Mystic Water Soap – Lilac shaving soap

Tags

7/10, floral, lilac, mystic water, shaving soap

Lilac is one of my favourite floral scents, and Mystic Water did a pretty decent job of replicating it here. T’is a shame the girlfriend can’t stand lilacs. Oh well. The strength of the aroma was just ok, it started off decent enough, but faded a fair bit during the shave.

Strength-wise, it was decent enough. It started off rather strong, and faded a bit, rather quickly, but after an initial drop off stayed fairly steadily strong throughout the shave.

The lather was good; a decent amount of glide combined with a nice thick lather; a reasonable balance. I’d say the amount of water required to achieve this would be a bit below average. Definitely what I’d consider a quality shave.

• 8/10 Scent Pleasantness
• 8/10 Scent Strength
• 8/10 Lather Quality

Overall, I’d say it’s a 7/10. A bit stronger would have been nicer.

• Cost: $9.91 for a 4 oz puck or a 2 oz shaving stick; $11.79 for the puck with a tub; 1/2 oz samples are 3 for $3.50. 

Gear used:

• Brush: Mühle HJM Black Fibre
• Razor: Edwin Jagger DE81BL (Red)
• Blade: Crown Super Stainless
• Scuttle: Robert’s Feats of Clay #4

Ingredients: Tallow, Water, Castor Seed Oil, Glycerin, Potassium Hydroxide, Shea Butter, Avocado Oil, Palm Oil, Fragrance, Sodium Hydroxide, Stearic Acid, Aloe Vera Leaf Juice, Bentonite, Silk.

savor – Earl Grey shaving soap

Tags

6/10, bermagot, citrus, earl grey, lemon, savor, shaving soap

The Earl Grey is what prompted me to make a purchase from savor in the first place. I suppose I should have read the description, since it’s not really an Earl Grey scented soap; it’s Bergamot with a dash of lemon, without an attempt to replicate the tea portion of an actual Earl Grey tea. That having been said, it’s still nice and citrus-y.

But it’s fairly weak at that; I’d say barely perceptible when lathered up and applied to the face.

Much like my previous experience with savor, the lather is typical of a decent melt-and-pour with a few tweaks made. Does the trick good enough, as long as you can get the water balance right (to get enough glide while maintaining viscosity). Nothing to write home about, but it’ll do the trick.

• 8/10 Scent Pleasantness
• 6/10 Scent Strength
• 7/10 Lather Quality

Overall, a 6/10. Not terrible, but kinda plain.

• Cost: The 85g / 3 oz puck shown will set you back $5.

Gear used:

• Brush: The Colonel
• Razor: Edwin Jagger DE81BL (Red)
• Blade: Crown Super Stainless
• Scuttle: Robert’s Feats of Clay #4

Once again, the ingredient listing on the website and on the label differed, but this time I went to the trouble of e-mailing the proprietor to clarify which is which, and apparently the listing on the website was correct:

Ingredients: coconut oil x palm oil x castor oil x safflower oil x glycerin x purified water x sodium hydroxide x sorbitol x sorbitan oleate x soybean protein x wheat protein x fragrance x Shea butter

Barrister and Mann – Ferox shaving soap

Tags

9/10, Barrister and Mann, citrus, grapefruit, herbal, rosemary, sage, shaving soap, tea tree, thyme, vetiver

I’m pretty sure that Barrister and Mann’s formulation doesn’t change between their scents, with the exception of the fragrance portion. The Ferox performed quite like I expected: it’s a rather thirsty soap, kind of. I mean, if you only use a bit of water, it’ll be ok, but if you use a fair large splash, it’ll be great. It’s not quite as thirsty as Mike’s Natural is, but almost. Anyways, it works up into something really slick, nice and thick, with great moisturization properties.

The scent is quite nice. If I had to pick one word for it, it’d be “invigourating”. It’s a blend of grapefruit, sage, thyme, rosemary, tea tree, and vetiver. The grapefruit gives a nice tartness and pep, which is tempered nicely by the herbal elements, and supported by the earthiness of the vetiver. It was designed to be a “springtime” scent, and I think it fits that bill.

The strength was pretty decent. It came on reasonably strong, and didn’t fade much during the course of the shave.

• 9/10 Scent Pleasantness
• 8/10 Scent Strength
• 9/10 Quality of Lather

I’ll happily round this one up to a 9/10. It’s quite an enjoyable shave, and although perhaps a little stronger would have been nice, but I’ll generally prefer a middling-strength scent that doesn’t fade much to a strong one that disappears quickly.

• Cost: A 3.75 oz puck of Ferox goes for $12, or you can get it included as one of 6 1/2 oz samples for $10. Also, they’re the only soap-maker I know that takes Bitcoin, if that’s your gig.

Gear used:

• Brush: Mühle HJM Black Fibre
• Razor: 1966 Gillette Tech
• Blade: Merkur Super
• Scuttle: Robert’s Feats of Clay #4

Ingredients: Potassium Stearate, Sodium Stearate, Potassium Tallowate, Sodium Tallowate, Aqua, Glycerin, Potassium Ricinoleate, Sodium Ricinoleate, Citrus grandis (Grapefruit) Peel Oil, Salvia officinalis (Sage) Oil, Thymus zygis (Thyme) Oil, Rosmarinus officinalis (Rosemary) Oil, Melaleuca alternifolia (Tea Tree) Oil, Andropogon zizanioides (Vetiver) Oil, Coconut Milk, Potassium Kokum Butterate, Sodium Kokum Butterate, Unrefined Shea Butter, Potassium Cocoate, Sodium Cocoate, Lanolin, Allantoin, Silk Protein, Tocopherol Acetate.

RazoRock – Nonno Michelino sandalwood shaving soap

Tags

9/10, RazoRock, sandalwood, shaving soap, soft soap

Today’s shave is RazoRock’s Nonno Michelino sandalwood. The scent is a rather nice rendition of sandalwood, using fragrance rather than essential oils. The strength is pretty damned good; it comes on with what I’d consider to be a bit above medium strength, but manages to stay there without any significant fading whatsoever, not only for long enough for me to finish a pass shaving, but long enough for me to start this post and finish typing this paragraph.

The lather quality, is also the extremely high quality I’ve come to expect from RazoRock. A rather soap “croap”, it loaded up and lathered very easily; real thick, however be sure to add sufficient water for good glide. The soap can handle the extra water without thinning out as long as you give it a bit of elbow grease. And was pretty decent in the moisturization department as well.

• 9/10 Scent Pleasantness
• 9/10 Scent Strength
• 10/10 Lather Quality

Anyways, a rather darned fine entry from RazoRock, or more accurately Tcheon Fung Sing via RazoRock, as Paola Barile over at TFS is the producer of the La Familglia line (she’s also responsible for the Barbiere di Figaro line). Overall? 9/10. And a steal at that price. My favourite sandalwood to date.

• Cost:I got this one in a den-clearance sale off of /r/shave_bazaar, but it’ll normally go for $6.99 for 125 mL.

Gear used:

• Brush: Mühle HJM Black Fibre
• Razor: Vintage Bakelite Slant
• Blade: Merkur Super
• Scuttle: Robert’s Feats of Clay #4

Ingredients: Stearic Acid, water, cocos nucifera, potassium hydroxide, sodium hydroxide, fragrance, sodium carbonate, linalool, benzyl alcohol, geranol, buthylphenyl methylpropional.

Geo F. Trumper’s – Almond shaving cream

Tags

7/10, Almond, Geo F Trumper, shaving cream

So, I still seem to be experiencing a fair bit of variability in the shave quality of Trumpers creams. This one I found turned out to be a fair chunk better than all the others I’ve tried. I don’t know, maybe they’re all the same and it’s just really fiddly, and I got lucky with the almond. Anyways, I had previously mainly had issues with the lubrication of GFT creams, this wasn’t an issue this time. It needed a fair bit of water, but this didn’t result in unacceptable levels of thinning out, unlike, for example, the violet.

The almond scent is a nice one. It’s your classic sweet almond / marzipan scent. It’s a tad on the weak side: nice and strong when you’re sniffing the cream itself, or the brush after lathering, but it doesn’t carry over very strongly when applied to the face.

• 9/10 Scent Pleasantness
• 7/10 Scent Strength
• 8/10 Quality of Lather

So, overall, I’d say it’s a 7/10. A bit stronger on the scent could have bumped it up.

• Cost: The 200g pot shown is $29.95, or you can get a 75 g travel tube for $17.95.

Gear used:

• Brush: The Colonel
• Razor: 1966 Gillette Tech
• Blade: Merkur Super
• Scuttle: Robert’s Feats of Clay #4

Ingredients: Aqua (water), Stearic Acid, Myristic Acid, Potassium Hydroxide, Coconut Acid, Glycerin, Parum (fragrance), Triethanolamine, Sodium Hydroxide, Methylparaben, Propylparaben

Czech and Speake – no. 88 shaving soap

Tags

6/10, bermagot, cologne, Czech and Speake, floral, geranium, Rose, sandalwood, shaving soap, vetiver, wood

As with a lot of soaps or creams based off of Colognes, I find it’s best to go straight to the horse’s mouth for a description rather than try and describe what it smells like myself:

No.88 has a fresh, woody top note of reviving and uplifting bergamot, the richness and warmth of geranium, rose otto, cassie and exotic frangipani. Combined with dry base notes of vetiver and sandalwood, this modern classic has a full-bodied, sophisticated sensuality.

Anyways, I found it reasonably pleasant, although not enough so that I’d buy the cologne. The strength was fairly lacking, not at all strong to begin with, and faded to nothingness by the end of the shave.

The lather, however, was very good; nice and thick, very good glide, reasonably wide sweet spot for acceptable water content, and some decent moisturization.

• 8/10 Scent Pleasantness
• 5/10 Scent Strength
• 9/10 Lather Quality

Overall, I think I’ll round down and give no. 88 a 6/10. The scent is just too weak to make it worth-while, especially considering that we’re talking a shaving soap that’s supposed to be based around a cologne.

• Cost: The sample I used was from Garry’s Sample Shop for $7.50. A set of three 25g travel-sized refills goes for £18, or £65 if you want the matching anodized aluminium travel dish, although I think that only comes with a single refill puck; a full 90g puck goes for £21, or £95 if you want its matching aluminium dish.

Gear Used:

• Brush: Ecotools Kabuki Finishing Brush
• Razor: Gillette Travel Tech
• Blade: Shark Super Stainless
• Scuttle: Robert’s Feats of Clay #4

Ingredients: Sodium tallowate, water, potassium palmitate, potassium stearate, sodium palmitate, sodium stearate, sodium cocoate, potassium cocoate, glycerin, palmitic acid, stearic acid, cocos nucifera, fragrance, lecithin, petrolatum, zea mays, tocopheryl acetate, CI 77891, CI 77499

Arko – Shaving stick

Tags

4/10, arko, shaving soap

So, Arko. I’ve heard a lot about Arko’s shaving stick, before I gave it a shot. It seems to be a “love it or leave it” proposition. Most of what I heard about it lead me to believe that I wouldn’t like it. I was right. The smell. It’s chemically, like a cross between medicine and cleaning product. I’ve heard comparisons to Borax tossed around, as well as urinal cakes, and “Ivory soap on steriods”. A bit more  kind of a comparison was probably to lemon pledge. Actually, yeah, I think the urinal cake comparison is probably the most apt (unused at least!). Strength-wise, it was definitely noticeable and never really faded all that much. Naturally, what  might be a good thing for a soap that smells nice is a bad thing for a soap that doesn’t.
But, anyways, Arko is mostly a popular soap mostly despite its scent, , not because of it, although there are indeed some people who like it. It performs well, and is insanely cheap to boot. It lathers up quite easily (I should note that it’s supposed to be particularly good for folks with hard water), nice and thick, good glide. Takes about what I’d say is a medium amount of water, and has a decently large “sweet spot”. I can’t say I noticed much in the way of moisturization after the fact. But still, a good shave and cheap.

• 3/10 Scent Pleasantness
• 8/10 Scent Strength
• 8/10 Quality of Lather

Anyways, I still don’t like it. 4/10, the performance of the lather is
not, IMHO, good enough to rescue the stench..

• Cost: I got the stick shown off of someone over on the shave bazaar, but as mentioned they can be found elsewhere quite cheap, such as this offering for $18 per dozen 75 g sticks, or $2.39 for a single off the same site.

Gear used:

• Brush: Wee Scott
• Razor: 1966 Gillette Tech
• Blade: Merkur Super

Ingredients: Potassium Tallowate, Stearic Acid, Potassium Cocoate, Aqua, Sodium Palm Kernelate, Glycerin, Parfum, Paraffinum Liquidium, Cl 77891, Tetrasodium EDTA, Etidronic Acid, Disodium Distrylbiphenyl Disulfonate, Amyl Cinnamal, Citronellol, Geraniol, Hexyl Cinnamal, Linalool.

Truefitt and Hill – Grafton Shaving Cream

Tags

8/10, amber, cologne, floral, grafton, herbal, leather, shaving cream, truefitt and hill, wood

I was prompted to bust out my sample of Truefitt and Hill’s Grafton shaving cream after stumbling across this post, wherein various folks on Shavenook declare Grafton to be identical to Taylor of Old Bond Street’s Mr. Taylor scent.

Naturally, I lathered up, took a sniff, and followed up with a sniff of my bottle of Mr. Taylor’s cologne. And while I’ll agree that they’re quite similar, I thought I picked up a bit more spice in the bouquet of the Mr. Taylor. For what it’s worth, T&H describe their Grafton as “Warm and spicy, Grafton has a fresh herbaceous opening combined with a spicy floral heart, leading onto a rich, woody, amber background with a hint of leather”, compared to TOBS on Mr Taylor: “A fresh fougere accord with herbaceous top notes of lavender, bergamot, green notes resting on a heart with geranium and soft green fern. The base of this fragrance is ambery with cedar, leathery, moss and musky.” So, yeah, definitely sounds like they were at least shooting for something similar, if not exactly the same.

Anyhow, the scent was quite nice, if the above sounds like something you’d like.  Strength-wise, it was pretty darned good; about what I’d call the perfect strength  right off the bat, however I did notice some not-insignificant level of fading during  the shave.

As for the lather, it’s on par with most of the other T&H I’ve tried (I think the slightly lower quality shaves I had with the Lavender might be an abberation). You can coax a quite thick lather out of it with a decent level of lubrication; don’t overdo it on the water however or it will thin down a fair bit. And reasonable moisturization properties.

• 9/10 Scent Pleasantness
• 9/10 Scent Strength
• 8/10 Lather Quality

I assess this one to be a solid 8/10. I’d say everyone should at least
give the T&H sampler pack a try.

• Cost: The cost of the aforementioned sample pack is $10.50 for 14 of their shaving creams, aftershave balms, and the pre-shave oil. Another 9 bucks gets you a sample of each of their colognes as well. $30 for a 190g tub of the cream, or $22 for a 75g tube.

Gear used:

• Brush: The Colonel
• Razor: Vintage Bakelite Slant
• Blade: Merkur Super
• Scuttle: Robert’s Feats of Clay #4

Ingredient List: Water, Stearic Acid, Mystric Acid, Potassium Hydroxide, Coconut Acid, Glycerin, Fragrance, Triethanolamine, Phenoxyethanol, Butylparaben, Ethylparaben, Isobutylparaben, Sodium Hydroxide, Methylparaben, Propylparaben.

Kappus – Men Active Rasiercreme

Tags

6/10, herbal, kappus, shaving cream

So, another instalment of “shaving creams that I’d never heard of but bought anyways because it was cheap and I was already ordering something from that place anyways”. Today’s guest star: Kappus Men Active

The scent is what I suppose I’d call a herbal scent. It most reminded me of the Kaloderma shaving cream I tried a few weeks back, also from Germany. The Italians seem to be obsessed with their sweet almond scented shaving soaps, perhaps herbal scents is a similar trend for German creams? Anyways, it wasn’t unpleasant or anything, but it just didn’t do all that much for me. It started off at what I’d consider to be a medium strength, and then faded a fair chunk during the shave.

The lather was pretty decent. Not really voluminous at all, I did find I ended up having to use a fair bit more than I would have for some other creams in order to get the lather needed. It whipped up thick, with a good amount of glide for a little bit of water, but a bit of experimentation showed that it did seem to have a reasonably wide range of allowable water content in order to get a decent shave. I didn’t really notice anything much in the way of moisturization after the fact. Still, a solid enough shave.

• 7/10 Scent Pleasantness
• 7/10 Scent Strength
• 8/10 Lather Quality

Overall, I’m going to say it’s a 6/10. It’s a solid middle of the road cream, nothing outstanding, nothing terrible. Decent price for what you get though.

• Cost: Well, I had picked that tube up from shaveabuck.com for $3, however they don’t seem to be carrying it anymore. For those of us in North America, it’s still carried by Axelkraft for $3.50, or it can be found from Germany for  €1.39.

Gear used:

• Brush: The Colonel
• Razor: Vintage Bakelite Slant
• Blade: Merkur Super
• Scuttle: Robert’s Feats of Clay #4

Ingredients: Aqua, potassium stearate, potassium palmitate, potassium cocoate, glycerin, sodium stearate, sodium palmitate, sorbitol, stearic acid, palmitic acid, sodium cocoate, parfum, menthone glycerin acetal, butylphenyl methylpropional, hexyl cinnamal, linalool, potassium chloride, sodium chloride, potassium silicate, sodium silicate.

Proraso Blue Aloe & Vitamin E Shave Cream

Tags

7/10, aloe, licorice, menthol, Proraso, shaving cream

So, I guess it was finally time to get around to reviewing some Proraso. Proraso’s Blue formulation is the newest cream they carry, having only come out late last year.

The scent is a bit difficult to describe. The most common example thrown out there is that it’s licorice / anise-scented, which makes sense given that there is indeed some licorice root extract in the cream, but it’s not just a licorice scent. It is tempered by something that I’d consider a fresh / green scent, which might be due to the aloe. There’s a also bit of menthol, although apparently not nearly as much as you’ll find in the Proraso Green.

Overall, I found it to be a pleasant scent. It wasn’t all that strong, just enough to be noticeable it you go trying to pay attention to it, but I couldn’t really tell it was there for most of the shave.

The cream lathered up easily, requiring very little water for a really thick lather that had good glide. I found this cream to be a fair bit above average in the moisturization department, which I’ll chalk up to the inclusion of the aloe juice, and perhaps the vitamin E.

• 8/10 Scent Pleasantness
• 6/10 Scent Strength
• 9/10 Quality of lather

Overall, I’ll say 7/10. Scent just doesn’t have the oomph to do it for me, but it’s a good shave otherwise.

• Cost: The 1/4 oz sample shown was from Garry’s Sample Shop, for $2. A full sized 150 mL tube can be found for $7.50.

Gear used:

• Brush: Wee Scott
• Razor: Gillette NEW Ball-handle
• Blade: Bolzano Superinox

Ingredient list (my apologies if I messed some of this up, I was typing it out by hand off of a rather low-res picture of the ingredient listing; couldn’t find another one online!):  Aqua, stearic acid, cocos nucifera oil, potassium hydroxide, glycerin, lactic acid, parfum, sodium hydroxide, aloe barbadensis leaf juice, glycyrrhiza glabra root extract, tocopheryl acetate, sodium lauroyl sarcosinate, menthol, pentaerythrityl tetra-di-t-butyl hydroxyhydrocinnamate, sodium metasilicate, tetrasodium EDTA, hydroxyethylcellulose, hexyl cinnamal, linalool, butylphenyl methylpropional, sodium hydroxymethylglycinate