Presenting the May 2023 Lather Log, or I May as Well Go For Maximum Imaginary Internet Points, Right?
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.