Highland Soap Co. Natural Shaving Soap.

B

Bike Boy

Joined
Monday November 9, 2009
Highland Soap Co. Natural Shaving Soap.

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Directions: Wet the face with warm water. Apply a wet shaving brush to the soap, lather up in the tub and apply to the face.

INGREDIENTS: Sodium olivate (olive oil), Sodium cocoate (coconut oil), Sodium palm kernelate (organic palm oil, sustainably-grown), Zea mays (corn oil), Aqua (water), Butyrospermum parkii (Shea butter, fairly-traded), Theobroma cacao (Cocoa butter, fairly-traded), Sodium castorate (castor oil), Lavandula officinalis (lavender essential oil), Pogostemon cablin (patchouli essential oil), *Linalool, *Limonene, *Geraniol. (*Occurs naturally in essential oil).



I bought a tub of this from their shop in Fort William. I've been using it intermittently for a couple of months, and continuously for the past couple of weeks. In that time I have noticed a distinct improvement to the smoothness/softness of my skin, even more than my previous favourite, Kent.

It comes in a plastic tub with a metal screw top. When you take the lid off there is a very pleasant lavender smell, but I can't detect what I would call patchouli.

The instructions say "Wet the face with warm water. Apply a wet shaving brush to the soap, lather up in the tub and apply to the face." As soon as you apply a wet brush to the soap the lavender aroma intensifies, very pleasant and not overwhelming.

The brush loads up easily after half a dozen swirls in the tub, and a nice smooth lather is just as easily built up on your face.
It is not the longest lasting lather, it starts to dissipate in less than a minute, but the lubrication and soapiness remains long after the bubbles have faded. The lather stays long enough for me to shave a cheek, and half a neck at a time, and I just reactivate the lather (just the lightest touch with the brush) when I rinse my razor.

I tried making lather in a bowl with a pea sized blob of Palmolive cream, I got long lasting lather which smelled of Palmolive.

I get really good shaves from this soap. It leaves my skin so soft and moisturised I hardly need to use any after shave balm. It's my new favourite soap, for ever, or at least until the end of the tub.
 
Oh, come on, please try a real shaving soap (such as Tabac, or Soapalchemist's soon to be available real shaving soap if you want a 'green' product), and then tell us whether you're still fond of this non-shaving product.

Henk
 
I admit I don't have extensive experience of different soaps. All I've tried are;

D R Harris Marlborough - the first soap I tried after aerosol cans.
Penhaligon's English Fern - lovely smell, but made my face nip.
Kent - very nice, leaves my skin feeling good.
Highland soap - very nice, leaves my skin feeling slightly better than Kent.


What don't you like about the Highland soap?
 
Bike Boy said:
It is not the longest lasting lather, it starts to dissipate in less than a minute, but the lubrication and soapiness remains long after the bubbles have faded. The lather stays long enough for me to shave a cheek, and half a neck at a time, and I just reactivate the lather (just the lightest touch with the brush) when I rinse my razor.
Click to expand...

You've kind of said what's wrong there - the lather vanishes too quickly. If I recall correctly this is a similar observation of soapalchemist's initial offering.

Incidentally I bought mine (still unused) at their soapworks in the old mill centre at Spean Bridge - lovely setting, some beautiful handsoaps there too.
 
hunnymonster said:
Bike Boy said:
It is not the longest lasting lather, it starts to dissipate in less than a minute, but the lubrication and soapiness remains long after the bubbles have faded. The lather stays long enough for me to shave a cheek, and half a neck at a time, and I just reactivate the lather (just the lightest touch with the brush) when I rinse my razor.
Click to expand...

You've kind of said what's wrong there - the lather vanishes too quickly. If I recall correctly this is a similar observation of soapalchemist's initial offering.

Incidentally I bought mine (still unused) at their soapworks in the old mill centre at Spean Bridge - lovely setting, some beautiful handsoaps there too.
Click to expand...

And that characteristic is directly related to their formula/ingredients. The ingredients list is just a hand soap formula, not even with added clay -- the only consideration to shaving may have been the addition of some castorate.

Also acknowledge that soaps do not have a positive effect on skin -- soaps are rinse-off products, and their contact time is way too short to let any ingredient act on the skin; this apart from the fact that soaps are detergents that are actually meant to release oily things from the skin. Added stuff in the soap gets dissolved in the lather/suds/water phase rather than coming into actual contact with the skin in the first place...

Henk
 
Bike Boy said:
I admit I don't have extensive experience of different soaps. All I've tried are;

D R Harris Marlborough - the first soap I tried after aerosol cans.
Penhaligon's English Fern - lovely smell, but made my face nip.
Kent - very nice, leaves my skin feeling good.
Highland soap - very nice, leaves my skin feeling slightly better than Kent.


What don't you like about the Highland soap?
Click to expand...

You may think you have not had extensive experience but the first three are not a bad start! DR Harris are right at the forefront of quality soaps - see review by Antdad.
Penhaligon's are rated as the very best by many.
And Kent is the same as MWF also rated as the best by others.

And you are delighted with Highland. Well only you know how good it feels on your skin!
 
I too must rush to Bike Boy's defence; although my initial recipe got a pretty thorough drubbing on this forum, I know I have customers who liked it a lot, and the skin feel afterwards and lack of irritatation were the main things they praised.
There are people who feel that the need to top up the lather during a shave is not the end of the world, and worth the trouble if the skin feels better than usual afterwards. I am hoping my latest effort will retain the same skin care qualities, although I have to admit that deep down inside, there was an almost irresistable yearning to add just a tad of olive oil :shock: The only way I managed to restrain myself was that I knew that the latest soap would be quite soft, and any olive oil would have made it softer. I also reasoned with myself that the reduction in the amount of coconut used (coconut tending to be drying) would offset the lack of olive oil.
 
Thanks fo review, don't be put off by the flak BB...as Fido also mentioned I am somewhat surprised that you put up with a soap that performs like that given what you have already tried but as SA says you my like something different.

I don't know what face nip means but if the EF is not for you I may be a willing recipient of you want to sell, I love it.
 
I'll admit it's not a great soap from the ingredients list, but it passes my shave test.

Antdad
Face nip is like an alcohol splash on razor burn, or chlorine in your contact lenses. EF gives me a milder version, but it still puts me off, as does Trumpers rose cream. Got anything to swap for it/them?
 
Thanks for the review, I have not tried or even looked at the Soapchemists shaving soap although I have tried highland soap. However the other one mentioned 'Tabac' is vastly different to the highland shaving soap. Tabac ingredients are mostly all very drying to the skin - that is why you see the by-product 'Glycerin' added on the label - and it uses a cheap synthetic parfum for fragrance (so pay attention to the allergens on the label if you have sensitive skin). 'Glycerin' is mostly the only part of it that is 'moisturising' - and it isn't naturally occurring. It is a cheap blend, albeit it has been developed for a good lather. You don't see glycerin on the highland soap label as it is produced naturally by the traditional cold-batch process and is very high in this ingredient.

As for the lather difference, highland's shaving soap is olive, shea and cocoa butter based - and this is why I find it so moisturising for my skin. The review highlights all the reasons I use this type of traditional shaving soap daily. And hence the rubbish lather, although the makers have clearly not gone down the coconut route as you 'd get the lather but also the drying affect. Or for lather added cheap tallowate or SLS and then glycerin as this can leave sensitive skin irritated with daily use.
 
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