Stirling Shaving Soap Review – Smooth and Natural
Stirling Shaving Soap
Stirling Shaving soap is a nice and smooth soap made from all-natural ingredients. It comes with a large variety of scents.
Pros
Large Scent Variety
Scents are deep and complex
All Natural Ingredients
Multiple Sizes Available
Tallow-based
Cons
Dries out quickly
Really Needs a Lather Bowl
Non-Vegan
A continuation of finding the best shaving soap campaign brings into our sights today –the prolific soap maker Stirling Soaps.
They have a huge amount of soaps available, and are one of the more well advertised brands you will find on the internet.
Does their soap stand up to scrutiny? Let’s Find out!
About the brand: Stirling Soaps has the same origin story as many of the soap companies we have looked at on Shaving Advisor. After a visit to Scotland, a couple decided the whole world needed access to the natural soaps they loved to use while on their vacation. So they started Stirling Soap Company in their home state of Arkansas. They have all natural soaps of all times, shaving, bars, liquid, and have started to branch out into coffees and homewares.
Stirling Soap Company Shaving Soap Product Description
Stirling Soap is one of those companies that has just about everything you need. Their website is just a bevy of products that one needs to really kit out your house with fresh soaps, coffee, and even clothing and candles.
When I was getting these two soaps from Stirling, I wanted to get something that felt both popular and relatively normal.
To that end I got myself the Bay Rum and the Bergamot Lavender scents.
They came in a pair of plastic jars with approximately 5.8 oz worth of soap.
One of the first things I noticed was that they didn’t leave very much room at the top of the jar. This makes it harder to lather straight from the puck of soap without getting lather all over your fingers.
In the jar, the soap looks very much like wax scooped into the jar, and has a texture not unlike bar soap with a higher amount of water.
About the Scents
Stirling has an absolute myriad of different options for scents. 72 various scents and types of shaving soaps. Including new holiday scents. For me, it would be so hard to decide what I wanted. Luckily I had help.
I got two in total: Bay Rum and Bergamot Lavender.
Bay Rum
This scent was simple at first: a sugary and vanilla like scent with a hint of spice. When I started lathering with it though, a heavy citrus smell started to become more apparent. The best way I could describe it is like a twist of lemon or lime on a nice spiced rum drink.
Bergamot Lavender
This aroma is very floral, to no one’s surprise. The Bergamot is very pungent and very “in your face” when it hits you. Slowly the scent of oranges and lemons starts to infiltrate your nose, finishing off cleanly with the floral lavender.
Ingredients
From the Stirling Soap Website:
“Beef Tallow, Stearic Acid, Distilled Water, Castor Oil, Potassium Hydroxide, Vegetable Glycerin, Essential Oil, Almond Oil, Shea Butter, Coconut Milk, Lanolin, Sodium Hydroxide, Sodium Lactate”
All-natural and uncomplicated, these soaps are made to be easy to use and easy to know what you are using. Ingredients like Shea Butter is going to help rejuvenate your skin after the shave, and the lanolin and castor oil will protect your skin while you are shaving.
The Lather and Shaving Experience
For this shave, I alternated between using both of the scents I had, lathering them both and using them as a part of my shave.
As normal, I shaved with three passes: once with the grain, once across the grain, and once against the grain. I didn’t use any pre-shave with the soap to make sure that I got a good idea of the lather and texture of the soap.
How Does it Lather?
The lather on this soap is good, if somewhat thin. I had to reapply it a few times with my brush as it would dry out as I was applying it to my skin.
Adding extra water to the lather helped to make it somewhat thicker, but I would go ahead and tell everyone who uses this soap to lather more than you think you need and make sure to get it nice and thick.
Lather in Bowl, or Lather Straight from the Puck?
For this review, I attempted to lather both in my shaving bowl and just straight off the puck itself. In this case, the lather was thicker and richer when lathering it directly off the puck, but at the same time, it got lather all over my hands.
The trade-off is negligible honestly. I prefer building my lather in my shaving bowl, but in this case, some might just prefer to pull it straight from the soap itself.
How is the Texture?
At first the texture felt somewhat thin, but it built up as I shaved.
The soap is more waxy than oily, so it leaves very little residue behind on my razor, my face, or my brush.
It does like to cling to surfaces though, taking extra time to rinse off under normal circumstances. Adding more water to your lather would probably help with this, but it also helps keeping your skin safe from more aggressive razors.
How is the Overall Shave?
Overall, the shave with this soap was very pleasurable.
The scent of the Bay Rum was nice and warm with a feeling of getting a good drink poolside in the caribbean. Whereas the Bergamot and Lavender felt like I was getting a nice and gentle scrub with natural soap (which I was technically).
The shave was meditative and soothing, and I would definitely recommend the experience.
Value For Money
For an all-natural soap with 72 different varieties, for $14-15 USD for the full puck, $11 USD for a refill, and $5 USD for a sample, is a great price.
Obviously it’s not the least expensive soap I have ever reviewed, but for what it is, you can do a great deal worse. $5 sample lets you try out the samples you know you want, and for $15 USD you can get some soap that is going to last you for at least a month.
Boil all that down to a really good deal. Not a steal, but definitely getting your money’s worth.
Common Consumer Complaints, Reviews, and Positive Reports
For the most part, Stirling Soaps are reviewed extremely well. Many people love the lather and the scents on offer. With so many scents on offer, Stirling has something for everyone.
What few complaints I have seen for this soap typically stem from the scents as well. Many customers do say that the scents are either not what they expected or possibly the scent disappearing too quickly. I can see the criticism, as the Bay Rum actually did have a few parts of its aroma I was not prepared for.
Some have also brought up the fact that Lanolin can sometimes irritate those with sensitive skin. While Lanolin is a good protection from aggressive razors, it can definitely be a serious irritant for some. While I am not one of those people, I can sympathize.
Others are not fans of the Beef Tallow ingredient, but in my opinion that is what makes the soap really good and soft. Though, if you are vegan or attempting to cut down on animal products then this soap isn’t for you.
Final Thoughts – Who is Stirling Soap Company’s Shaving Soap for?
Overall, Stirling soap is good for just about anyone. At this price, it is a great opportunity to try something new. The samples are inexpensive, and the shipping times are not too long.
Stirling Shaving Soap is sold at stirlingsoap.com and other well known online wet shaving stores, and outside of the USA.
