I Tried Every ‘Manly’ Soap Bar in the UK – Don’t Buy Until You Read This

If you are anything like me, you have seen adverts for cool soaps like Dr. Squatch, Bare Bar or The Black Stuff on social media and have been really tempted to give them a bash, but haven’t because they are quite expensive compared to the cheap shower gel that you can buy at the supermarket.

You may already be familiar with my other no BS reviews that I’ve done in the past (Best Powdered Energy Drinks, which has helped over 10,000 people, for example), but the purpose of this review page is going to be the exact same… I’m going to try out all these brands (and as many companies as I possibly can) to let you know what I think of them.

To give you some context about me (for transparency of my cleaning habits prior to starting this project), I usually have baths as my shower isn’t roomy enough for me (I’m a 6ft 2 nerd). I have basically always used shower gel in my baths (Lynx, cheap brands, whatever I get for Xmas, etc). The main reason that I wanted to try the bars of soap isn’t really about anything other than marketing if I’m honest… they look cool…

Why did you create this page?

I’m always pretty suspicious of brands trying to BS me, and with the increase in influencers peddling products that are terrible, it’s pretty hard for anyone to trust these influencer videos!

This page will work the same way as my energy drink review page. It will be a way for me to reference all the different brands that I’ve tried, stop me going back to any brands that are crap and will hopefully answer if I actually need/want to use soap bars over shower gel…

When I was also ordering these soaps, I noticed that some of them are really sneaky and opt you in for a subscription without being fully transparent about it (They can moan all they want, if i didn’t realise, then you aren’t transparent enough!)

What’s the plan?

Well, this page will end up being a massive project because my plan is to try as many soap bar brands as possible (even though it will be expensive!). I will create a heading for each brand/company that I use, list my personal opinion of how it performed (how it feels on my skin, how it smells, how long it lasted, how much it costs, etc), then I will list my recommendations based on this experience. Just a note though, I imagine that my recommendation will change as I intend to use each of the soap bars to their fullest and continue to build up this knowledge base.

So… Let’s get started. Please give the below a read before you decide to buy Dr. Squatch, Bare Bar or The Black Stuff!

What is your current opinion?

Well, it is early days just now, I’ve just started using The Black Stuff, but so far I’m quite impressed. I’ve used supermarket soap bars in the past, and it can cause the feeling of your skin tugging or feeling dry (that’s the only way I can describe it), but that isn’t the case so far… check back soon for an update!

Overall Brand Reviews

I will continue to add to the below as I use the soaps, so please do check back in the future!

The Black Stuff

The first one on my list to try out is The Black Stuff, a small Irish soap company owned by John Larkin and run by a very small team. With this company, you aren’t feeding the corporate machine, but instead are helping out a small independent business!

You can visit their site here

Dr. Squatch

Dr Squatch is an American brand that features a loveable, smartly dressed Sasquatch/Big Foot as their logo. This is a really big brand, and it certainly feels more corporate as a result.

You can visit their site here

Bare Bar

Bare Bar is an English brand that features a happy bear in a shower as their logo. I can’t find out too much information at present about this company’s background, but I’ll update when I find out more.

You can visit their site here

Scottish Fine Soaps

Scottish Fine Soaps are one of the most premium soap brands out there, but that doesn’t mean that their prices are premium (I was surprised!) This company has 40 employees, have been trading since 1974 and most of their products are made at Ochil Hills in Stirlingshire.

You can visit their site here

Hiltwood Natural Soap 

Hiltwood Natural Soap is a premium English brand, but there doesn’t seem to be very much on their website to tell us about their company or how they got started. I’ll update this if I find out more.

Straight away, though, I have a bone to pick with this company because they sneakily added me to a subscription version of the soap bar at a reduced rate. This happened when I clicked the add to basked button, but it updated mid-click, so I didn’t see the subscription was selected (it’s a standard bar first!). Thankfully, I noticed it, but if I wasn’t 100% aware of this, then you are not transparent enough to your customers!

You can visit their site here

Please make sure that you visit back to this page to see all the updates, and if there is a brand that you are curious about, please reach out to me at info@geekygorevan.co.uk (or use the contact form), and I’ll give it a try!

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