Hard water question

What is your opinion on fine shaving creams and hard soaps? Do you like Trumpers, Coates, Taylors, Truefitt & Hill? Post your reviews and opinions here!
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GA Russell
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Hard water question

Post by GA Russell »

Sargon posted today that Proraso does better in hard water than most creams. I believe I read two weeks ago that Cella also performs better than most in hard water.

Is this a trend among Italian soaps and creams? Is Italy's water harder than that of other countries?

We've got pretty hard water here in Raleigh, and I'm wondering if it would behoove me to explore Italian soaps and creams further before I venture further into the world of the English.
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Post by ShadowsDad »

Well, dolomitic lime comes from the Dolomite Mountains of Italy and hard water comes from calcium, so I'd venture to say that at least northern Italy could have hard water. Never been there though.

But England also is noted for hard water since they have a lot of limestone.

It would make sense that areas with hard water would make soaps that would work best with hard water, wouldn't it? Maybe at one time they did.

OK, now having written all of that, most soaps today handle hard water decently if they contain SLS.

More than that I can't tell you since I have some of the softest water on the planet. I did ask that question months ago somewhere and what I gave you was the answer I got. (basically)
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Shaving cream and "hard" water

Post by nelson »

Over the last few years I've discovered that Salter shaving creams seem to "work" a bit better with hard water than do the other English creams, such as Trumper, Taylor of Old Bond Street, Harris, and T&H. Here in my little part of central Tennessee hard water is not a problem; however, hard water is not uncommon in the mountainous eastern part of the state where I vacation during the summer.

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Post by EL Alamein »

IMHO, the saving grace of these soft Italian soaps in hard water is their glycerin content. It provides the slickness that will escape a hard soap user without using more product.

I *think* with hard soaps the glycerin is more a trace ingredient and may be saponified and therefore not as effective. Softer soaps, including the likes of Tabac etc have a more raw glycerin content.

In my experience soft water boosts the performance of hard soaps in this respect - even beyond what softer soaps provide. I use distilled water these days as my tap water is extremely variable and it makes all the difference. It makes perfect lather every time. The only other thing you can do to boost the performance of any soap or cream is to install a whole house softener.

Hope that helps.

Chris
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GA Russell
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Post by GA Russell »

Thanks for your feedback, guys.

I got some Italian Figaro soft soap for Christmas that I haven't tried yet, so maybe I ought to break it open and see if it too is good in hard water.
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Post by Flash G »

EL Alamein wrote:IMHO, the saving grace of these soft Italian soaps in hard water is their glycerin content. It provides the slickness that will escape a hard soap user without using more product.

I *think* with hard soaps the glycerin is more a trace ingredient and may be saponified and therefore not as effective. Softer soaps, including the likes of Tabac etc have a more raw glycerin content.

In my experience soft water boosts the performance of hard soaps in this respect - even beyond what softer soaps provide. I use distilled water these days as my tap water is extremely variable and it makes all the difference. It makes perfect lather every time. The only other thing you can do to boost the performance of any soap or cream is to install a whole house softener.

Hope that helps.

Chris
Uh oh, you might have started a glycerine rampage :shock:
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Post by Jonnieboy61 »

Could be true, I live in South east England and the water is rated a medium in terms of hardness for our country, yet I find that Proraso lathers and shaves really well for me at least. Both the eucalyptus and Sandlewood versions both perform great.

Having said that I have travelled through Europe in soft water ares and it performs well there too.

All the best
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Post by ShadowsDad »

Glycerine is fairly inexpensive and very easy to add to each lather if it's the key.
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Post by Sargon »

Glycerin certainly helps some soaps, and yeah pretty much all soft Italian soaps tend to work well for me, whereas hard soaps take a lot more work ( I *do* get good results from Dr Harris and MWF in my water, but I have to really work them to do it, whereas soft soaps and creams are pretty easy)
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Post by fallingwickets »

You know all those questions you ask a realtor when looking to buy a new house: schools, taxes, govt, roofing, siding, heaters, transport etc etc etc? If i ever move the first question I am going to ask is about the water......shave geekery to its limit hahaha

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p.s. if its soft I'm not moving
:lol:
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fallingwickets
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Post by fallingwickets »

yeah even if bar refaeli comes with the house its a no unless there is hard water!!!
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Post by Squire »

So Russ, have you tried the Figaro yet?
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GA Russell
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Post by GA Russell »

Squire, I've forgotten, and used the Tabac. I've had my mind on the upcoming Natural Science samples that I expect to receive in a few days, and I just forgot about the Figaro when it came time to shave. In fact, I handled the Figaro jar just yesterday when I was in my stash pulling out some more Voskhods.
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Post by lanolite »

Figaro is fantastic, in my opinion. I think I like it slightly better even than Valobra.
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