Who are your Top 10 Artisan Soapmakers?

It was the regular formula NeoXerxes.

1. Barrister & Mann
2. Cold River Soap Works
3. Mike's Natural Soaps
4. Soap Commander
5. Shannon's Soaps
6. Mystic Water Soaps
7. Catie's Bubbles
8. Reef Point Soaps
9. Stirling
10. Mickey Lee Soapworks

Unfortunately, I may not be the best person to ask about this as I have never really had any issues lathering this soap. I only wish I could up-load some videos on YouTube to demonstrate how to resolve any issues folks may be having with this soap, but I am not able to, at the moment.
Nonetheless, there are a plethora of videos on there, already, on lathering this soap via face and bowl-lathering.

I have seen a few of your videos and basing my observations of those and how you lather, I would presume you may not be loading the brush for long enough or adding too much water, too quickly. Also, if you are experiencing dissipating lather, you may need to use more paint-brush strokes or a bit longer than usual as this soap like plenty of water and requires a bit more time generating the lather.

I would be more than happy to conduct a Skype session with you to demonstrate things if you would like.

You just made me think of something. I had a very good lather when I bowl lathered but not when I face lathered a couple of times. Perhaps I need to go back to the bowl first and then move on to face lathering after I familiarize myself with it a little more.

If you have it as your #1, I need to revisit. You've been responsible for changing my view before so I wouldn't be surprised if it happened again.

Thanks very much for the gracious offer as well. If I absolutely cannot get it, I'll hit you up


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TSEvangelist I also had trouble lathering Mystic Water, at least until I got a water softener. Do you have hard water? That seems to affect this soap rather significantly for whatever reason, at least for some folks.

Also, I find the regular formula to be less finicky than the Sensitive Skin formula. I'm not sure which one you tried.

If you don't have very hard water and are using the regular formula, the best remedy in that case would be to watch the Merkur Man video on how to lather Mystic Water soaps. It's a fairly easy technique alteration but rather unorthodox compared to how I used to lather most soaps.

I only had a MW soap briefly as it completely burned my face. However, even in my hard water it lathered pretty easily. A couple other people tried the dry load technique on it with heir synthetic brushes and had drastically better results. You may not need to go to this extreme all the time, but it could be a quick way to get consistent lathers from it as you dial it in.

Thanks for the tip.


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1. Barrister & Mann
2. Cold River Soap Works
3. Mike's Natural Soaps
4. Soap Commander
5. Shannon's Soaps
6. Mystic Water Soaps
7. Catie's Bubbles
8. Reef Point Soaps
9. Stirling
10. Mickey Lee Soapworks

Strong list and most of the soaps would also be on my list.


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Mystic Water and B&M is my top two.

And then in no particular order
CRSW
Reef Point
OSP
Stirling
Eufros/Jabonman
Tim's Soap
Mickey Lee Soapworks
PannaCrema (Nuàvia)

-Beaver Woodwright
-Barrister & Mann
-Catie's Bubbles
-Cold River
-Dr. Jon's
-Mickey Lee
-Mystic Water
-Soap Commander
-Stirling
-WSP

This is my list (in no particular order).

B&M
Stirling
Mike's
Wholly Kaw

Edit....just realized this is "Artisan". Sorry!

For me, right now it is:

SdV
Mike's Natural
B&M
Beaver Woodwright
Mickey Lee
Soap Commander
CF (whoops on the artisan)
Dr Selby (whoops on the artisan
Stirling
MWF (whoops on the artisan

Pretty much in that order, maybe the bottom 5 could be shuffled around a bit.

I've not tried many of the soaps you've all mentioned.
Interesting lists you've all got.
This is the kind of resource I find valuable to help me decide what to explore next along the journey.


Quite a bit I use vintage soaps like Yardley's or Old Spice and larger brands such as Castle Forbes or sometimes Proraso white.

Recently have been using Dr. Selby's. Not sure that's an artisan product, but it has been a pleasant surprise.

In no particular order my tops not including vintage, bigger brand, or niche products ($$$) would be;

Mike's
Mama Bear
CRSW
RazoRock
Stirling

I haven't really been bitten by the artisan soap bug ever.
With so many to try, I'm honestly a bit intimidated by the vast selection out there.

I've got hard water, and had a couple of bad experiences early on in my explorations outside of Barbasol foam and drugstore pucks like VDH.
I quickly discovered vintage soaps and went down that rabbit hole as they all seemed to work well for me.

I believe part of my aversion to boutique products early on was due to lack of selection at the time I dipped a toe into the water. Say 2009 - 2010.
That along with not spending time reading others' opinions and input contributed to me boxing myself in for several years. I've only recently tried a few of the currently available artisan products I see being widely held in high regard online. Have been mostly happy with the handful of products I've tried lately.

I tend to use one or two products exclusively until they're used up in a relatively tight rotation when it comes to soaps and aftershaves. For that reason I don't see myself ever having the depth of experience or broadly relevant input to discuss software in a meaningful way as much as I do hardware. I'm more enamored with the razors, blades, and brushes side or wet shaving.

I have but one face to shave and one wallet to spend from.

Mine: I had to think hard about this

1. RazoRock
2. Catie's Bubbles
3. Barrister and Mann
4. CRSW
5. Dr. Jons
6. Soap Commander
7. Strop Shoppe
8. PAA
9. Maggard/Shave revolution
10. Ginger's Garden