One of the first things a newcomer to the wetshaving scene will notice is the myriad small shop soap makers and their loud lauding patrons. The marketeering tactics of these, and other vendors, is of no concern to me, but there is a reason to beware the overnight soap makers.
So, we all know the story. New guy or gal joins the forums, and within a short time, they start looking for volunteers to test their soap. Of course, there are no shortage of people willing to take a free product, and they're all too happy to give the "artisan soap maker" some positive publicity for their generosity.
What is shocking is the speed with which these people can bring to market such a "great" product. Within mere weeks, they start testing, get feedback, and start selling. While I applaud the efforts of the vendors who provide the products that we use, I think you should be careful about these products.
I've seen and tried numerous small shop soapers, and what I'm finding is that most of them are OK. However, there are some cases where guys have had allergic reactions, and worse, chemical burns from such soapers. But, it can't be that hard to make a good soap, right?
Well maybe it is. Penhaligon's once made the Gold Standard of soaps. Once they reformulated, the moaning and gnashing of teeth was heard throughout the shaving world. The same was true for Trumper's in their first few reformulations. These are major players in this market, and they have a difficult time getting the chemistry just right. How do we expect someone with little to no experience to start making high quality soaps within such a short window?
Lucky for me, I have a good friend whose parents own a soap company. He's a wetshaving enthusiast as well, and has been working with them to develop a shave soap. After over a year of work, there has been significant progress, but nothing that is ready for the market... yet.
Well, struggling soapers isn't anything that should shake your confidence in the overnight successes, in and of itself, but let me tell you a little about these people. The proprietors are a married couple, really great people. My friend and his dad are both PhDs, and the mom is an MBA who worked for NASA for 30 years. The dad is a recipient of the Silver Snoopy award given for his work in space hardware and NASA Shuttle mission work, and the mom had signature authority at NASA and is a "Space Flight Awareness Honoree".
In case you haven't gathered this, these are highly intelligent people who decided to go into the soap making business, and they have done quite well with that enterprise. What's shocking is that it has taken them over a year of steady work to develop a high quality product. Now, in fairness, their background isn't in chemistry, but these are legitimately brilliant people who haven't quite gotten it figured out after a year.
What's the point? I don't think that soap making is that hard. In fact, the 11th batch provided to test by my friend was pretty decent. In fact, I'd say it's probably better than the majority of the artisan soaps on the market. However, it wasn't as good as the better products on the market. So, back to the drawing board. What I see is a higher standard, and I have 100% confidence that what they do bring to market will be worth trying.
I mentioned before that I recently started focusing on fewer products and gaining a better understanding of my gear. Part of that discovery was that the software I use is more important than I thought. One or two shaves with an "OK" soap is fine, but daily use will lead to drying and a poor experience in time.
Most of the small makers are found wanting when measured against the better products on the market. Suffering through a few bad shaves is not too bad, but there have been a few cases of serious skin problems with some of these companies.
Remember: your shave will only be as good as its weakest component. If it's made on a stove in someone's kitchen, it's not going on my face, and I'd encourage you to be very discerning when deciding which shave soaps you buy.
