At long last, another edition of the Lather Log is up. This is r/Wetshaving's (and now I suppose also sub.wetshaving.social's) monthly report on the soaps, creams, and the occasional other stuff used for our shaves.
As always, the data in this report comes from our daily SOTD posts, excluding duplicate and deleted posts. If you used more than one soap/cream/whatever, only one gets noted in my data. Usually it's pretty clear, but sometimes you just won't tell us what you're using, and I end up recording it as unknown. Sometimes you'll at least let us know the brand, and I only have to record the scent as unknown.
May was a relatively big month for brands new to the Lather Log: we saw eleven this month, a little more than usual. A relatively older brand is Herban Cowboy based in the USA; then we also saw a few shaves with something from Bull and Bell Premium Supply Co. in New Hampshire; and we got to see Seven Potions in England; then something from High Thyme FARMacy in Tennessee; and YourShaving in Spain put their brand on a tenth anniversary soap; and while I've heard of Historic & Oak's aftershaves the soap is new to me; we saw a shave with a soap from Bottega Verde over in Italy; then we were introduced to Hajamat in India; a shave was finally posted with a soap from the Shave Mercantile; then we also met Drughet, which I believe is an Italian producer.
And even though the Lather Games, and Wildcard Wednesday, aren't until July this year, we also saw one shave in May with Moretti, an Italian medical equipment producer, who makes ultrasound gel.
Maybe it's to be expected as Spring hits its stride, the weather's great, and some schools are wrapping up for the Summer vacation, but there was another little drop in most activity here in May. We saw 2,156 shaves posted, which is 32 fewer than in April... it's 69.55 per day, and that average is 3.38 less per day than April. There were 164 active SOTD authors in May, a drop of 15 from April (23 authors started posting, while 38 stopped), and each author posted a mean of 13.15 shaves in May (this was a slight increase of 0.92 over April's mean per author). But there was another increase in scent choices this month, with 27 more unique scents used in May than April.
| Category | May. 2023 | Change from Apr. | Apr. 2023 | Mar. 2023 | Feb. 2023 | Jan. 2023 | Dec. 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Shaves | 2,156 | -32 | 2,188 | 2,487 | 2,271 | 2,227 | 1,847 |
| Unique Authors | 164 | -15 | 179 | 187 | 186 | 175 | 169 |
| Mean Shaves per Author | 13.15 | +0.92 | 12.22 | 13.30 | 12.21 | 12.73 | 10.93 |
| Unique Soapmakers | 167 | +5 | 162 | 134 | 146 | 151 | 146 |
| Unique Scents | 688 | +27 | 661 | 617 | 641 | 656 | 574 |
| Single Use Scents | 335 | +1 | 334 | 278 | 302 | 335 | 284 |
The most shaves posted in one day was 83 on Wednesday, May 3rd, which is the same as April's maximum. The fewest shaves posted in one day was 56 just two days later on Sunday, May 21st, which is 7 fewer than April's minimum.
| Weekday | Mean May Shaves for Weekday | Mean April Shaves for Weekday | Mean March Shaves for Weekday | Mean February Shaves for Weekday | Mean January Shaves for Weekday | Mean December Shaves for Weekday | Weekdays in May | Total Shaves in May |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sunday | 59.00 | 70.40 | 72.50 | 71.00 | 64.60 | 58.00 | 4 | 236 |
| Monday | 71.00 | 75.75 | 84.50 | 83.75 | 75.20 | 62.50 | 5 | 355 |
| Tuesday | 73.00 | 75.75 | 82.75 | 87.00 | 77.40 | 64.25 | 5 | 365 |
| Wednesday | 75.20 | 72.75 | 84.20 | 90.75 | 73.00 | 60.25 | 5 | 376 |
| Thursday | 72.00 | 72.50 | 83.80 | 78.25 | 73.00 | 58.20 | 4 | 288 |
| Friday | 72.00 | 75.75 | 77.60 | 85.75 | 71.75 | 57.60 | 4 | 288 |
| Saturday | 62.00 | 69.20 | 75.00 | 71.25 | 67.50 | 57.60 | 4 | 248 |
| Overall | 69.55 | 72.93 | 80.23 | 81.11 | 71.84 | 59.58 | 31 | 2,156 |
Martin de Candre and MacDuff's make the top ten list for the first time! As does Rope Swing, though this is not Summer Break's first entry.
| May. 2023 Top 10 Scents | Uses (People) | Apr. Uses | Mar. Uses | Feb. Uses | Jan. Uses | Dec. Uses | Change in Ranking from Apr. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tabac - Original | 45 (14) | 37 (16) | 14 (10) | 40 (18) | 38 (14) | 30 (14) | ^ 4 |
| Barrister and Mann - Seville | 38 (20) | 47 (18) | 40 (13) | 44 (16) | 32 (16) | 24 (12) | v 1 |
| Martin de Candre - Vetyver | 33 (2) | 6 (4) | 3 (2) | 2 (1) | 0 (0) | 5 (2) | ^ 78 (new to the top ten) |
| House of Mammoth - Shire | 31 (16) | 28 (18) | 9 (6) | 4 (4) | 5 (3) | 4 (2) | ^ 2 |
| House of Mammoth - Alive | 30 (14) | 23 (13) | 10 (5) | 13 (8) | 8 (5) | 10 (7) | ^ 3 |
| Spearhead Shaving Company - Seaforth! Sea Spice Lime | 29 (14) | 41 (25) | 17 (14) | 27 (17) | 33 (19) | 11 (8) | v 3 |
| Summer Break Soaps - Rope Swing | 28 (6) | 6 (4) | 1 (1) | 1 (1) | 0 (0) | 1 (1) | ^ 74 (new to the top ten) |
| Spearhead Shaving Company - Seaforth! Black Watch | 27 (12) | 38 (19) | 20 (10) | 25 (14) | 32 (12) | 29 (13) | v 4 |
| Bufflehead - Tishomingo | 26 (1) | 24 (1) | 15 (1) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | v 2 |
| House of Mammoth - Indigo | 24 (11) | 19 (9) | 7 (5) | 20 (16) | 20 (11) | 10 (8) | ^ 2 |
| MacDuff's Soap Company - Birch + Root | 24 (1) | 2 (1) | 1 (1) | 2 (1) | 1 (1) | 0 (0) | ^ 216 (new to the top ten) |
Dropped from the top ten since April:
- Col. Conk - Lime
- Australian Private Reserve - Skye Fall
- Barrister and Mann - Reserve Waves
- House of Mammoth - Sonder
Alas, but I suppose the Colonel was not destined to stay on the top ten makers list.
| May. 2023 Top 10 Soapmakers | % of Shaves | % of Apr. Shaves | % of Mar. Shaves | % of Feb. Shaves | % of Jan. Shaves | % of Dec. Shaves | Change from Apr. | Total May. Shaves Using This Soapmaker |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Barrister and Mann | 13.4% | 16.3% | 9.9% | 15.0% | 17.2% | 19.4% | - | 288 |
| House of Mammoth | 9.6% | 7.2% | 3.7% | 7.4% | 7.3% | 8.2% | ^ 1 | 206 |
| Stirling Soap Co. | 9.0% | 9.4% | 44.2% | 13.1% | 8.4% | 9.7% | v 1 | 194 |
| Noble Otter | 5.3% | 5.2% | 3.4% | 6.7% | 5.5% | 7.4% | ^ 1 | 114 |
| Declaration Grooming | 4.4% | 5.3% | 3.9% | 6.1% | 7.5% | 6.3% | v 1 | 95 |
| Summer Break Soaps | 3.8% | 2.7% | 1.5% | 2.2% | 1.5% | 1.8% | ^ 2 | 82 |
| Spearhead Shaving Company | 3.5% | 5.0% | 2.3% | 3.6% | 4.8% | 3.7% | v 1 | 75 |
| Ariana & Evans | 3.4% | 3.6% | 3.0% | 2.2% | 2.8% | 2.3% | v 1 | 73 |
| Grooming Department | 2.3% | 1.6% | 1.5% | 0.9% | 1.0% | 0.7% | ^ 8 (back in the top ten) | 50 |
| Southern Witchcrafts | 2.2% | 2.0% | 1.5% | 2.2% | 2.5% | 2.1% | ^ 1 (back in the top ten) | 48 |
Dropped from the top ten since April:
- Chiseled Face
- Col. Conk
Some months, there may be a bit of shuffling places back and forth, but no other changes in the most prolific list.
| May. 2023 Top 10 Most Prolific | Scents used in May. | Scents used in Apr. | Scents used in Mar. | Scents used in Feb. | Scents used in Jan. | Scents used in Dec. | Change in Rank from Apr. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stirling Soap Co. | 66 | 56 | 96 | 71 | 52 | 46 | - |
| Barrister and Mann | 48 | 53 | 50 | 52 | 52 | 52 | - |
| Ariana & Evans | 38 | 32 | 29 | 26 | 29 | 21 | ^ 1 |
| Declaration Grooming | 37 | 38 | 32 | 42 | 43 | 37 | v 1 |
| Grooming Department | 24 | 20 | 16 | 13 | 12 | 9 | ^ 1 |
| Talent Soap Factory | 23 | 24 | 21 | 10 | 11 | 6 | v 1 |
| House of Mammoth | 21 | 18 | 17 | 20 | 18 | 17 | ^ 2 |
| Catie's Bubbles | 19 | 20 | 13 | 23 | 19 | 20 | v 2 |
| Noble Otter | 18 | 19 | 18 | 18 | 21 | 21 | v 1 |
| Wholly Kaw | 18 | 16 | 16 | 15 | 18 | 14 | ^ 1 |
Nobody dropped from the top ten since April.
Twenty four shavers posted a shave for each of the thirty one days in May.
r/Wetshaving's Every Day Shavers for May 2023:
- u/35048467
- u/walden
- u/Crisp_Mango
- u/djundjila
- u/el_charminman
- u/EldrormR
- u/Engineered_Shave
- u/Environmental-Gap380
- u/Eructate
- u/gcgallant
- u/Impressive_Donut114
- u/InfernalInternal
- u/jwoods23
- u/loudmusicboy
- u/Madflava81
- u/MaplePoplar
- u/Old_Hiker
- u/oswald_heist
- u/PhilosphicalZombie
- u/scribe__
- u/USS-SpongeBob
- u/whosgotthepudding
- u/worbx
- u/WudULikADrinkPackage