Thread: Soaps -- Straights vs DE

Originally Posted by Utopian

Sadly, I don't. I've never understood the appeal of Stirling soaps. Maybe the newer stuff got better but the several that I've tried from years ago were not very good, to put it charitably.

Your comments don't surprise me at all. As with so many things in shaving, soaps can be highly subjective. What works for one may not work for another, and that's what makes experimenting educational and fun.

Tallow in Stirling vs Glycerin in Conk is one big differentiator for me. Artisan quality is another - Conk being more mass produced. But to each their own. Some would prefer the Conk simply because it's glycerin based. I personally have to add a bit of glycerin to Conk to get it to perform up to the standards of a good artisan soap. I happen to prefer tallow so I lean toward a soap like Stirling, but I'm not a Vegan. A Vegan would shun Tallow soap like the plague. If you can get by with Conk or other lower cost soaps, then good for you. My grandfather shaved with Ivory bar soap. Probably saved him some money in his 60 years or so of straight razor shaving, and quite frankly, that was no doubt his goal. From his perspective, when you have a perfectly good hand soap already in the bathroom, why pay extra for a shaving soap? He'd probably flip his lid if he saw my soap collection. "Terrible waste of money" would be the first thing he'd say.

-Zip

45 years with a DE razor and many hundreds of soaps and creams, didn't have to change a hing when it came to straights. So no difference if it's a soap that meets your likes. Tc

Originally Posted by ZipZop

Your comments don't surprise me at all. As with so many things in shaving, soaps can be highly subjective. What works for one may not work for another, and that's what makes experimenting educational and fun.

Tallow in Stirling vs Glycerin in Conk is one big differentiator for me. Artisan quality is another - Conk being more mass produced. But to each their own. Some would prefer the Conk simply because it's glycerin based. I personally have to add a bit of glycerin to Conk to get it to perform up to the standards of a good artisan soap. I happen to prefer tallow so I lean toward a soap like Stirling, but I'm not a Vegan. A Vegan would shun Tallow soap like the plague. If you can get by with Conk or other lower cost soaps, then good for you. My grandfather shaved with Ivory bar soap. Probably saved him some money in his 60 years or so of straight razor shaving, and quite frankly, that was no doubt his goal. From his perspective, when you have a perfectly good hand soap already in the bathroom, why pay extra for a shaving soap? He'd probably flip his lid if he saw my soap collection. "Terrible waste of money" would be the first thing he'd say.

-Zip

Oh, I've got quite a few soaps that I'd rather my wife did not know their cost. I just did not find any of the older Stirling soaps to lather well at all. It's not a matter of taste, they just did not work any better than a bar of Ivory soap would.

I'm fairly certain that they have improved their soap, given the number of people praising it, but the stuff from a few years ago makes me wonder how they managed to stay in business long enough to improve. Good for them for working it out.

Originally Posted by Utopian

Oh, I've got quite a few soaps that I'd rather my wife did not know their cost. I just did not find any of the older Stirling soaps to lather well at all. It's not a matter of taste, they just did not work any better than a bar of Ivory soap would.

I'm fairly certain that they have improved their soap, given the number of people praising it, but the stuff from a few years ago makes me wonder how they managed to stay in business long enough to improve. Good for them for working it out.

Probably so. I don't think I tried Stirling until late 2015? Guessing here. So perhaps they have improved greatly, or their soap just doesn't agree with you - or both. I remember reading about an issue with something in their soap years ago where many users actually complained about quality of one sort or another, so the formula was changed. But perhaps this was only one particular kind of soap they sell. Not sure.

Anyway, I find it stellar for my skin and use, and with great fragrances. Their owner is just amazing to deal with from my experience. He never fails to put in some small free gift when I order, and he responds to emails well.

-Zip

My own experience has shown that the better quality tallow based soaps seem to work better with straights, for me. The DEs seem to be more forgiving for lather and soap quality. Though I have used some of the soaps considered mid to lower quality for straight shaves, they simply weren't as forgiving or easy on the skin as my higher quality artisan soaps. As mentioned earlier though, quality of honing and technique as well as lather making technique used has a greater bearing on end results than the quality of your soap.