Tallow or Vegan

Tallow or vegan soaps?

Which do you prefer?


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I prefer good soaps.
I don't find a direct correlation between vegan or tallow soaps and quality.
The vegan versions of some soaps aren't as good as the old ones that were tallow made. But most vegan artisanal soaps are crazy good! And so are the tallow made ones.

I prefer good soaps.
I don't find a direct correlation between vegan or tallow soaps and quality.
The vegan versions of some soaps aren't as good as the old ones that were tallow made. But most vegan artisanal soaps are crazy good! And so are the tallow made ones.

I hear good things about artisan vegan soaps.

I guess I need to try a few


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Tallow or vegan soaps?

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I tend to prefer tallow soaps, but I'll often be using a non-tallow soap and it will occur to me that "gee, this is actually rather good stuff", as far as performance goes.
I think just prefer the scent of most tallow soaps.
Fendrihan Aloe Water cream (non-tallow) is nice though, for scent and performance.
The Body Shop's Maca Root & Aloe shave cream is a good performer too (IMO). It still has that scent that is (as somebody said, I forget who) "more candle shop than barber shop", but it's at least a bit better their earlier formulae.

The performance of a shaving soap is largely based upon the specific ratio of fatty acids in the soap. These fatty acids can come from either animal or vegetable sources. It seems to be easier to obtain the right ratio of fatty acids when starting with a tallow base. Nearly all of the better soaps in my collection are tallow based. However, there are some great vegan soaps as well. It depends more upon the skill of the soapmaker than it does on tallow/vegan divide.

Most luxury soaps, however, contain both animal and vegetable/nut based fats. On the animal side we have beef tallow, lamb tallow, lard, duck fat, bison tallow, bear fat emu oil and lanolin. We also have the milk of cows, sheep, goats, and donkeys, water buffalo and sometimes yogurt. On the vegetable side we have Shea butter, Cupuacu butter, Cocoa butter, Kokum butter, Avocado oil, Coconut oil, Apricot seed oil, Agave. Aloe, Hemp seed (flax) oil, Mango butter, Jojoba oil and a variety of others.

If your philosophy is to avoid all products containing animal based ingredients, there are some excellent soaps available. One of the best I have tried is Grooming Dept Nai. It contains 55 different ingredients, all of them from vegan sources. Unfortunately, some of the ingredients are expensive, so the price is higher than I like to pay.

Catties Bubbles, Henri et Victoria, Wet Shaving Products (Rustic), and others are vegetable based. They are good to excellent, but do not raise to the standard of Nai.

Wholly Kaw is famous for tallow based soaps containing donkey milk and water buffalo milk. However, Sri also makes vegan versions. I love the tallow versions; I have not tried the vegan soaps, so I cannot comment on their performance.

Once it mattered, but with vegan artisans like PAA and Southern Witchcrafts, as examples, just pick a good soap. Lots of choices!

Current top vegan bases are Zingari vegan and A&E VR1. Both are every bit as good as tallow alternatives.

I’ve tried both…including the latest and greatest. For my particular face..skin type, body chemistry..etc…tallow-based soaps just work better. I get superior protection, cushioning, comfort, a closer more comfortable shave and superior post-shave.
Some of the vegans are definitely improving. But…it’s still no contest….YMMV…

Both can work for me. Generally tallow can provide a slightly better shave but some vegetarian/vegan soaps can be spectacular. My favorite is Saponifcio Varesino - that is one slick soap and has, for me, proven superior to A&E, Catie’s, and the others I’ve tried.

I'm usually a tallow guy, but I know that vegan can be as good. I just prefer the look of the lather of tallow-based soap.