Welcome to your SOTD Lather Log for September 2026

• 1,298 shave reports from 99 distinct shavers during the month of September 2026 were analyzed to produce this report. Collectively, these shavers used 526 distinct soaps from 126 distinct brands. 30 of those shaves used samples or smushes of 17 unique soaps, and 5 used mashups.

Observations

• Stirling Soap Co. eases to the top of the Brands table for the fifth straight month, but the real fight was one step down with Barrister and Mann holding off Catie's Bubbles by a single shave, 100 to 99.

• Catie's Bubbles – Tonsorium took the top step of the Soaps table for its first time ever. u/Glass_Procedure7497 did most of the work, posting 29 of its 35 shaves.

• Silver was a one-shaver production too: u/tsrblke logged all 22 of Barrister and Mann – Oceana's shaves, the soap's first podium finish since April 2021.

• Seaforth! Épée makes its Lather Log debut at #14 and hauls the whole Spearhead Shaving Company banner up 18 spots to #7.

• Brand Diversity reverted to standard programming: Stirling's 48 distinct soaps put it 17 clear of silver medalist Barrister and Mann (31), with Catie's Bubbles on the bronze step at 29. .

• u/sandstorm99 didn't get the message the Austere Augest ended at the end of August. He stuck to one soap, one razor, one blade, one brush for all 19 of his September shaves, earning him the coveted Most Boring Shaver crown this month.

• u/partyman97_3 wins the Soap Diversity by User trophy with 30 unique soaps in 31 shaves, one repeat away from perfection. u/snoo-ting actually went perfect at 27-for-27, but the contest rewards max distinct count, not perfect ratios.

• u/Engineered_Shave nabbed the Exclusive Soaps title with 24 soaps that only he used.

• Sample September 2026 fell far short of 2025. 30 sample shaves from 7 users (17 different soaps) was half of last September's 60 from 19 users.

Notes & Caveats

• Tables show all entries with 5 or more shaves to provide comprehensive coverage without artificial row limits.

• The unique user column shows the number of different users who used a given brand/soap/etc in the month.

• The Brand Diversity table details the number of distinct soaps used during the month from that particular brand, showing all brands with 5+ unique soaps.

• The change Δ vs columns show how an item has moved up or down the rankings since that month. = means no change in position, up or down arrows indicate how many positions up or down the rankings an item has moved compared to that month. n/a means the item was not present in that month.

• When available, soap names in the Soaps table link to their entry on Wet Shaving Database, where you can see scent notes, descriptions, and ingredient lists.

• An exclusive soap is a matched brand+scent used by only one shaver in the month. That shaver earns one point for that soap, no matter how many times they logged it.

Soap Brands

Soaps

Brand Diversity

Top Mashup Users

Soap Diversity by User

Exclusive Soaps

Most Boring Shaver

Boring Score is the chance that two shaves picked at random from a user used the same soap (higher means more repetitive). Effective Soaps converts that into an equivalent even-rotation count: the number of soaps they would need to use equally often to produce the same score. Example: someone can log 20 soaps but still have ~2 Effective Soaps if one soap dominates roughly 70% of their shaves and the rest are just occasional. In the case of tied HHI, Shaves descending is the tie breaker, since it's clearly more boring to use the same soap for 20 shaves than it is for 10.

For the mathematically inclined: Boring Score is a diversity/concentration index (HHI in economics, Simpson’s index in ecology). More detail at Wikipedia: Diversity index.

Day 24 — MonsterMash

Saturday, Oct 24 · Sponsor: Fanzine Saponifications

Today's Theme: MonsterMash

Combine multiple fall/halloween scents to create one Frankenstein of a soap to rule them all

Combine two or more fall/halloween scents to create one Frankenstein of a soap to rule them all. Create a name for the soap, your spooky brand, and make a label.

★ Special Challenge: Design Your Label & Brand

Today's Daily Challenge is the Special Challenge.

You created a soap for today, now hand-draw a label, write up a description, and create a marketing campaign for your new brand. Get creative. The best one wins a prize. As always, if you use AI, you're out.

Prize: $25 Maggard Razors Gift Card

★ Sponsor Spotlight: Fanzine Saponifications

Fanzine Saponifications is the vegan shaving soap project of Paul, a maker with a punk, DIY, zine-culture streak and a simple creed: "Soap is art. Art is Soap." An active member of the wet shaving community, Paul builds characterful small-batch scents — like the flagship "This is Not a Test" and the leather-and-incense "Caravaggio" — and sells them through Etsy.

Coming Tomorrow

Theme — Reckoning Day: Be the first to use a brand that day. Any other subsequent uses of that brand are DQ'd

Be the first to use a brand that day. Only soaps that are marketed for shaving are appropriate. Any other subsequent uses of that brand are DQ'd.

To eliminate players maliciously eliminating others, to get a point on this day you must have logged at least 5 shaves so far in October.

Challenge — Jack of all trades: Incorporate another hobby into your shave routine. What does that mean? You tell us!

Welcome to another weekly reading session.
I just started chapter 15 in Eye of the World book 1 from the Wheel of Time Series by Robert Jordan. The story is getting better and more exciting as the chapters move forward. So many unforeseen turns. There is a build up and something is about to happen. Recapping with a reading buddy always helps ( u/curbside_champ ). Strongly recommend a reading companion if you have the chance.

Listening to Twenty One Pilots…..

What ya’ll reading and listening to…

Post any deals and new product announcements here or list anything you would like to sell! A few ground rules:

1. Only post an item once. If it doesn't move then take it to the bazaar.
2. No auctioning. You must include a list price.

The mods are not responsible for your transactions. Caveat Emptor! We suggest you only deal with established members of the community. It is strongly recommend not to use PayPal Friends & Family to avoid fees. This is against their terms and leaves you with no buyer protection.

Share your shave of the day for Saturday!

Happy Friday!

What's new, shave nerds?

Day 23 — Fougere Friday

Friday, Oct 23 · Sponsor: WhollyKaw

Today's Theme: Fougere Friday

Fern-centric Scents

Product scent must demonstrably be a fougère. It should be marketed as a fougère or classified as one on a reputable site.

Note: The mere presence of lavender, coumarin, and oakmoss in a product does not make it a fougère (nor does their absence necessarily rule the category out)! Ask an expert ahead of time if in doubt.

Today's Challenge: Stacking Day

Stack all the hardware and software you used on top of each other and make your tower of shave gear as tall as you possibly can.

★ Sponsor Spotlight: WhollyKaw

WhollyKaw is a family-owned artisan brand founded in 2014 by Sri Ram, who began — fittingly — on Reddit, sending unscented vegan soap samples to wet shavers for feedback before going to market that October. Made in Princeton Junction, New Jersey, WhollyKaw produces skincare and grooming products built on high-quality ingredients, from its dense tallow-based Siero soap to a full vegan line, and sources essential oils, aroma chemicals, and absolutes to compose fragrances across fougères, chypres, florals, and gourmands — self-care done right.

Coming Tomorrow

Theme — MonsterMash: Combine multiple fall/halloween scents to create one Frankenstein of a soap to rule them all

Combine two or more fall/halloween scents to create one Frankenstein of a soap to rule them all. Create a name for the soap, your spooky brand, and make a label.

★ Special Challenge — Design Your Label & Brand: You created a soap for today, now hand-draw a label, write up a description, and create a marketing campaign for your new brand. Get creative. The best one wins a prize. As always, if you use AI, you're out.

Prize: $25 Maggard Razors Gift Card

Welcome to this week's sidebar submission contest!

The rules for the contest are as follows:

1) Do not submit pictures of people who have not consented to have their picture posted online. Winning images will be featured on Reddit and may be reposted on other social media platforms. If someone posts an image of you without your consent, please report it so the mods can deal with it in a timely fashion.

1) Users should submit only one (1) image of your choice to be voted on to be the sidebar for the week. Images must consist of anything related to wet shaving - razors, brushes, SOTD images, etc. In the event multiple images from a user are submitted, only the first image, or the image in the top level comment, will count.

1) Image must be Original Content (Not just some picture you found on the internet). Images taken by another photographer are allowed as long as: a. You have the photographer's permission. b. The image is connected to you in some meaningful way: e.g. It's a image of hardware you commissioned, taken by the maker, or the image is of something you made, taken by the purchaser, etc. c. We're not looking to have to verify images, so please use the honor system.

1) All properly submitted images will be entered into the Voting Thread. The Submission thread will be active for ~24 hours and will end Saturday. The vote thread will be active for 24 hrs from Saturday through Sunday. This thread is only a submission thread. Please do not hold discussion in the vote thread.

1) In the event of a tie, the bot will consult RNGesus to break the tie.

1) Submissions MUST be uploaded to imgur. Any other hosting site will be disqualified and not included in the voting thread.

1) Any submissions containing NSFW material may be removed at the discretion of the Mod Team.

1) While not required, it is suggested you submit square images in order to avoid unintended cropping.

Please feel free to respond with a comment to your entry with any background/description/detail about your entry, including gear used.

Note: The bot strongly prefers direct image links. If your link doesn't end with .jpg, there's a 50-50 chance the bot's going to choke trying to update the banner on Sunday.

May the best submission win! Good luck to all!

Post suggestions for themes you would like to see featured in the coming weeks. One theme suggestion per comment. Upvote the comments you like and the community will tackle the top choices next month!

Thank you to everyone who came out to the PIF celebrating the relaunch of our clean and classy scent Fleur de France. LatherBot selected the random winner of a FdF soap already, so now it's time to go through the stories of elegance you all submitted.

There were some great ones I resonated with, and was particularly touched by /u/jbird996 writing about his dad, def read it if you missed it. I also loved the various stories of hiking and playing rugby and just giving it your all physically, because getting a hot shower afterwards is absolutely one of the best feelings in the world.

But I'm going to give the second FdF tub to the one I thought best fit the spirit of elegance that our reformulation of Fleur de France has achieved, and that's u/yamad's comment about elegance meaning everything in its place, as simple as possible but not simpler. That's a perfect description of this release. Check it out here. Congrats!

Thank you again to everyone, and especially to everyone who came out for today's FdF/Unscented/cupuaçu/splash sample drop! NOTE: The FdF EDT already sold out, but we'll make more. Unfortunately it'll be around a month as we're waiting for more bottles to arrive from our supplier.

Share your shave of the day for Friday!

Welcome to your SOTD Hardware Report for September 2026

• 1,298 shave reports from 99 distinct shavers during the month of September 2026 were analyzed to produce this report, for an average of 13.1 (median 9.0) shaves per user.

Observations

• After Austere August's predicatble podium shuffle, the Razor contest returns to typical form this month with the Blackbird and Game Changer duking it out for the crown. Blackbird came out on top this month, easing ahead of the Game Changer 5-4 across 2026 so far.

• The Gillette Tech makes a suprising return to the third step of the podium this month, its first podium appearance since its silver in June 2024.

• In related news, Gillette takes first in the Razor Manufacter contest for the first time since October 2025, after RazoRock's nine-month reign (November 2025 through July) was interrupted by GEM's Austere August cameo. Blackland (175/30) and RazoRock (161/23) settle for silver and bronze.

• Astra Green is back on top of the blade table this month, bringing it to 8 victories out of 9 attempts this year. (The Personna GEM PTFE unsurprisingly took the Austere August blade trophy last month.)

• The single-shaver army corps had a big month. u/pi-rho pushed the RazoRock Superslant into 8th place single-handedly (31 of its 31 shaves), u/Breadheater9876 carried the Tatara Muramasa to #6 with 30 of its 34, and u/partyman97_3's one-man Rudy Vey Badger operation landed it in 6th in the brush table.

• The Top Shaver trophy goes back to its usual address: u/Engineered_Shave, 35 shaves, zero missed days, five double-shave days, after u/Impressive_Donut114's August heist. Donut settles for second this time at a perfect 34. Nineteen shavers posted perfect Septembers.

Notes & Caveats

• Most tables are row-limited to keep them readable and avoid max post length issues. If the final row is part of a tie, the entire tied group is included in the report.

• "Other" in the Blade Format table includes vintage reusable blades (including Rolls, Valet Auto Strop, and old-style lather catchers with wedge blades) as well as other antique proprietary blade formats (e.g. Enders Speed Blade)

• Blades recorded as just 'GEM' will be matched to 'Personna GEM PTFE' per guidance here

• The Personna name is going away for blades manufactured in the USA, but the majority of entries are still coming in under Personna, so I am sticking to that for the time being. Once more than 50% of the entries come in under the new names, I will reverse this and map any old Personna entries to the new name.

• The Δ vs columns show how an item has moved up or down the rankings since that month. = means no change in position, up or down arrows indicate how many positions up or down the rankings an item has moved compared to that month. n/a means the item was not present in that month.

Razor Formats

Razors

Razor Manufacturers

Blades

Brushes

Brush Handle Makers

Brush Knot Makers

Knot Fibers

Knot Sizes

Blackbird Plates

Game Changer Plates

Super Speed Variants

Straight Widths

Straight Grinds

Straight Points

Most Used Blades in Most Used Razors

Highest Use Count per Blade

Top Shavers

This is the place to ask beginner and simple questions. Some examples include:

• Soap, scent, or gear recommendations
• Favorite scents, bases, etc
• Where to buy certain items
• Identification of a razor you just bought
• Troubleshooting shaving issues such as cuts, poor lather, and technique

Please note these are examples and any questions for the sub should be posted here. Remember to visit the Wiki for more information too!

Day 22 — Sheep-ruh Shursday

Thursday, Oct 22 · Sponsor: Woolf Blades

Today's Theme: Sheep-ruh Shursday

Chypre Scents

Product scent must demonstrably be a chypre. It should be marketed as a chypre or classified as one on a reputable site.

Note: the mere presence of bergamot, labdanum, oakmoss, and patchouli in a product does not automatically make it a chypre. Ask an expert ahead of time if in doubt.

Today's Challenge: International Caps Lock Day

Typing in ALL CAPS for fun. Shout your SOTD into the void by using all CAPS. Or cAmEl CaSe. Non-standard case types need apply today.

★ Sponsor Spotlight: Woolf Blades

Woolf Blades is the proudly South African workshop of Trevor Woolfson, based in Langebaan on the Western Cape. Trevor hand-makes custom straight razors — individually crafted, as he puts it, "not simply manufactured" — in premium steels like RWL-34 and Damasteel, with scales in wood and carbon fibre. Around that core he also offers shaving soaps, brushes, strops, and leather goods, all in service of reviving the art and ritual of the traditional straight-razor shave.

Coming Tomorrow

Theme — Fougere Friday: Fern-centric Scents

Product scent must demonstrably be a fougère. It should be marketed as a fougère or classified as one on a reputable site.

Note: The mere presence of lavender, coumarin, and oakmoss in a product does not make it a fougère (nor does their absence necessarily rule the category out)! Ask an expert ahead of time if in doubt.

Challenge — Stacking Day: Stack all the hardware and software you used on top of each other and make your tower of shave gear as tall as you possibly can.

Share your shave of the day for Thursday!

This is the place to ask beginner and simple questions. Some examples include:

• Soap, scent, or gear recommendations
• Favorite scents, bases, etc
• Where to buy certain items
• Identification of a razor you just bought
• Troubleshooting shaving issues such as cuts, poor lather, and technique

Please note these are examples and any questions for the sub should be posted here. Remember to visit the Wiki for more information too!

This is a thread to share those new purchases you're excited to show off, the shave-related projects you've been working on, or just some neat thing from your shave den.

Show everyone what you got!

We're a day late, but not a dollar short. In fact, this pod is pretty long, but it's also fantastic, so be sure to listen until the very end!

It's week three(ish), and things are starting to shape up; the content is flowing, the shavers are getting into (and out of) the swing of things, and the games are past the halfway mark. In this episode, we discover that otters suck, what tort law is, and ponder if eating soap has become way too much of a casual thing in this community.

Tune in!

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0ymtZ4ZJYv7x4yMxFmXo9q?si=SzQfpvBzRKqReAXhOiMr1g
RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/e4d74788/podcast/rss

This isn't what you think. I'm not giving away a Williams puck... this time. To enter this PIF, you have to prove you are a fan of Williams and show me what you got! I don't care if it is a single puck, an old wooden bowl of Williams with the stamping still readable, mentholated, tonsorial, naked, boxed, or a small dragon's hoard of Williams, but a clear pic of Williams shave soap is required to enter.

So what am I actually giving away? This is a promo triplet (bottle opener, screw driver, and keychain) proudly given away by the JB Williams Co. some time around 1903. I am now going to pass it on to a Williams fan here.

This will run as a medium karma randomizer. That way, I can verify that the first in line has a Williams pic. If not, I move on to the next in line until I find someone with a pic of their Williams.

My Williams tax

LatherBot Randomizer 50 48

This is the place to ask Wild and Crazy questions. Some examples include:

* Strange things to use as soap

* Favorite non soap lathers

* Why you make bad life choices.

* Identification of a razor you just made

* Troubleshooting shaving issues such as cuts, poor lather, and technique

Please note these are examples and any questions for the sub should be posted here. Remember to visit the [Wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/Wetshaving/wiki/index) for more information too!

Day 21 — Wild Thing Wednesday

Wednesday, Oct 21 · Sponsor: Abominable Creations

Today's Theme: Wild Thing Wednesday

Make our hearts sing by going absolutely wild!

Product can be any singular product you want to use - it doesn't even have to be soap. But it has to be wild.

Explain to us why this was a wild choice to use as a soap.

Note: For the purposes of counting brands for the Soap Brands bonus point, whatever you use here will be counted as whatever brand it is. Palmolive dish soap? Palmolive. Skippy peanut butter? Skippy. Barrister and Mann Cootie Killer? Barrister and Mann. Stirling Executive Man? Stirling, but good luck convincing us that soap is wild. Homemade soap? Assume it's branded however you would usually brand it if you made something. Two soaps superlathered together? Believe it or not, jail.

Today's Challenge: Get PFAS out of our shaves

Use any liquid, other than tap water to build your lather.

★ Sponsor Spotlight: Abominable Creations

Abominable Creations is the work of Chris, better known in the community as the Lathered Yeti — a custom brush maker who turns wildly figured resin handles, sometimes set with a decorative coin like his "Voodoo Yeti," into one-of-a-kind brushes. He works largely by inquiry through Instagram (@lathered_yeti) rather than a storefront.

Coming Tomorrow

Theme — Sheep-ruh Shursday: Chypre Scents

Product scent must demonstrably be a chypre. It should be marketed as a chypre or classified as one on a reputable site.

Note: the mere presence of bergamot, labdanum, oakmoss, and patchouli in a product does not automatically make it a chypre. Ask an expert ahead of time if in doubt.

Challenge — International Caps Lock Day: Typing in ALL CAPS for fun. Shout your SOTD into the void by using all CAPS. Or cAmEl CaSe. Non-standard case types need apply today.

Share your Shave of the Day

Hi friends! This Thursday we're bringing back a favorite from the Spearhead era of Seaforth: Fleur de France.

Shawn and I put our heads together to tweak the formulation into a smoother, deeper, and more radiant expression of 1960s French barbershop elegance.

With that in mind, I'd love to hear your stories of elegance, in any way, shape, or form.

For instance: When did you feel your fanciest and why? Stories of getting your first formalwear, whether for a special occasion or just something you felt you needed? Stories of a person you know who personifies elegance? And so on.

If you don't feel any relationship to elegance, you can simply talk about being crisp and clean, like the time you went on a four day camping trip and the shower afterwards made you feel like a new person.

We’ll be giving away two Fleur de France shaving soaps: one by random Latherbot lottery, and one by best story chosen by yours truly at the close of the lottery. Story must be mostly true, and no AI writing.

Open worldwide.

Latherbot lottery 50 48