In the quest for the best shaving soap, it’s important to remember that it’s mostly about personal preference, don’t get us wrong some soaps perform better than others, but it’s like buying a cologne.
It can just come down to how it feels and smells.
Everyone has different skin so everyone will experience the shaving soaps differently.
While this list contains our choices for the best shaving soaps, you may need to experiment to find the best shaving soap for you.
We can guarantee that the shaving soaps tested are in the list of top shaving soaps and you will love all of them all and one of them will be your best shaving soap.
The products in the running for the best shaving soap
Before we reveal the results of our best shaving soap contest, we want to go through the criteria for a good shaving soap, thats good enough to be in the list of the top shaving soaps:
- Lather
There are 3 basic things when it comes to lather, how easy it is to lather the soap, the texture and how much lather your get per whipping.
To us for a shaving soap to be in the list of the best shaving soaps it has to create a great lather which basically means a little amount of soap that easily whips into a lot of lather with a firm yet satisfying texture.
- Scent
As mentioned above this is very personal, the scent plays a major role in any shaving soap you end up using.
We typically keep several shaving soaps on hand to suit our preferences and moods that change day to day.
For example, the soap that won this content, we would say is distinctly summer soap.
so whilst its the best shaving soap for summer, you may want to pick another of the top shaving soaps for the winter months.
- Shave
A good shaving soap will provide a lot of lubrication, soften the stubble whilst also exfoliating your skin. We usually like to apply a pre & post shaving gel, but a shaving soap thats good enough to be on the best shaving soap list should provide a lather that’s smooth enough to be used on their own without pre-shave oil. Though that will depend on how sensitive your skin is you may find your still need a pre-shave oil if you have sensitive skin.
- Packaging
This is another personal preference as this won’t apply to everyone, but it does to us, we’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, shaving is about the overall experience.
Things like packaging, design and style really add to your experience and to be in the list of the best shaving soaps, the packaging should look fantastic.
The Major Benefits of using Shaving Soap
On top of the criteria that makes a good shaving soap one of the best shaving soaps, we want to go through the top benefits that we find come with using a good shaving soap.
Once you’ve converted to using shaving soap you won’t go back to the foam/gel in a can.
It’s great for your skin
Shaving is hard on your skin, the elements also batter away and dry out your skin, but there is a way to protect it.
Using a good quality shaving soap will reduce the damage done by your daily razor assault.
Using a good quality shaving soap will also help to restore the moisture to your skin leaving your face soft and smooth.
Shaving can leave your skin feeling dry and resulting in pain if the skin gets too dry, shaving soap fixes these issues and will make your shaving experiences ever more enjoyable.
It allows you to get an extremely close shave
That’s right, shaving soap helps produce that close shave you’ve been looking for and the best shaving soap will produce the closest of shaves.
The lather produced by the soap helps the blade of your razor get closer to each hair follicle.
Shaving soap doesn’t really produce a foam like you get from the aerosol can, instead you work up a fierce sudsy lather that trumps a handful of foam any day.
The soaps from the shave foam cling to each hair follicle, softening the stubble ready for the chop from the safety razor.
This helps reduce the times you need to go over the each area of your face and ensures that each hair follicle is removed by the razor, the best shaving soaps will help reduce the irritation from shaving by reducing the times you need to go over the same area.
Its goes the distance
You may not believe it but shaving soap will outlast that can of shaving cream. Yeah a good shaving soap will cost a more than a can of shaving cream but after your initial purchase you won’t have to buy another bar of shaving soap for quite a while, thus you get a lot of bang for your buck.
These are just a few of the benefits we found with using a good quality shaving soap. We could go on, but we’ve got more to cover for example the winner of the best shaving soap!
And the Winner for best shaving soap is
Features
- Made in Italy
- 5.2 oz (147 g)
- New Formulation
The team at The Art of Shaving know exactly what they are doing.
This soap is amazing, its smells delicious, if you buy the soap with the bowl you’ll get a really awesome looking wooden bowl.
After that you just buy refills.
The mixture of the bowl, the soap, and that sandalwood smell together it makes you feel like Ron Swanson, which is exactly what we are after with a top shaving product.
The price tag is a bit high, but don’t let that put you off, the soap lasts forever and you get a huge amount of lather per whipping.
This really is an amazing shaving soap, the lather is awesome, with just a small amount of the soap on your brush you can quickly and easily whip up a lather which will cover your entire face.
It’s possibly one of the best lather’s we’ve seen for a soap, the lather itself smells amazing, it’s stiff and forms manly peaks.
Which is why it’s not just one of the top shaving soaps, in our opinion it’s the best shaving soaps on the market.
The scent itself is a strong, masculine sandalwood scent with subtle earthy undertones.
It’s strong but not overpowering.
It’s not something you would use every day, but as we’ve said before shaving soaps are like colognes, we tend to keep different soaps at hand depending on the season, the occasion and ultimately your mood.
The shave from this soap is a dream, comparing this to the Art of Shaving’s shaving cream, the soap seems to protect the face better.
Most people found that they cut their face less with the soap than they did with the cream, the soap also lasts a lot longer.
This is one of it not the best shaving soap on the market.
If you’re seriously into shaving having a good shaving soap is essential to your kit and this soap is worth the investment.
It’s really no surprise to us that this is the best selling shaving soap on Amazing.
The new version from 2012 is also Paraben free and for those that don’t know that’s a chemical used as a preservative in cosmetics which has been linked to some cancers so a lot of companies have moved away from using them.
The packaging is average, the soap comes in a round plastic container sporting the Proraso logo.
It’s not the most luxurious packaging in the world but with a simple matte pop off top. It’s easy to handle using a wet shave, much easier than some of the plastic screw on tops.
Proraso were clearly thinking about much when they designed this tub.
One of the key characteristics of this soap is the smell.
The second you pop the lid, the menthol and eucalyptus fills the bathroom, it may be a bit too strong for some, but we love it, it had an amazing refreshing effect to the skin.
It also tightens and cools your skin during the shave, making for a rather comfortable post shave.
The later is really nice, a little bit of soap goes a very long way, just a single whipping is enough to cover your face 3 times.
The lather itself is a smooth and silky texture rather than a stiff one.
The proraso soap lather felt to us to be more of a moose than a whipped cream.
As soon as you apply the lather you immediately feel the cooling effects, because the cooling effects are so good.
This soap is really nice before, during, and after the shave.
The eucalyptus and menthol make for a unique experience totally different to most other shaving soaps.
It also produces an amazing lather and a lot of it.
Making this a very frugal choice.
It only just lost out to the #1 spot for the best shaving soap.
If you’re looking for a potential shaving soap that’s in the top 5 of all the best shaving soaps.
Then you can’t go wrong with this one
The Col Conk world famous shaving soap comes in one of the coolest old school containers.
It has an amazing tradition and legend behind it.
Col. Ichabod Conk left the military and married a barber, picked up the basics of being a barber then made shaving soaps and accessories until he died in the 1890’s.
Decades later a company learned of his legacy and resurrected his products. Since then they’ve been a worldwide leader in men’s shaving products.
Col. Conk products outrank some of the best shaving soaps on the market and are always found at a very reasonable price.
The soap itself has a very classic look and whips up into a thick and foaming lather which leaves the skin feeling exfoliated.
The scent can be a hit of miss with people, we, however, love it, if you were to imagine what George Clooney smells like, this is it, it has a deep rich musky smell that resonates manliness.
It isn’t, however, an old man smell, just a strong and masculine smell which is also strangely refreshing…
Col. Conks product has proven the test of time producing some of the best shaving soaps on the market, which are clearly loved.
The lather will save you a lot of money because with this shaving soap a little, really does go a long way, we also found that women love the smell.
This soap will last about 3 times as long and costs marginally more.
Here’s a tip to make it last that bit longer, by using that a little bit of water to create a slightly thinner lather or you can add a little water to a small section of the soap puck to get a thicker lather.
Either method will help increase the lifetime from 3 times longer than a can of shaving foam to potentially 5 times as long.
Though the Col. Conk world famous shaving soap is awesome, it wasn’t quite good enough to win the contest for the best shaving soap, but comes highly recommended, it’s an excellent soap that you should try and see if it works for you, it certainly deserves it’s position in the rankings as one of the best shaving soaps
Wow Van Der Hagen has been in this game for over a century, constantly producing quality products and this shaving soap is no exception which is why it’s on the list of best shaving soaps.
They’re a Dutch company and they produce high-end men’s grooming products.
The soap is fantastic, it’s a vegetable based soap that hasn’t been tested on animals, which is also hypo-allergenic.
The lather is top notch, just a little swirl on the shaving puck and this stuff whips up into a nice thick lather.
The lather itself is easily manipulated, you can add a lot of water to the later to reduce the thickness and make the lather go further.
The lather is long lasting, it won’t leave your face feeling dry.
In fact, the lather is so good it acts as a moisturizer, leaving the face feeling smooth, light and exfoliated.
The fragrance is lite, a perfect alternative for those who found products like Col. Conk to be overbearing.
The fragrance is very similar to most soaps on the market.
The soap performs really well, it also adds a clean lubricant to your face to protect from razor burn or any irritation introduced from shaving.
You will need to give your face a wash after using this soap as Van Der Hagen tends to leave a residue after you’ve finished shaving.
This isn’t a big deal, this is a common issue from other shaving soaps that contain glycerin, some people may find this irritating, however, a quick rinse of your face corrects that.
Once again this is another top shaving soap that’s cheap and will later a long time, shaving cream needs replacing every few months, not with a Van Der Hagen shaving soap, a very small amount tends to go a long way, if correctly used you will triple the lifetime of your shaving soap in comparison to a shaving cream.
It’s surprisingly cheap so you will get plenty of value out of this shaving soap.
This is another highly recommended shaving soap that just wasn’t good enough to top the list of the best shaving soaps, but well worth mentioning.
Loved the article? Why not check out more of our shaving articles or if you want, you can see more from shaving creams and shaving soaps
