Tallow or Vegan, and why?

Tallow has the edge for me but I do enjoy a lot of vegan soaps. I find that the post shave seems to benifit from the fats in tallow and I get a certain type of feeling in my skin. Very few vegan soaps give me this same feeling, other than Soap Commander.

Tallow has the edge for me but I do enjoy a lot of vegan soaps. I find that the post shave seems to benifit from the fats in tallow and I get a certain type of feeling in my skin. Very few vegan soaps give me this same feeling, other than Soap Commander.

Soap Commander is one of the few vegan soaps my skin tolerates! (the others being Catie's Bubbles French+ and CRSW Oliva). People with dry skin really need tallow, lanolin and butters on their soaps to prevent irritation from dryness.

My head tells me I need tallow based soaps, my face tells me otherwise. When I have a REALLY good vegan soap like SdV (not vegan because of the donkey milk, but no tallow), Beaver Woodwright or Soap Commander, I don't need tallow.

Here's how I break it down now. If a soap has tallow and lanolin in it, I am more likely to give it a shot. If there is something really interesting about a non-tallow, that may get a shot too. I've found duds in both, but there are also clearly many gems!

Edit.....I just looked at the top 10 I posted in the other thread. Five are tallow, five are not. Pretty interesting I think. I guess after using products and only keeping my favorites, tallow vs veggie is a non-issue to me

Tallow all the way for me. Specifically the tallow, shea butter, lanolin combo. I tend to have pretty dry skin so it's all about the post shave. I've found that most veggie soaps leave my skin feeling too dry. I haven't noticed a huge difference in the quality of the lather with either, just the post shave feel. If anything, I think veggie soaps are easier to lather. Soap Commander for example is about the easiest soap to generate a nice lather with in my experience.

Same with me. Another guy here with very dry skin. I'm even getting to the conclution in reality is the lanolin. Most tallow and butter soaps nowdays also contain lanolin. But the only way to test this theory out would be to make the same soap without tallow (but including lanolin). I think most soapmakers make no sense of doing a lanolin soap without tallow, since the soap is already non-vegan, might as well use tallow.

This isn't a difficult question for me - I like either. I fall squarely in the "if it ticks all the boxes it doesn't matter if its tallow or vegan" camp. One of my brothers doesn't like tallow based soaps because he says they smell "tallowy" to him. I suppose thats possible although I don't notice any such smell in tallow soaps. He should do a blind test to see if its just in his head but YMMV and he's free to shave with what he likes.

On the vegan side, Barrister & Mann used to make vegan soaps and they are awesome - I really can't tell the difference between Will's vegans and his tallows (pre-glissant) I assume he discontinued them because their sales didn't justify the incremental cost of running two distinct lines or for any number of other equally valid reasons.
Marko

I have favorite soaps in both categories, though I do generally prefer the rich creaminess that tallow gives a soap lather.

By the way, folks who think vegan soaps can't be moisturizing, wait until you try Pannacrema Nuàvia. That stuff has some of the best skin-care of any soap I've used.

I would have say its pretty even. I was lent a tallow base soap last year to try, I think it was stirling( not sure though) called Brutish & compared to my Chiseled Face also tallow base, the Brutish was harder to lather. Even my vegan soaps one lathers better than the other. So I think it depends on the soap. For me I like both as long as it performs well.

That's like asking me if I dress to the left or the right.

[off topic] What a memory that rekindles. When I was 12 years old my father took me to one of the lesser men's clothing stores in Philadelphia (couldn't afford Jacob Reed and Sons) to be measured for my first suit. When the "which side do you dress on" question was popped, I gave the taylor a dumb look having no clue of what I was being asked. My father watching the proceeding from a chair, absolutely lost it gales of laughter. After what must have been a full minute, the taylor and my dad collaborated in explaining to me, as delicately as possible, what the question meant. These are the little things that make us what we are. [/off topic]

By the way, folks who think vegan soaps can't be moisturizing, wait until you try Pannacrema Nuàvia. That stuff has some of the best skin-care of any soap I've used.

I don't know what you do for a living, David, but if you're not in sales, er marketing, you should try it! You are very convincing and everything you talk positively about, I want to buy and try!

As soon as I get this move to SC out of the way, you can bet I'll have some Pannacrema Nuàvia in the den.

By the way, folks who think vegan soaps can't be moisturizing, wait until you try Pannacrema Nuàvia. That stuff has some of the best skin-care of any soap I've used.

I don't know what you do for a living, David, but if you're not in sales, er marketing, you should try it! You are very convincing and everything you talk positively about, I want to buy and try!

As soon as I get this move to SC out of the way, you can bet I'll have some Pannacrema Nuàvia in the den.

Well gosh! :-) I'm sincere in my praise for these various things, though I'm also enthusiastic by nature, and I suppose I convey that. I'm not worried about over-hyping Nuàvia, though; it really is fantastic stuff. But of course in the end it's just shaving soap. OR IS IT?! :-)