must say that it performs great. The face feel is second to none, if that is something that appeals to you. The soap is vey slick and provides for a wonderful shave. I'm interested in trying out their iced balms which I understand are excellent. The prices are a little higher than what I've been using from other artisan soap makers but I would gladly purchase a few other scents when this one runs out. They have introduced a few new scents that sound good in Jakarta and Savannah. Let me know if any of you have tried their soap and which of the scents you like the best.