Shaving Soaps for Sensitive Skin: Top 10 Picks of 2024

To men with sensitive skin, one of the primary reasons for experiencing discomfort during wet shaving is the use of shaving creams made with chemicals and synthetic fragrances. However, with the rediscovery of the long-forgotten legacy of shaving soaps for delivering a perfectly close shave, people with sensitive skin have really found an amazing way to ditch those chemical-based shaving products and switch to natural alternatives. 

A good shaving soap not only aids in the effective glide of the razor for a comfortable shave but also helps prevent post-shaving irritation or razor burns. Explore this detailed guide on the best shaving soaps for sensitive skin, designed to help you make the most of your daily shaving routine!

What is Shaving Soap?

Long before shaving creams or gels were a thing, it was the shaving soap most people relied on to get done with wet shaving. Shaving soap, in essence, is a fat-based formulation that includes glycerine and other moisturizing elements to lubricate the skin during shaving. Unlike shaving creams, shaving soaps boast an all-natural formula with no artificial fragrances and harsh chemicals that can trigger skin sensitivity.

Compared to shaving creams, not only do shaving soaps help create a fluffier lather, but they are also lightly scented. Additionally, shaving soaps are more cost-effective than their cream and gel alternatives. While shaving soap follows the more conventional approach to wet shaving, shaving cream is an advanced formula designed for improved and quick lathering, making the shaving process more convenient. 

Different types of shaving soaps

There are different varieties of shaving soaps to choose from, depending on your skin type and shaving technique. You can consider the following types when looking for the best shaving soap. 

Triple-milled soaps (hard shaving soaps)

Such shaving soaps come with a very hard texture, given that they have been milled thrice to strip off the moisture content of soap. Triple-milled soaps tend to last longer than other glycerine-based varieties of shaving soaps. With hard shaving soaps, you need to work on it with the help of a shaving brush to create a luxurious lather that often lasts a long time, contrary to its soft counterpart. 

Soft shaving soaps

Soft shaving soaps, as the name suggests, do not go through any milling and are glycerine-based, giving it a smooth texture for an even creamier lather while shaving. You may find it easy to lather soft shaving soap, but it doesn’t last longer than hard soaps.

Brief Guide on How to Use a Shaving Soap

If you’re new to wet shaving with shaving soap, here’s a quick breakdown of how to achieve the closest shave without risking your sensitive skin to potential discomfort:

• Soak your shaving brush: Dip your shaving brush in a bowl of warm water for a few minutes.
• Prepare the brush: Once soaked, remove the shaving brush and squeeze out excess water, leaving it mostly wet.
• Apply over soap: Whisk the shaving brush over the shaving soap to coat its bristles.
• Lather up: Apply the soap in a circular motion over your beard to create a thick lather. Add water gradually for a fuller, foamy lather.
• Shave with the grain: Begin shaving in the direction of hair growth. Reapply lather and then shave against the grain for a closer shave.
• Finish and moisturize: Once done, rinse your face with cold water and apply your favorite after-shave moisturizer, balm, or oil.

Things to Avoid in Shaving Soap for Sensitive Skin

Choosing the right shaving soap suitable to your skin type is crucial for achieving a close and comfortable wet shave, especially with sensitive skin. When picking out a shaving soap for sensitive skin, it is essential to look into its characteristics, such as its lubricity, lathering ability, fragrances, or addition of harmful chemicals or preservatives. The key takeaways you should keep in mind while choosing a shaving soap for sensitive skin are as follows:

• Avoid Harmful Chemicals: Choose shaving soap formulas free from parabens, sulfates, or other toxic chemicals. While common in skincare products, these ingredients can provoke irritation or long-term adverse reactions on sensitive skin.
• Steer Clear of Artificial Fragrances: Choose a fragrance free shaving soap to prevent the risk of skin irritation or razor burns.
• Select Alcohol-Free Options: Always opt for alcohol-free shaving soap, as alcohol not only irritates the skin but also strips away moisture, leaving your skin excessively dry and dull.
• Be Cautious with Essential Oils: While essential oils in shaving soap can aid in softening and hydrating the skin, be cautious about oils that may trigger inflammation or skin sensitivity, such as eucalyptus oil or peppermint oil.

Recommendations For 10 Best Shaving Soaps For Sensitive Skin 

Below are our top picks of the best shaving soaps for those of you who may have sensitive skin:

1. The Art of Shaving Shaving Soap – Best Overall
2. Prorosa Shaving Soap – Best Natural Formula
3. Viking Revolution Shaving Soap For Men – Best Budget-friendly
4. Van Der Hagen Shave Soap – Best for Hydration
5. Gentleman Jon Sandalwood Shaving Soap – Best Scented
6. Badger Shaving Soap – Best Fragrance-free
7. Henry Cavendish Himalaya Shaving Soap – Best Long-lasting Soap
8. Bambaw Shaving Soap – Best Vegan Formula
9. Taylor of Old Bond Street Sandalwood Shaving – Best Creamy Lather
10. G.B.S Mens Sandalwood Shaving Soap – Best Conditioning

The Art of Shaving Shaving Soap – Best Overall

When it comes to crafting quality and authentic shaving products with all-natural ingredients, The Art of Shaving truly takes the lead with all of its positive customer reviews and highest-ever rating on Amazon. This one is the best shave soap, coming from the category of sandalwood varieties, designed to create a foamy, creamy lather for a comfortable shave on sensitive skin. 

Its glycerine-based formula, enriched with coconut oil, provides perfect lubrication for an easy razor glide over the skin. This smooth gliding eliminates the risk of shaving nicks and burns on sensitive skin, leaving it moisturized throughout the day. The shaving soap by The Art of Shaving incorporates the world’s richest sandalwood aroma, originating from the Indian subcontinent, blended with essential oils for a masculine scent with a spicy, woody undertone.

Proraso Shaving Soap – Best Natural Formula 

For people into wet shaving for years, you’ve likely heard about Proraso’s excellence in creating luxury shaving soap without harsh chemicals or synthetic fragrances. This bar of soap by Proraso is also enriched with oatmeal extract, providing a toning effect while purifying facial hair and skin.

The tea extract in its formula imparts a refreshing feel to your skin, soothing the tingling effect on sensitive skin prone to irritation. It boasts a sweet fruit fragrance with citrus notes. This product is a prime example of hard shaving soap with minimal moisture content. Therefore, you might need to wet your shaving brush for a few more minutes to produce a dense, creamy lather that doesn’t dry out too soon.

Viking Revolution Shaving Soap For Men – Best Budget-friendly 

The most prominent factor that will make you fall in love with Viking Revolution’s shaving soap is the variety of manly scents they offer in one affordable package. You’ll find four shaving soap pucks, each made with love, in a bundle, featuring different fragrances such as sandalwood, cedar pine, bayrum, and clary sage. 

These manly shaving bars by Viking Revolution contain all-natural ingredients that not only lather up quickly but also serve as excellent cleansing agents for clearer-looking shaved skin without clogged pores. Another highlight of Viking Revolution is its product packaging in a compact design, promising sustainability and climate-friendliness. With its thick, silky lather, this soap works exceptionally well on coarse facial hair, allowing the razor to glide smoothly without causing nicks.

Van Der Hagen Shave Soap – Best for Hydration 

Van Der Hagen has been manufacturing this premium quality shaving soap through a unique kettle process, aiming to enhance its smoothness and moisture power for a luxurious wet shaving experience. This shave soap is a blend of nourishing ingredients such as cocoa butter and mango butter, delivering a thick protective lather that softens beard hair, allowing the razor to glide smoothly across the face. 

Van Der Hagen’s fragrance-free shaving soap also features a hypoallergenic formula, minimizing the risk of irritation and making it suitable for people with acne-prone or sensitive skin. One potential drawback for many users is the plastic casing of this shaving soap puck, which may not be the ideal container for lathering up soap. Therefore, it’s likely that users will remove the shaving soap from its plastic packaging to lather it up in a shaving bowl.

Gentleman Jon Sandalwood Shaving Soap – Best Scented 

The best shaving soap for sensitive skin by Gentleman Jon contains active ingredients such as shea butter, coconut milk, and glycerine to make shavers enjoy the most authentic shaving experience without overdoing it. Its glycerine base provides the skin with a hydrating flush, helping to relieve the burning sensation and irritation caused by the razor blade. 

Furthermore, the coconut milk in this shaving soap adds an extra layer of moisturization to combat dryness and reduce the risk of eczema or dermatitis, particularly in people with dry skin. With no other additives or toxic chemicals, this shaving soap by Gentleman Jon features a sweet Sandalwood scent that doesn’t overpower your senses.

Pros:

Its lather stays thick for longer without drying off.

Badger Shaving Soap – Best Fragrance-free

Like most shaving soaps designed for sensitive skin, this one by Badger is a combination of 100% botanical ingredients with no parabens and overwhelming fragrances. This shaving soap has a perfect blend of coconut oil, aloe vera, and shea butter. Enriched with organic ingredients, it produces a smooth lather, contrary to the heavy feel of shaving cream lather, resulting in a non-irritating wet shave.

One distinctive aspect of Badger shaving soap is its diverse range of essential oils, such as bergamot oil, vetivert oil, cardamom oil, and sandalwood oil. Thanks to this essential oil blend, Badger shaving soap can leave your skin feeling soft and moisturized without any greasy residue. Although the manufacturer claims this shaving soap is fragrance-free, one may smell a subtle scent that tends to dissipate relatively quickly.

Henry Cavendish Himalaya Shaving Soap – Best Long-lasting Soap 

This best shave soap by Henry Cavendish is chemical-free, with all-natural ingredients such as shea butter, coconut oil, safflower seed oil, and soy extract to give you a slick, moisturizing cushion while shaving. In contrast to other natural soaps whose lather dries out quickly, this one forms a long-lasting, rich lather, keeping shavers from accidental nicks and cuts. 

The bar soap comes in a large size, requiring you to melt it in a microwave for half a minute to squeeze it into your shave mug. Its key ingredients, soy, and shea butter, protect the skin from razor burn while revitalizing dullness for a healthy, shaved look. Moreover, its exquisite Himalayan natural fragrance hits all the right notes for shavers who desire a strong manly aroma.

Bambaw Shaving Soap – Best Vegan Formula

This unscented shaving soap bar by Bambaw boasts an all-organic formula, featuring an exclusive ingredient: white clay. This white clay imparts a pure white pigment to the shaving soap, also contributing restorative properties that help cleanse the skin for a fresh look. 

This product is an excellent choice for those seeking a vegan shaving soap, infused with aloe vera to moisturize dry and sensitive skin, ensuring a close shave without the risk of razor burns or cuts. Beyond its vegan and palm oil-free composition, this soap is free from plastic or detergents, making it an ideal option for shaving on sensitive skin.

Taylor of Old Bond Street Sandalwood Shaving – Best Creamy Lather

This is one of the few shaving soaps for sensitive skin that come in an environment-friendly wooden bowl and can easily be refilled with a soap refill. This high-quality, sophisticated bar of shaving soap offers ease of use, allowing you to lather it up with a shaving brush directly in its wooden bowl instead of transferring it to a separate mug. 

It has a super-smooth texture compared to all those listed here, tackling even the thickest hair on your lean, curvy faceline without causing any irritation. With only a few rubs of a wet brush over the soap, you can achieve a rich, creamy lather, while maintaining its lubricity for multiple passes. However, be sure to wipe off any excess lather from the razor before rinsing, or the razor might become sticky.

G.B.S Mens Sandalwood Shaving Soap – Best Conditioning 

This product from G.B.S is another example of the best shaving soaps for sensitive skin, infused with the woody notes of sandalwood aroma. Formulated with glycerin and shea butter, it creates the same foamy lather as other varieties for superior conditioning and comfort during wet shaving. With the integration of organic ingredients providing enhanced hydration, it’s no surprise that using G.B.S shaving soap will deeply moisturize and refresh your skin, reducing the chances of irritation.

In addition to its skin-friendly qualities, G.B.S Men’s shaving soap comes in minimal packaging, minimizing its environmental impact, and is designed to last three times longer than your average shaving cream or soap. While this particular G.B.S shaving soap has a sandalwood scent, you can also explore the other three fragrances available: bayrum, cedar, and pine, and lavender and citrus.

Last update on 2023-12-28 at 05:00 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API