Tim's Soap

[TRBeck]

Hello all. Been a while since I posted regularly here, but with good reason.

Every spare minute I've had for the past six months or so has been spent preparing to launch a line of soaps and other toiletries for men. Some of you may recall I started making my own shave soap a couple of years ago, and as it happens, I fell in love with soapmaking. I finally decided to take the next step and launch a proper product line. I'm starting with shave soaps in several scents, but I have a stock of bath soaps that I need to photograph and add to my web shop. In the meantime, I do have several shave soaps on offer.

I want to thank everyone at SMF - long my wetshaving "home" on the web for the excellent conversation, the beta testing, and the ongoing camaraderie that sparked my fascination with shave soap and led to the creation of the brand. A classier bunch of gents you will not find.

My site - Tim's Soap

My soaps can also be found for sale at Shave Revolution.

I will be adding bath soaps soon and a couple of other shave scents, too.

Here are descriptions of the shave soaps currently for sale.


Roots – The earthy, rooty-fresh aroma of pure Haitian vetiver oil mingles with bright citrus essential oils to create a fragrance that is both uplifting and grounding. Roots has been more or less my “daily driver” since I started making shave soap. This complex scent unfolds slowly, revealing layers of lemon and orange peel, grass, and earth. A whiff of smoky depth adds richness and texture. I can trace my roots as a soapmaker – and the roots of this company – to the quest for wetshaving scents I couldn’t find. The root of my love affair with fragrances in general can be traced to my first encounter with vetiver. From the moment I made my first soap, I wanted to make a great, natural citrus-and-vetiver shave soap. Here it is.

Vintage – Just because you like old-fashioned stuff doesn’t mean you have to live exclusively in the past. I love the old school – classic straights, barber’s brushes – but I don’t mind taking advantage of modern shaving scuttles or my current production double-edge. Likewise, while an old-time barbershop citrus-and-spice accord links Vintage to American wetshaving tradition, the contemporary wood and musk base notes anchor the fragrance in the now. Vintage. Live in color. Dream in black and white.

Clean Cut – I wanted a barbershop scent for the line. This isn’t it. It certainly includes classic barbershop notes – lavender and coumarin – but the balance of the scent is a slightly sweet, green accord of bay laurel, fir needle, and switchgrass that moves the fragrance in an agrestic direction. I suppose if someone set up a barbershop on the back porch of my grandparents’ farmhouse, it might smell something like this. And since my grandpa is just about the cleanest-cut guy I know, I guess that’s fitting.

Ruby Red – Pure, bright, freshly-cut grapefruit. I wish I could say there’s some fantastic story associated with this scent, but the truth is, citrus just smells great. There will always be a citrus shave soap available as part of the line, and I expect I’ll rotate them fairly often since there are so many and I love them all. Ruby Red gets the nod as lead-off citrus since this is a Texas company and nobody does ruby red grapefruit like the Rio Grande Valley. This is a particularly bold, bright take on a great American citrus.

Signature – My signature fragrance brings together some of my favorite notes. Brisk, bright lavender crisply offsets the heart of spruce and birch. A base of tobacco, cedar, and tonka provides roundness. You’ll find echoes of Signature’s fragrance throughout the line – I’m fond of lavender and tobacco, of evergreens and forest accords. Complex, rich, and unabashedly masculine, Signature is made for the guy who knows there’s nothing that smells as clean as the great outdoors.

Columbia River – Columbia River pays homage to the Pacific Northwest’s flora – its forests of spruce and balsam fir and pine, its lavender fields, its mossy green river banks – and to the open air that still calls to mind a bygone American frontier. Deep evergreen notes are lifted by hints of lavender and musk, while patchouli and a touch of oakmoss ground the scent. Old growth forest and new spring green evoke the discovery and continual renewal of a truly unique American region.

Wood & Roses – This is the result of my long-standing love affair with the combination of sandalwood and rose in old-line British wetshaving products. Rich and decadent, evocative and comforting, this is as complex as scent gets. While hints of pepper and musk add depth, the classical duo of sandalwood and rose is powerful and layered enough to stand alone. Classically built, Wood and Roses is meant for the Anglophile, the fan of last-century fragrances, and any guy who – like me – has bought every sandalwood product he can get his hands on since the first day he encountered this marvelous, mysterious note.

[Squire]

Tim I would be interested in reading more about your bath soaps.

[TRBeck]

Squire, I use both tallow and lard together in my bath soaps. These make up the majority of the fats in the soap, with coconut oil for bubbles and some olive oil. I am experimenting with olive oil-free formulations but won't have any for sale until they can cure.

I'm doing cold-process bath soaps which require a minimum 4-week cure and using both EO and fragrance oils for scent, and I expect to have 3-4 scents as well as an unscented bath soap up for sale in the next week or two. I have been making bath soaps for quite some time but have only recently found just the right balance of lipids. I have not used any soap other than my own in six months now, and I'm very happy with the lather I get as well as the way my skin feels. I hope others will have the same reaction.

Expect something citrusy, something earthy, and something woodsy in the initial round of scent offerings.

[CMur12]

Tim, is the Ruby Red (grapefruit) and EO scent?

I also just found Greek Peach at Shave Revolution. Is that an EO scent?

Thanks, Tim.

- Murray

[Squire]

Citrusy and woodsy I can do.

[TRBeck]

Murray, Ruby Red is not EO. I will usually do EOs for citrus, but there are some synthetics - aldehydes specifically - that help the tartness of some citruses "pop" a bit more. Lime is the next citrus shave soap I have planned; it's an EO scent.

Greek Peach is decidedly synthetic - no such thing as peach EO, sadly. For those who remember Zach (think boar), he requested a peach soap from me a long time ago. Quite a lot, actually. I messed around with lots of fragrance oils and aromachemicals before I got something I like. I need to send a better scent description to Justin at Shave Revolution. It's predominantly peach with notes of jasmine and tart berries offsetting some of the sweetness plus some green notes and a faint whiff of coconut adding dimension. Anyway, the result was something that sort of caught on when Zach sent the soap out to a bunch of guys in a wetshaving Facebook group, and things have progressed from there.

BTW, Murray, I just finished labeling 24 tubs of "Plainspoken," which is completely unscented. Should be up on my site soon.

[Squire]

I'm pretty unperturbed regarding EO or not to EO, we're really talking about chemicals here whether they grew on a tree or in a laboratory. I'm in favor of what works best.

[CMur12]

Squire, I don't think EO vs FO is an issue for most. In my own case, I have gradually become increasingly sensitive to fragrance over the last 25 years and FO almost invariably burns my olfactory. In fact, at times, I can't distinguish perfume/cologne from bug spray, as they both hit my olfactory with similar vehemence. I'm sure there are exceptions, but finding them requires buying a lot of product that I can't use. Hence, my question to Tim.

- Murray

[TheMonk]

I have a couple of Tim's Soaps, the Greek Peach and the Wassail, and they both perform wonderfully. I've been tempted to acquire a few more scents, but I promised myself to slow down buying soaps for at least a couple years, to see if I manage to finish some.

Tim, I know the Wassail was a LE, but I also don't see the Greek Peach on your listing. Did you stop making it?

[CMur12]

David, they have Greek Peach at the Shave Revolution, which Tim linked, above.

- Murray

[fallingwickets]

Yikes! Which one to buy ( yes, i know.....do the smf: buy all hahaha)

Best of luck with your business.

clive

p.s. is shave revolution yours????

p.p.s. using chrome getting privacy errors for tims soap

[Squire]

Murray I'm sympathetic to those with scent sensitivities. As one who is relatively insensitive to most things (ex-wives will testify) I know I'm fortunate.

[TRBeck]

Clive, Shave Revolution isn't mine. The owner contacted me about Greek Peach and sold out his initial order of that. He recently added the full lineup to his store.

Thanks for the note on privacy errors. I will look into that immediately.

Oh, and if you're only going to buy one, I'd suggest Signature or Wood & Roses, based on what I know about your scent preferences.

[rsp1202]

After having used Tim's Edwardian Lime for a short while, it has become my favorite scented soap. Tim uses lavender to tame the lime (and visa versa), and it presents with just the right balance to my nose, which is decidedly scent sensitive. This lime scent is just there in a very natural way, not overpowering or underwhelming. Of course it lathers up beautifully, and post-shave feel is fine. I like that Tim has not overdone any aspect of this soap-making by dumping in every conceivable ingredient that's ever been created by man or nature: he's worked hard to make these soaps simple and effective -- to the extent that my usual finicky-ness has been tamed. I'll look forward to acquiring his unscented Plainspoken, and there are at least a couple other scented versions that I will have no qualms in tossing in the shopping cart. Thanks, Tim. Well done.

[brothers]

It comes as a surprise that Tim makes (or has made) a lime version. I'll be checking the website frequently as time goes by, and will get the lime when I can.

[smoothshaver]

Good luck with your new business Tim.
I'm trying to wait for the expected additions to your shop to place an order.
I've been anticipating your soap since I tried an almond version a couple years ago.

Wow! I held out for two whole days before buying a ruby red soap

[TheMonk]

David, they have Greek Peach at the Shave Revolution, which Tim linked, above.

- Murray

You're right as always, Murray. I missed that.

It comes as a surprise that Tim makes (or has made) a lime version. I'll be checking the website frequently as time goes by, and will get the lime when I can.

Same here - I was unaware of the Lime, but that's one I'll definitely be looking to buy. Any plans on it getting back, Tim?

[CMur12]

I, too, will be watching for the lime.

- Murray

[TRBeck]

Lime is planned when Ruby Red sells out. I would guess sometime in July. I mDe a nano batch for me and Ron and a couple of local sales but have plans to bring out a good quantity of it. All EO.

[fallingwickets]

Oh, and if you're only going to buy one, I'd suggest Signature or Wood & Roses, based on what I know about your scent preferences.

LOLOLOL....on a truck as we speak. The second i read this thread I opened a new tab and was ordering

Cant wait for the postman to arrive.

clive