(SAW) Soap A Week club , Sun 17 Jan - Sat 23 Jan, Nanny's Silly Soap.

Scratch

Scratch

Messages
511
Welcome to this week's Soap A Week (SAW) thread.
Sun 17 January - Sat 23 January.

From tomorrow (Sunday 17th), we'll have a new soap of the week, and this week we have a soap by a British artisan soap maker who happens to also be a forum member, @SoapAlchemist aka Sharon, and I'm really looking forward to it.

This week's soap is: ...Nanny's Silly Soap (all types and scents).

Whether you have a hard soap, soft soap, or original, signature or olive oil recipe, and whatever the scent, as long as it's Nanny's you can take part in this SAW.

A bit about the company:

Nanny's Silly Soap.
http://www.nannyssillysoap.com/

From the website:
"Nanny's Silly Soap Company is a small artisan business which specialises in soap made without harsh synthetic ingredients."

"No synthetic foaming agents, preservatives or chelators are used in any of my soaps."

"My aim is to make products that are as natural as possible, and as ethical as feasible.

No synthetic scents, colours, chelators, detergents etc. are used. Ingredients are listed on the website, enabling my customers to make informed choices about what they put on their skin.

All Palm oil used is sustainably sourced in Columbia, and is also organic.

Nearly all my products are suitable for vegans; all stearic acid and glycerine used is of vegetable origin. In a few products I use beeswax, goat milk or silk."
Click to expand...

It'll be interesting to hear everyone's opinions and experiences with using these soaps. Personally, Nanny's soaps shot to the top of my shopping list after I tried some thanks to a soap PIF. I tried the soft soap, Moroccan Sands, and it felt like a very high quality soap, resulting in a fantastic shave with a really good post shave feel. I'm eager to get stuck into the two tins I recently bought and get to know this soap better.

I'll be having my first Nanny's SAW shave tomorrow with a 1912 and I can't wait. :D

So, if you're reading this and have a tin or puck of Nanny's soap in your collection, share your thoughts, break it out this week and tell everyone how you get on.

Until then... good shaves!
 
Last edited:
I was going to finish off a Soap Commander sample I'd been sent but I'll go with this. Last week I finished off my Lime & Patchouli mix I'd made (@SoapAlchemist are you listening? That's a brilliant mix please try it) and I've just PIF'd my Warm Spice so it'll be Moroccan Sands Signature; Moroccan Sands Olive Oil and then Rose & Germanium Olive Oil (if I can get it back off my dad.) Not a bad way to spend the week! That'l set high expectations for when my CRSW Oliva and V2 tallow turn up.
 
I shave with Signatures Lavender scent. Is a generous soap and give a good glidding and cushion. One tiny shortcoming to me is the loading procedure. I like to swirl on the surface and then lather in a bowl; this is a soft soap, and as a matter of fact when it seems is loaded need some more turns. I load again between my two passes and it was ok. This presentation has a lot of cream; you don't need balm or any other thing, unless you make some nick or burn due to the blade and razor. Nice soap.
 

Attachments

  • Nannys Shaving Room 2.jpg
    Nannys Shaving Room 2.jpg
    512.9 KB · Views: 22
NSS Signature Moroccan Sands
Simpson Chubby 2 Synthetic
Mongoose w/ Feather Pro blade on a Juergen Hempel handle
Krampert's Arcadian Bay Rum.

The only new component in this shave is the Hempel handle which was OK. A good shave but I've missed a few areas that I never miss - I blame the wife and daughter for making too much noise in the bathroom! If the idea of SAW is to optimize it's performance through familiarity then I doubt it'll get any better as I use NSS more than any other brand and together with Jabonman I probably use those two more than all the others put together. Additionally, I always use a soap three times before changing it. However, 7 days of NSS is no hardship.

@Mr_Smartepants would you like some NSS sent over? Paul
 
Thalasos said:
One tiny shortcoming to me is the loading procedure. I like to swirl on the surface and then lather in a bowl; this is a soft soap, and as a matter of fact when it seems is loaded need some more turns. Nice soap.
Click to expand...

I agree - I find it best to load for a long time but with little or no pressure, otherwise you get the the bottom of the tub too soon and most of the cream is pushed out over the sides.
 
Nanny's Silly Soap Signature, Lavender. First Foam. 4 minutes lathering. Scent is subtle, for me, but constant during my shave. I like pretty much. Soap has a lot of quality and may be useful take a pea size of soap with a teaspoon flip side to lather better than just stir the brush over the can surface. I'll try again with the spoon method another day.

Nannys%20Shaving%20Room%201%201_zps4iw8daje.jpg
 
Pre: Proraso sensitive pre-shave
Soap: NSS Vanilla original
Brush: Vie-Long Horse Hair 13061M
Bowl: Woodhead Pedestal
Razor: ATT S1 + Wave handle + Rapira Stainless Steel (1)
Post: WH, Aqua Velva Sport AS, Zirh Protect

I bought this small tub of NSS Vanilla 3 years ago and it's now almost empty; with so many soaps in my rotation it has to wait its turn. Consistency has hardened a little and scent has diminished over the last 6 months but that's probably due to the fact that there's so little left in the tub.
I always scoop out a blob of the soap and transfer to my lather bowl and one thing I find with NSS is that it sure sticks well the side of the bowl and that when rinsing out my bowl after shaving there's always a few blobs stuck there. So my advice is to put the soap right at the bottom of the bowl and add a teaspoon of very hot water first to soften it up a bit. Also make sure that all the soap has turned to lather as clumps can come free. I have used the Signature range and didn't have these issues.
I have the tendency to overwater NSS which results in a thinnish lather which is what happened this morning. For the rest of the week I'm going to control myself and only add the least amount of water because I know that results in luxuriously thick lather.

So for today I was a little disappointed in the lather but that's the beauty of SAW in that you have the chances to learn and fix the mistakes you make. The shave did however go well, BBS and no irritation and good conditioned skin feel after.
 
Last edited:
I had my first Nanny's SAW shave earlier. I cracked open my tin of Moroccan Sands, original recipe soft soap and dug a small amount (about the size of a 1p coin) out of the tin and pressed it into the bottom of my shaving scuttle's lathering bowl. I didn't bloom/pre-soak the soap at all and the lathering bowl was wet but had no water standing in the bottom.

It lathered up very easily with a wet-but-not-dripping (or even slightly drier) brush and didn't need any more water adding to it so I have to agree with the comments above: Nanny's (or at least the original recipe soft soap) is not a very thirsty soap. It'll be interesting to see if this is true of all Nanny's soaps.

saw_nss.jpg


Applying the lather was easy and the smell is absolutely beautiful - Moroccan Sands is such a rich and exotic scent, without being overpowering. One of my favourites for sure.

On to the shave, and only my second shave to date with the little Ever Ready 1912 single edge razor. It was nice, comfortable and easy. Very, very comfortable and easy. I had around four days growth yet completed a two pass (WTG, ATG) and pickups shave with no nicks/cuts/weepers and no absolutely no irritation. Slickness was very good and I was comfortably able to go over areas again, as long as the skin was wet. It may be true that there are other soaps that offer more protection or more slickness but Nanny's is still a great performer and being all natural and (mostly) vegan, is possibly better for the skin, which leads me nicely onto the next part: post-shave feel.

For me, post-shave feel is where Nanny's soaps really shine. Few soaps leave my skin feeling as clean, conditioned and supple after a shave and today was no exception. Fantastic.

Next time I'll be using Nanny's Citrus Zinger, olive oil recipe soft soap.
 
Last edited:
I'm if for this week. I've got three Nanny's soaps. French Lavender hard soap and Yushu and Hown Home Summer soft soaps.

Today's SAW SOTD

Nanny's Down Home Summer
Semogue 2012 SE
Gem Clog-Pruf
Gem blade
Alum
Fitjar Folgefonn ASB

Struggled to get a decent lather from the soap this morning, it was way too foamy and not particularly slick. Longer loading needed I think. I should have started again with this one. Must be user error as I've got a couple other Nanny's soaps which always perform. Shave was close, but not comfortable, several weepers.

Never mind, French Lavender lined up for tomorrow, I love that stuff!
 
I'd already tucked a shave in this evening before I clocked this thread (up with the sparrow's f@rt tomorrow morning). By pure coincidence I used NSS Moroccan Sands olive oil recipe; I also have the patchouli hard soap (out of stock/discontinued) and the bamboo/white grape Signature, version 1, so I'm in.
I normally shy away from olive oil based shaving soaps, due to their reputation for poor lather and stability. Sharon's is the only one I have - bought on a whim, to try. It has a nice pearlescent appearance and a fairly strong scent; another plus for me is that my tin is fairly small/shallow - 80g: I wish more producers would give us less product for a cheaper price - I might actually finish something.
The shave: 3 days growth:
Prep: hot bath; face wash with Biotique honey gel foaming face wash(!); Trumpers' sandalwood Skin Food
Brush: Vulfix 2190 finest badger (classed as a travel brush)
Razor: Lord L6, with Rapira Swedish Supersteel - on its 4th shave
Post: cold rinse; Thayer's witch hazel (rose); aloe+man balm, from Lanzarote
28 swirls on the soap and palm lathering gave me a decent lather, with a nice sheen - I'm not one for loading my brush for 2 minutes :eek: and prefer a thinner lather. 3 passes: wtg, xtg and wtg, with a rinse and re-lather between passes 1 and 2. Slickness fine; a thinner lather meant less cushion and a very, very close shave. Zero irritation :)
 
Hot towels
NSS Moroccan Sands signature
Omega no48 boar
Woodhead mega scuttle
PILS 101NE
Gillette 7 o'clock sharp edge (1)
Alum
Meissner Tremonia strong n scottish a/s
Well Moroccan Sands seems to be popular, I just love the smell of this. Slickness is good and had no irritation, skin nice and smooth with no need for balm. Tomorrow I'll be using English Rose and then Arabian Nights. All in all a pleasant shave today.
 
Pre: Village Barber oil
Soap: NSS Vanilla original
Brush: Whipped Dog 24mm synthetic
Bowl: Woodhead Tall Large Scuttle
Razor: ATT S1 + Kronos handle + Rapira Stainless Steel (2)
Post: WH, Fine Clean Vetiver AS, Trumpers - Coral Skin Food

Much improved lather compared to yesterday. I used less water and stuck a blob of the soap to the bottom of my hot scuttle which was easily able to "dissolve" and lather up. In fact the lather was a touch on the thick side but did offer good cushion and protection. I'm also coming to the conclusion that NSS perform better with a synthetic brush. For me the trick is not to be too stingy on the amount of soap used as too little can disappoint.
So today I couldn't fault the lather and I used Coral Skin Food which is a very mild glycerine ASB and skin still felt nicely conditioned and slightly tight but that's ok as it makes me feel younger.
 
Monday SAW

Nanny's French Lavender hard soap
Semogue 2012 SE
Long Comb New/JEC handle
Personna Lab
Alum
Fitjar Folgefonn ASB

Much better shave than yesterday. Top lather and great scent from the soap, I loaded the brush for longer before lathering, I think that made the difference.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom