Testimonials

Below is some of the feedback we've received about our shaving soap, as well as some of the press/reviews we've received so far:

shavesoaps.wordpress.com's review of our Woody Lavender Shaving Soap

First off, the lather is great. It whips up easily, into a nice thick creamy lather, with some great glide. Not too thirsty, but it seems to have a relatively wide sweet spot, so you’re probably not going to accidentally over-water it. Great stability,and left my face feelin’ nice.
The scent is just what it says on the tin; woodsy and lavender. The lavender provides a good contrast to the wood notes base, provided by essential oils of Ho Wood, Amyris (Torchwood) and West Indian Bay. It comes together quite nicely.
The strength is what I’d say is just spot on. It’s a nice and strong scent, without being what I’d say is overpowering, with little to no fading during the course of the shave.

thecloseshave.com's review of our Vanilla/Eucalyptus/Mint Shaving Soap

In the end I would say this might be one of the better soaps that I have used in a long time – maybe ever. 

gentandride.com's review of The Los Angeles Shaving Soap Company's Wetshaving Starter Kit

gentandride.com's review of our Woody Lavender Shaving Soap

After some debate I ended up choosing the ‘Woody Lavender’ scent and it was a perfect choice!  With Lavender, Ho Wood, Amyris, and West Indian Bay the scent is a calming, outdoorsy scent which is subtle and not overpowering – probably a perfect fit for a guy in Colorado.

I’ve now shaved several times with my starter kit and I have to say its been a real treat.  Admittedly I’m not an expert in wet shaving and have  room to improve when it comes to building a lather but I’ve truly enjoyed the ritual of preparing the face, building a lather, and using a safety razor.  I’ve also noticed a big difference in how my face feels in the day(s) after – my skin feels healthier and more hydrated and I just don’t get the same irritation.

bayrumdiaries.com's review of our Santa Monica Bay Rum Shaving Soap

And today I am lucky because I have found an amazing soap:  Santa Monica Bay Rum Shaving Soap, made by The Los Angeles Shaving Soap Company.  The only thing that John from the LA Shaving Soap Company could have done to better this bay rum experience is deliver it in a pirate ship.

azhawk516's 17:37 minute youtube take on our Topanga Fougère Shaving Soap

It's a lovely smelling soap, and I found that it performs really well.... It makes a nice creamy rich lather. Whenever I hear that the soap is a vegan friendly soap, I'm always a little bit skeptical about how good it's going to lather. This one doesn't disappoint. You would never know it's a vegetable based soap from the way it lathers....I really enjoyed the shave. The L.A. Shaving Soap Company Topanga Fougère is definitely a good find.

(You can always check out the shaving soap forums at badgerandblade.com, shavenook.com, reddit.com/r/wicked_edge for additional feedback. These forums are also excellent technique and sources of information about shaving technique and product choices.)

 

Additional feedback: 

 

"I got the LA Shaving Soap Co.'s starter kit, and it was amazing. Having the entire kit made it a lot easier to pick up wet shaving. I barely nick myself anymore while getting a much closer shave than before, plus my face feels and smells great. As cheesy as it sounds, I honestly look forward to shaving now, instead of begrudgingly shaving a few times a week."
- A.L.W.

...I have to say that your soaps are incredible.  I have tried just about every soap I could get my hands on.  Soaps are my weakness and while I have one razor, three brushes and use the same two blades, I can't stop acquiring soaps.  I'm strongly considering ditching my other soaps and just using the LASS line.  Without regard to scent, lather quality or anything else, I simply get the best shaves when I use your soaps.  It's quite simple.  The best performing soap I have tried and this has been consistent with every shave...  
- F.B.

 

[Regarding Bespoke #1] "The scent of the soap is so intricate, just opening the tub is an experience."

- M.S.

 

John,

Good lord, you nailed this fougere. I have two other fougere soaps from other artisan makers, but yours is superior in every way. What a complex scent. From what I have smelled of the classic fougere scents, you did such a great job in hitting the mark and then some with these fragrances. On top of that, the soap performs as fantastic as all your others. Moisturizing with great slickness and cushion. I can't wait to see what you come up with next!

Regards,

JP

 

Just wanted to drop you line in appreciation of the product. It is the only other vegan soap in my rotation, and it outstrips my other favorite in the scent category hands down. I get a great, thick lather with both great cushion and glide. Also, it leaves my skin moisturized like many of my favorite tallow/lanolin based soaps. I liked it so much that I now own all scented soaps you make. I cannot wait until the fougere comes out. 
-J.P.I.


 I finished a shave with the soap and was in heaven. The scent is euphoric as it is being lathered on my face, and is incredibly slick. It's an exceptional soap.

-R.M.

 

John, I received a tub of your Woody Lavender yesterday and wanted to take minute to give you some feedback. Starting off, the order to receipt time was fantastic, living in Northeastern Connecticut I did not expect to see a package from SoCal on my doorstep within 3 days. Opening up the tub my initial reaction was "how the heck is this vegan"? It looked pretty much identical to some of my superfat soaps in terms of consistency, not the hard as a rock pucks I've come to expect from all natural soaps, again very impressed, I was itching to lather it up right then and there. The scent I thought was an interesting mix, woody, herbaceous with a touch of bay running down the spine, something different for sure.

This morning I face lathered it up and wow does this stuff generate some lather! As a straight razor shaver I have learned the importance of having good lather that both cushions and glides and this does both in spades, it normally takes me a few days to dial a new soap in but this was perfect right from the start. The scent while lathering was stronger than in the tub and much more sophisticated than I had initially thought. This was a fantastic shave, I could not feel the blade on my face at all and the post shave left my face irritation free and  feeling clean not slightly oily like quite a few of my tallow soaps do. Overall this is fantastic stuff, great scent, awesome lather, not sure how you pulled this off with so few ingredients, but my hat is off to you, you have created an exceptional product and you have a loyal customer in me. 

Thanks for making this soap, it gave me the best straight razor shave I've ever had! I'll be ordering the vanilla/mint very shortly! 

- S.T.

 

The soap lathers quickly and builds a nice, slick, thick lather with very little effort. It stays wet and full on the face and brush, provides an excellent cushion for the shave (I'm using straights these days, so a good lather means a lot), and the unscented is a GREAT alternative to all those powerfully-scented soaps out there. I'd never used an unscented shaving soap before, and I find that I really like it. It is, by definition, very neutral, allows you to add a scent later with an aftershave, if you wish, or to just finish your shave with a clean feeling. It was unexpected how much I like the lack of scent, and there truly is no scent that I can discern: it doesn't smell like soap or perfume. It smells like.... nothing....

I've tried other artisanal soaps and enjoyed them but have found them harder to lather with the hard water where I live .... LA Shaving Soap is a champ.

- M.L.

 

Just finished my first shave with your soap. Holy crap. This stuff is awesome. I'm sold.

I loved the smell, (kind of a spicy tea feel) and the lather was better than any canned soap I've ever used.

- J.A.F.

 

I just came out of the bathroom and I want to buy into your company! You should call this French, make it more difficult to buy and sell it for 3x the price. But send me two more tubs first...

- B.S.

 

First impressions:

Scent: Great! Perfect balance between the three scents, particularly the eucalyptus & mint. Not medicinal at all (a plus), while the vanilla adds a welcome warmth to the middle, balancing the coolness, but not tipping the scale toward gourmand fragrance. Well done. The only other minty soap I keep around is Jabonman Neroli-mint-grapefruit, and the scent of the LA easily outpaces it in terms of something I enjoy putting on my face, and even as something I wouldn't mind smelling like during the summer as an aftershave.

Ease of lather: great googly- moogly! For comparison, my daily rotation generally consists of: Mitchell's Wool Fat, Strop Shoppe double butter Special Edition, Cella, and a frankensoap made of equal parts grated MWF and Tabac. Jabonman, vintage P-160, and others remain in the den. This lathers with the best of them. Volume seemed to -well- explode (as trite and overused as that phrase is. I have never said that about any soap, though P160 and LaToja come close.) Very nice.

Slickness/shave performance: I used my most unforgiving gear: a Col Conk pure Badger brush, CJB kamisori (loaded with Feather Pro blade) and very hot water (the heat tends to break down some tallow soaps, one reason why I have the StropShoppe soaps both with and without tallow) in my usual oversized shaving mug. Again, lather creation was fast and easy, with the lather whipping up rather more quickly than the SS, without the large bubbles that Cella seems to create for me at first. Feel in the hand wasn't quite as "gooey" as the SS; more the homemade-whipped-cream feel that I associate with MWF.

Slickness and razor glide was outstanding. In fact, in the spirit of pushing things, I went against the grain (straight upward) on my upper lip. Yup, with a named Feather blade. Superb performance from the LA soap here, easily on par with my usual SS or LaToja stick (extra-slippery soaps that I like for kamisori shaving, which will readily expose any lack of lubrication.) I suffered one small nick on the lip, entirely due to lack of attention to the angle of the blade.

After-shave face feel was nice. I skipped the nice face conditioner and went with a splash of bay rum. I'll compare in more detail between the LA and MWF as I get the chance to use both. Sorry, no lather shots yet, but I'll take some as I continue the testing. Thanks so much for this opportunity, and for the superb soap! If it becomes available, you've got one loyal customer here. Onward and upward!

- S.E. 

 

I've got both of these scents and they are both good quality. The sandlewood and lavender go great together. [Ed. Note: There is Amyris, West Indian Bay, and Ho Wood essential oil in the Woody Lavender, but no sandalwood.] The eucalyptus and mint soap is very interesting. If you dig the smell of Wrigley's spearmint, you'll love this one. I haven't had a chance to use the spearmint one yet but the sandlewood is an easy soap to work with. It's a softer soap compared to pucks. That's good news for anyone with hard water.

- T.S. 

 

I liked the soap. Smells fantastic (wife approved), lathers great, and very protective.

- A.C.

 

I tried the Eucalyptus/Vanilla/Mint sample and was pleasantly surprised. First of all, I have only been DE shaving for just over a year. Secondly, I used creams exclusively until a few months ago when I tried soaps and realized that soaps provided me with a more comfortable shave....

After my shower, I poured the water off of the soap and made sure to squeeze most of the water out of the brush, leaving it damp. I swirled on the soap and started seeing paste like consistency fairly fast so I dipped the tips of the brush in some water and went back to work on the soap. It lathered up fast and became yogurt-like in consistency quite quickly. It is a soft soap, similar to Proraso (which is my most reliable) and produced a lot of lather.

I face lather, so it was a pleasure to watch and feel this lather improve as I spread it around my face and neck. I noted that the scent was very pleasant and not too strong. I prefer light to moderate scented soaps and this soap was in that range.


I had more than enough lather to go well beyond my usual three passes and the lather was perfectly stable. 

I used my Mergress with an Astra SP and had a GREAT shave. Honestly, it was as good a shave as I have ever had. The soap was slick, had nice glide and provided excellent cushion. I still struggle a bit with the hard triple-milled soaps, but for a person with my overall shaving proficiency, this softer soap rocked! 

- J.B.

 

I received your soap sample a few days ago and I tried it out yesterday morning... great stuff!!! ...I like soft soaps because, they later faster and your's lathered like a champ. It produced a nice, slick, protective lather and I got a great shave.

- A.J.

 

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