What would be your ideal soap?

I am thinking about this lately if it is even possible to combine the good aspects of all the great soaps into one.

For example, I love everything about Santa Maria Novella. This is the most expensive soap/cream in my collection, and I would buy this again, no doubt. I can’t think of any soap having better slickness, cushion. I can’t think of any other soap that retains lather quality over the duration of a long shave ( my SR shaves can be really long sometimes). The lather looks exactly seem 30 mintues from the start of first pass. Lathering is super easy, and a little goes a long way. Scent isn’t bad either.

But the post shave is average. Within 5/6 minutes after shaving, my face starts feeling dry and eventually itchy.

On the other hand, Mystic Water requires significantly more effort to build a great lather, and while lather doesn’t dissipate that much, i do notice a change in the look. I need to load a lot of soap, have to be careful about adding too much water. But the post shave, for me, is second to none. I can go without using any post shave product at all.

Tabac, MdC are super easy to lather.

MWF is super slick but lathering is, well, u know.

I find Mike’s to be the best all around soap, considering lathering difficultly, post shave and lather longevity. But his scents aren’t something to write home about. GD, BM reserve, Stirling are the next good overall soaps (MW still better for me if i ignore the effort). ( for some reason, i don’t get great post shave with L&L or WKDM)

So, in short, my ideal soap would be one that behaves exactly like SMN but has post shave like Mystic Water.

If I elaborate, packaging like Nuavia/B&M, scent strength like Esbjerg/crsw, scent B&M, ease of loading Tabac, slickness and cushion SMN, lather longevity SMN, post shave MW, product usage MdC, names like WK), price like Arko.

Do you have any such combination in mind, or are you happy with whatever you have already.

Great idea for a thread Sourav! This one will take some thought and testing (which I am doing now for post shave). I'll get back to this when I'm done, but I have some very similar thoughts to yours. I've never used SMN though.

SMN dissipates for me after the first pass and have to reload the brush for another pass. Post shave, scent is to my liking though.

I am lucky to have the right water at my place and have not faced any challenges in lathering any of the soaps save MW. This is a little difficult soap for me to lather.

I am largely happy with the creations of various artisans and accept them the way they are.

Some of my favorites are B&M, CRSW, Mike's, L&L, Nuavia, Icoloniali (sadly discontinued) and I find them perfect.


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Mike's and Stirling are my ideals. Love the scents, love the performance.

Note: The post-shave experience, no matter the soap, is greatly enhanced by mixing a little Lucky Tiger After Shave and Face Tonic with your favorite AS. Magic stuff, that Lucky Tiger!

Price like Arko Love it.

This is a great thread and it will take me a little time to come up with my list but you can bet that we're going to have some lively discussion - thats the beauty of it, we all love different aspects and different products for different reasons so lets see if we have any convergence.

I think Castle Forbes is close to perfect for me, though there are scents I like better which they don't offer.

Hmmm. Interesting question sure enough. I really enjoy the differences in the soaps I've kept and can't imagine not having those differences to choose from but if I were to make a frankensoap I'd choose Valobra for the load/lather, Stirling slickness, Mystic Waters post shave, and for scent I'd choose DR Harris Windsor. (Darn near chos Cyril Salter French Vetiver. Digging that dirty scent right now)

I guess I would be predictable. If I had to hide in a bunker for 20 years: Mikes, Stirling, and Saponificio Varesino......and Arko.