Plisson Shaving Soap

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!
Flash G
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Plisson Shaving Soap

Post by Flash G »

A couple of weeks ago I picked up a refill at my well stocked local B&M. The soap is 100 g all palmate soap, no stearates listed, made in England and cost the same as a Harris soap. It lathers up easily and gives a very good lather, similar to Trumper's, maybe slightly richer. The scent is a very discreet floral that makes MWF very loud, and is more herbal than MWF. To my nose quite unnoticeable once lathered up, I'd recommend this soap for those who prefer very lightly scented or unscented soaps.

I also had a look at the soap-in-a-tin and was disapointed that the tin is in fact cardboard (like the tins whisky bottles come in), especially considering the increased price. I feel Plisson should just sell the soap-in-a-tin as a refill.
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Post by ATLpr8head »

I had the Joris soap which is the same stuff and thought it was good stuff. I got it a Colonial Drug as well as a few of hard to finds. The packaging was adequate as the price was only $18-$20 if I remember correct. The scent just wasnt for me though. Now the bowl Joris sells to match the soap is just simply an amazing piece of work. Burl wood I believe but expensive as hell.
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fallingwickets
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Post by fallingwickets »

My soap came in a beautiful white glass(?) bowl with wooden top.....the bowl alone is worth the price, but plisson soap is incredible and ive always wondered why more gents dont use it for the lather is rather rich and the scent is just right.

clive
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franz
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Post by franz »

I got a puck of Plisson shaving soap as a gift from my sister's trip to France. I used it for a week or so to get to know it. Its strength is its skincare; gentle and left my skin feeling great. Performance wise it's mediocre, but seems to do better when its consistency is on the creamier side. I rarely nick myself but felt like it lacked cushion when made slick.

The scent reminded me of Institut Karité. Powdery and a little floral.

Made in England.... by Creighton's? Just guessing here.
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drmoss_ca
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Post by drmoss_ca »

Here's my Plisson/Joris soap:

Image

Image

For some reason I want to stuff the bowl with latakia and light up....

Chris
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fallingwickets
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Post by fallingwickets »

Chris, dont you think the plisson scent has more of a 'citrus' scent vs the joris or is that my imagination? I have the joris too, but have never used it....the bowl sits of my pseudo DrP shelf!

clive
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franz
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Post by franz »

I was wondering what the fancy bowl looked like up close :lol:

Very nice.
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fallingwickets
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Re: Plisson Shaving Soap

Post by fallingwickets »

I have the joris too, but have never used it....the bowl sits of my pseudo DrP shelf!
I finally gave this a try. The scent is ok....the lather is absolutely without a doubt the worst ever. Total disappointment, and considering the cost ( i think it was around $70 with or without shipping...memory escapes me) the disappointment is made worse. Also, you can't even rest a brush on top of the lid, because duh, its round!! :shock: :D :shock: One last item....ingredients might be similar, but there is NO WAY this is the same as plisson. My plisson soap explodes with lather

clive
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Sam
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Re: Plisson Shaving Soap

Post by Sam »

Clive, back when this thread originally posted, Joris was really a great soap. Not much scent wise, but hey, it lathered great. However, these days, I have taken to the Prorasso Green tub, a soft soap if you will, and a Tabac.
EL Alamein
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Re: Plisson Shaving Soap

Post by EL Alamein »

Ugh! Another good one seemingly sundered.

Chris
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fallingwickets
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Re: Plisson Shaving Soap

Post by fallingwickets »

sundered? The joris soap I have must have been bought pre 2011 (in not sure how pre, but i had it when this thread started) and that is the soap I am saying is beyond bad. When was joris considered good? plisson on the other hand is, to this day, very competitive, latherwise anyway

clive
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EL Alamein
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Re: Plisson Shaving Soap

Post by EL Alamein »

Clive, Joris was excellent back in the day.

My first experience with it was about 2003 when a shop in Texas was closing. It sold European goods and at the time they were selling things off at a discount. It spread across the various forums that they had this soap called "Joris" and it was excellent. I think it was Sam who PM'd me on the old Straightrazorplace Yahoo forum and told me to snag a cake before they were all gone. I did. And it was everything that was said about it. I used that cake daily until it was gone and I loved every shave with it. The scent, to me was quite pronounced though others would classify it as subdued. Something in it stood out and made the scent prominent with me, though not offensive at all, but quite pleasant.

I liked it so much that when I bought my first Plisson HMW brush from Atkinson's I ordered two cakes of it. That was 2005.

The cakes I received were different. Though they lathered well the lather was not the same as the old cake I had. This was about the era that all famous shaving soaps were going veggie from tallow. I noticed and even emailed the company looking for a confirmation that it had been reformulated. They dodged the question and never responded to any follow ups. From my personal experienced it's been reformulated. And if that is the case then they may have continued to reformulate (a function of the manufacturer, probably) until it matched soaps like the dreadful Penhaligon's English Fern that was so panned. But I don't know. I still have those two cakes from 2005. The magic with them wasn't quite what it used to be so I never really used them that much. One is nearly pristine while the other is half used.

Every now and then I pick it up and use it for nostalgia's sake and the shave is good, real good, though the lather is not the same as my pre-reformulation Taylor's English Lavender.

Trumper's shaving soap seemingly went through similar reformulations and corrected the problem as best as possible. But as far as Joris is concerned I am not aware that they have done the same.

What may be interesting is that about a year or so you couldn't even buy Joris, even from Plisson, even though the Plisson cake was still available. I don't know what this means but it may be significant in that they may be discontinuing the soap? Hopefully not and they correct the problem as it was an outstanding soap at one time.

Chris
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Re: Plisson Shaving Soap

Post by EL Alamein »

Oh, and I forgot to mention, that back when Joris was excellent the reverse was true regarding it's performance vis a vis the Plisson soap. Joris was considered superior to the Plisson soap almost universally on the various forums. The Plisson soap was even panned as having terrible lather compared to the Joris. It was even said that they had distinctive scents which were different from one another. I've never tried the Plisson soap because of this.

Then there came a period when they were considered nearly indistinguishable in scent as well as lather. This is just from what I read as I had no experience with those formulations. But I did notice the change in perception at the time.

Now I can't say what the state of things are between them. But if the reports are true then Joris ain't what it used to be otherwise folks would be raving about like they did twelve-plus years ago.

My suspicion is that Plisson acquired Joris and used it's formula for the Plisson soap then reformulated the Joris to make it inferior. Who knows except for the folks at Plisson.

From what I remember Joris used to be it's own brand with it's own soap and brushes. A French firm that competed directly with Plisson.

Chris
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Sam
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Re: Plisson Shaving Soap

Post by Sam »

Chris that's a good recollection of things. It's for this reason, with all the reformation, that I just use Trabac soap, the Proraso soft soap in the green tub, or some artisan soaps
EL Alamein
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Re: Plisson Shaving Soap

Post by EL Alamein »

Sam, thanks.

Good stuff you've chosen. If the Germans and the Italians can hold on to their heritage there will be plenty of good shaving goods for a long time.

I will be eternally grateful to you for suggesting to me the Joris way back when. That old formula cake of it was just the bees knees. Better to have had one than none at all.

As an aside I was tempted to shave with one of those old 2005 cakes of Joris. But I just couldn't veer from the Taylor's. It makes the lather that the Joris and so many others once did.

One day.

Chris
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Re: Plisson Shaving Soap

Post by brothers »

Some of the old fuddy duddy soap makers are (literally) vegetables on life support with a bad or worse prognosis. This is no way to run a company, and they don't care about shaving soap, obviously. Regardless, a number of new shaving soap small businesses have been born and are busy at war with one another to see who survives and who craps out. This means we have Canadian, Australian, UK, and USA soap makers in addition to the Germans and Italians to get our good stuff from, for who knows how long they might last. Miraculously, many of the new guys and some of the old guys are using good old fashioned tallow in their recipes. It's a dog-eat-dog niche industry, with no guarantees.
Gary

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Re: Plisson Shaving Soap

Post by fallingwickets »

and some of the old guys are using good old fashioned tallow in their recipes.
well dandy and rake is tallow isnt it? Not one my favourite latherers, that's for sure. Also, I'd love to mainstay an artisanal soap maker that blows it out of the park.....so far, and way toooooo many credit card swipes later, I havent come across one. I'm still going to be buying / trying the hyped 'made in a basement' type soap, but for the most part I will be doing my part to keep the vegetarian ancients in business :D :D

clive
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Re: Plisson Shaving Soap

Post by brothers »

fallingwickets wrote:
and some of the old guys are using good old fashioned tallow in their recipes.
well dandy and rake is tallow isnt it? Not one my favourite latherers, that's for sure. Also, I'd love to mainstay an artisanal soap maker that blows it out of the park.....so far, and way toooooo many credit card swipes later, I havent come across one. I'm still going to be buying / trying the hyped 'made in a basement' type soap, but for the most part I will be doing my part to keep the vegetarian ancients in business :D :D

clive
DRH also isn't one of my favorite lathering soaps. Far from it actually. I just give them extra credit for the fact they still claim to be using tallow even if it doesn't actually perform like one.
Gary

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EL Alamein
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Re: Plisson Shaving Soap

Post by EL Alamein »

Clive and Gary you're making me go back. I rather thought that Dandy and Rake was an excellent soap (my cake is old). You've given me a bug and now I'm going to dig it out and see what I can glean.

Now where in the hay is it? . . . I've got to dig.

It may be moot due to age but I'll let you know what my impressions are.

Chris
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Re: Plisson Shaving Soap

Post by fallingwickets »

Chris, i would be glad to mail a few pucks for you to try, but mine are all of recent vintage.

clive
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