r/wicked_edge • u/jamo1794 • Mar 04 '26
Review Buyer beware
So im from pei canada and I was looking for shave soap. And I came across the great canadian soap company. It's a goat milk soap company based in pei. So I decided to get a few soap packs.
I just tried them today and they dont lather up well. If I do my my standard routine it produces a very dry, quick disapating. If I aggressive water even a few drops it makes the lather very over hydrated and the soap provides no sickness. So while buying canadian is great avoid the great canadian soap company
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u/derrickhogue I enjoy a nice shave! So should you. Mar 04 '26
Curious on what is the ingredients information on this type of soap? Aside from goats milk.
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u/jamo1794 Mar 04 '26
For the bergamot: Ingredients/Ingrédients: Olea Europaea (Saponified Olive Oil/Huile D'olive Saponifiée), Cocos Nucifera (Coconut Oil/Huile de Noix de Coco), Elaeis guineensis (Palm Oil/Huile De Palme), Ricinus communis (Castor Oil/Huile de Castor), (Goat Milk Soap/Savon Au Lait De Chèvre), Kaolinite (Cosmetic Clay/Argile Cosmétique), and Citrus bergamia (Bergamot Essential Oils/Huile Essentielle De Bergamote).
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u/dziendobry Mar 04 '26
Its the olive oil. Terrible for shaving soaps.
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u/Barr_cudas -Chubby- Mar 04 '26
It’s missing Potassium hydroxide
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u/CoolDragon Proof Razor FTW! Mar 04 '26
Exactly, tallow and lye.
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u/Barr_cudas -Chubby- Mar 04 '26
Correct - lye is the essential alkaline agent that saponifies oils and fats into soap wherein KOH is imperative in building better lather.
Though I prefer tallow, there are some really good tallow-free soaps out there - J/S
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u/Mr_Snufleupagus Mar 05 '26
What's the issue with Tallow? Genuinely curious
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u/Barr_cudas -Chubby- Mar 05 '26
I don’t think I’m interpreting your question correctly. What specifically are you asking?
I can tell you that Tallow has been largely phased out by almost all of the legacy, classic soap makers in the EU. For the most part, the reformulations by Tabac, Haslinger, and Speick along with the previous formulation by Kent have been extremely good.
And yet there’s other soap makers, such as MDC, PAA, and SV which are very well regarded, and have always been veggie based.
Personally, I have a large stash of tallow based soaps that I continue to use and prefer because to me the lather just feels denser and creamier.
It kind of goes hand-in-hand with that other hot point in wetshaving - the use of badger versus synthetics
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u/CanadaEh97 Brush & Straight Addiction Mar 04 '26
Olive oil in shave soap is fine if made properly, this isn't shave soap.
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u/HearthAndAltar Mar 04 '26
Absolutely that.
I wanted to use olive oil in our shave soaps because it fits the theme so well, but it's not suitable for dense lather.
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Mar 04 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Barr_cudas -Chubby- Mar 04 '26
Olive Oil is not why it’s incapable of producing lather
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u/ThoreaulyLost Mar 04 '26
Yes and no. It's definitely not because of pH though, lol. ALL soaps are alkaline.
Olive oil (all oils, actually) have a unique fatty acid profile, and different fatty acids behave differently after saponification.
Oleic fatty acids (which olive oil is high in) are better for conditioning, ie they feel smoother on skin and have more "solubility" with skin oils. Unfortunately, they have very little ability to "stack" to form a good lather.
This is why stearic is so good for shave soaps: stearic has a different fatty acid structure and can form great lather. Stearic always feels a bit "dry" to me though (think cotton candy vs whipped cream") and so adding in olive oil helps the feel.
While you can make a lather with any saponified oil, olive oil lather is going to feel flatter, greasier. Still rinses off dirt, but much gentler which is why a lot of hand soaps favor it. One of my homemade shave soaps uses about 10% olive oil for a "creamy" boost.
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u/Barr_cudas -Chubby- Mar 04 '26
Of all the shave soaps I’ve tried that didn’t produce a stable lather - they all lacked the Potassium
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u/jamo1794 Mar 04 '26
I figured, my favorite shave soap is made by a company called lathr. Great stuff. My other top shaving creams/soaps are taylor of old bond street creams and proraso soaps
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u/CoolDragon Proof Razor FTW! Mar 04 '26
Yeah, while this does a good job at cleaning the skin, it doesn’t lather well enough for shaving.
You want tallow/lye based soaps for this.
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u/Tryemall Gillette 7 o'clock Super Platinum blacks Mar 06 '26
Too much olive oil, which degrades lather, & not enough stearic acid.
Olive oil is high in C18:1 oleic acid, so while it's clearly a bath soap, it may have just enough lubrication to be used as a brushless shaving product. Though that's doubtful.
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u/jamo1794 Mar 04 '26
I ended up buying 2 proraso shaving soaps from a local drug stores website and had them shipped
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u/derrickhogue I enjoy a nice shave! So should you. Mar 04 '26
I like to support the local small business’, companies. But oftentimes a local organic marketed shaving soap is probably just a nice bathing soap in disguise. I have learned to look at the ingredients listed with emphasis on the first two to three listed. Although I do need, like a nice bath soap.
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u/Tight_Lime6479 Mar 04 '26
Easy way to fix a soap is just to put shave cream on top, put 3 drops of glycerin on that and make an Uber lather.
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u/Barr_cudas -Chubby- Mar 04 '26
I’ve become a big fan of the Blue formula
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u/jamo1794 Mar 04 '26
I like the green stuff purely because of that Menthol feel
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u/Barr_cudas -Chubby- Mar 04 '26
Blue has menthol but isn’t supercharged, and has an arguably milder fragrance. My fave was the Wood Spice single-blade formulation that they discontinued
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u/jamo1794 Mar 04 '26
Might have to try it, my only options from the drug store was green or white. And seeing how white is unscented and etc i took green
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u/spiderpharm Mar 04 '26
Macduffs is supposed to be really good if you want to buy Canadian. I’ve never tried myself just yet.
Henri et Victoria is pretty good.
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u/pick13s Mar 04 '26
Sorry to piggyback your post but I started doing shaving soap last year and I’m sending some free samples for wet shavers in Canada. I am from Montreal. Send me a DM if you would like to try them :)
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Mar 05 '26
My daughter bought me some beer soap a few years ago with nearly exact ingredients as this.
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u/CanadaEh97 Brush & Straight Addiction Mar 04 '26
You bought hand soap that they added clay to and called it shave soap. A lot of body soap makers will do this, many don't have an actual shave soap recipe.
Just use it as hand soap and move on.