Choosing Your First Soap or Cream
Soap vs. cream, tallow vs. vegan, drugstore vs. artisan, and three specific starter products that won't disappoint.
The five-second answer
Buy Stirling Soap Co in any scent. ~$13. Done. Read the rest if you want to know why.
Soap vs. cream
Shave soap is a hard or soft puck in a tub. You load it with a damp brush, swirl on the puck for 30-45 seconds, then build the lather on your face or in a bowl.
Shave cream is a soft paste. You scoop a pea-sized amount with a finger, drop it in your bowl or on your wet brush, and lather. Easier for beginners; usually a touch less luxurious in feel.
Both work. Soaps last longer (a $13 puck = 50-100 shaves) and have more variety on the artisan side. Creams build lather faster and are more forgiving on water ratio.
Tallow vs. vegan
Tallow-based soaps use rendered beef fat as the primary lubricant. They feel slick, dense, and “cushion” the razor in a way that many shavers find irreplaceable. The classic feel.
Vegan soaps use plant-derived fats, coconut oil, shea butter, kokum butter, castor oil, to hit the same performance. Modern vegan formulations (post-2018 or so) are excellent. If you keep kosher, are vegan, or just prefer it, you don’t lose anything meaningful.
For starters: don’t agonize. Both work.
Drugstore vs. artisan
Drugstore ($3-7): Williams Mug Soap, Van Der Hagen, Arko, Proraso. They’re cheap, accessible, and… fine. Williams is famous for being terrible, skip it. Van Der Hagen and Proraso are workhorses; artisan soaps are softer, denser, and smell incomparably better.
Artisan ($13-30): Stirling, Barrister & Mann, Master Soap Creations, Strike Gold, Hendrix Classics, Wholly Kaw, Phoenix Artisan Accoutrements, Adopted Acres, Van Yulay. This is most of the wet shaving world. The performance jump from drugstore to good artisan is the largest single upgrade in your kit.
Three starter recommendations
Stirling Campania (~$15 USD). Tallow base, easy to lather, forgiving on water ratio. Stirling’s the de facto “first artisan soap” for thousands of shavers, and Campania is a safe-pick scent (citrus + cedar, inspired by Acqua di Parma Fico di Amalfi) that won’t overwhelm. Stirling has a hundred more scents once you know what you like.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between shave soap and shave cream?
Shave soap is a hard or soft puck in a tub that you load with a damp brush for 30 to 45 seconds before building lather. Shave cream is a soft paste that you scoop out in a pea-sized amount. Soaps last longer, with a 13 dollar puck giving 50 to 100 shaves, while creams lather faster and are more forgiving on the water ratio.
Should I buy a tallow or a vegan shave soap?
Either. Tallow soaps use rendered beef fat and feel slick and dense in a way many shavers find irreplaceable. Modern vegan soaps, roughly 2018 onward, use plant fats such as coconut, shea, kokum and castor to reach the same performance. As a beginner this is not worth agonising over.
Is artisan soap worth it over drugstore soap?
Yes. Drugstore soaps in the 3 to 7 dollar range work, but the jump from drugstore to a good artisan soap in the 13 to 30 dollar range is the single largest upgrade you can make to a starter kit.
Which shaving soaps should I avoid?
Williams Mug Soap, which is famously chalk-like. Anything in an aerosol can, which is foam rather than soap. And glycerin shave bars sold as both bath and shave soap, which lather but do not cushion, so the blade drags.
The Wet Shaving Store Essentials Line ($20 USD each). TWSS’s house artisan line, four scents at the same approachable price-point, each with a matching aftershave splash. Pick whichever scent profile lines up with where you want your morning to go:
- El Peluquero, classic woody barbershop. The “hot towel on the face, real chair” pick.
- El Magico, cedarwood, cardamom, lavender, oakmoss. Confident and a little louder.
- El Gavilan, cherry, bourbon, vanilla. The dessert-and-aftershave option.
- El Azulado, cool menthol, inspired by a classic blue-bottled aftershave. Wakes you up.
A natural step up from Stirling once you know you like the routine.
Shave Dad’s Sportsman Series (~$23 USD). Shave Dad’s own, a three-way collab between Shave Dad, The Wet Shaving Store, and Master Soap Creations. Bold woody fragrance on MSC’s premium soap base, with a matching aftershave splash. If you want to put your money where the wet shaving community actually lives, this is the obvious pick.
Skip these
- Williams Mug Soap. Famously chalk-like. The internet’s punching bag for a reason.
- Anything in an aerosol can. That’s not soap; it’s foam. The whole point of wet shaving is leaving the can behind.
- “Glycerin shave bars” marketed as both bath soap and shave soap. They lather but they don’t cushion. The blade drags.
Stirling, MSC, HC&C, Strike Gold, and many of the artisans we’ve covered are stocked at The Wet Shaving Store →