Mystic Water Soap – Indian Summer (Scent off entrant)

Tags

9/10, ginger root, mystic water, pumpkin, saffron, Scent Off 2013, shaving soap, spice

This review is for one of the entrants for our good pal mantic’s 2013 Scent Off! I was lucky enough to be selected as one of the judges. The first one to be judged in the contest will be from Mystic Water Soap for Men, a soap they call Indian Summer. I’m sure many of you will have seen the overview from all the judges already, but here’s my impressions.

The soap is a newer formulation than ones that I’ve tried from them before (the main difference appearing to be the addition of lanolin), and I think I do like it better. Previously I’d had issues with getting a good balance of glide and thickness out of their soaps, they needed fiddling to get the right balance; that really was not an issue with this soap at all; there was some risk of not having enough water to get a good glide, as looks could be a bit deceiving, but that was easily rectified once I figured out that it needs a tiny splash more after it looked good enough, but some experimentation showed that it wasn’t easy to overshoot the sweet spot. But enough water and a bit of elbow grease and I got a great shave out of it; nice thick cream for a good cushion, plenty of glide, good stability and it left the face feeling great to boot.

Of course, since it’s the scent off, I’m sure you also want to hear about the scent! It’s a nice sweet scent that has a bit of spiciness to it. They were shooting for a scent that brings to mind an Indian summer day in Indiana; here’s what they had to say:

I wanted to combine the scent of freshly cut pumpkin with ginger root, cream and spices that, to me, evokes comfort and warmth as we go into the cooler season. I added Italian saffron for color and subtle fragrance.

I thought it to be quite pleasant, although I’m not entirely sure I get all that much pumpkin from it. The strength was also quite good, starting off with what I’d say is just below a “strong”, with very little fading at all. I also feel it fit well with the theme of the contest.

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

So, overall, yeah, I’m happy rounding up to a 9/10. That having been said, some of the other judges did have a reaction to the soap, myself being blessed with skin of steel not being amongst them, so if you’re got sensitive skin you might want to stay away from this one.

• Cost: Nil, since I’m judging it for mantic’s contest. And it doesn’t look like they’re selling it to the general public. Sorry.

Gear used:

• Brush: Mühle HJM Black Fibre
• Razor: 1966 Solid Nickel Gillette Tech
• Blade: Treet Dura Sharp
• Scuttle: Robert’s Feats of Clay #4

Ingredients: Tallow, Water, Ricinus Communis (Castor) Seed Oil, Glycerin, Potassium Hydroxide, Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea) Fruit, Persea Gratissima (Avocado) Oil, Elaeis Guineensis (Palm) Oil, Sodium Hydroxide, Fragrance, Stearic Acid, Lanolin, Aloe Barbadensis (Aloe Vera) Leaf Juice, Bentonite, Allantoin, Silk, Saffron (Crocus Sativa) Flower Extract.

Prairie Creations tallow cream: Bondage Nights

Tags

8/10, berry, cotton, Fruit, leather, linen, melon, musk, Prairie Creations, shaving cream, vetiver, wood

For my 2nd review of a Prairie Creations product (the first here), I’ve got some of their tallow based shaving cream. Now, one of the nicest things about this company is that they’ll custom create your soap or cream, with the ability to pick not only the scent you want, but how much of it they’ll be adding. As anyone who has followed my reviews probably can guess, I went with the heavily scented option.

The initial impressions of the scent are fruity and woodsy, and rather complex. Since my nose in inadequate at picking out distinct notes, here’s what they have to say about the scent:

The bold and daring night-time and masculine fragrance for the newly invented adventure hero, a sensual top notes of melons and berries leading to heart notes of leather, linen and cotton, and finally ending with deep woods, vetiver and musks.

I’d say that the melon and the berries are indeed the most obvious; after that, it’s a rather complex mix. While it isn’t something that I’d like as a cologne, it works well for a nice pick me up during the morning shave.

The strength was indeed heavily scented; it came on rather strong and only faded a little during the shave. I’ll be rounding up a bit for this, but I think it deserves top marks for the strength. Which is of course a warning for those of you who don’t like their soaps or creams quite as strong as I do, you might want to go for the regular of even the weak scented versions.

Performance wise, it’s rather good. To start off, the consistency is a rather thick cream, but not quite firm enough to be considered a “croap”.  It provided some great glide, although it didn’t work out quite as thick as I usually prefer. Lather stability was good once you had enough water, and the moisturization was also decent enough.

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

All in all, I’d recommend trying this out. It’s a clear 8/10.

• Cost: A 4 oz jar will set you back $12 (they’re now being sold in larger jars than the one I have shown).

Gear used:

• Brush: Wee Scott
• Razor: Travel Tech head on an Ikon wave handle
• Blade: Asco Super Stainless

Ingredients:

Liquid Used : Aloe Vera Juice
Oils Used : Castor Oil, Jojoba, Tallow
Other Ingredients Used : Fragrance, Glycerin, Kaolin Clay, Liquid Germall Plus, Raw Silk Fibers, Stearic Acid, Tocopherols

Petal Pusher Fancies – Steam River Rum

Tags

bay rum, Discontinued, petal pusher fancies, shaving soap

Edit: It appears that the line has disappeared off the face of the earth, after a small scandal erupted following a few allegations, including that the fellow who ran HTGAM had been under different names reviewing some soaps that he made (under the Petal Pushers brand), and that the ingredient listing for at least some of the soaps was likely falsified. Here’s a bit of an overview.

Frankly, what I saw put a bad taste into my mouth, and I don’t think I’ll be doing any more business with that company. Anyhow, they’ve since rebranded into “Phoenix Artisan Accoutrements”

---

So I finally got around to trying a puck of Petal Pushers Fancy soap which I had kicking around, and let me say, I’m rather pleased. They’re one of a crop of relatively new soapmakers who burst onto the scene in the last year or two who, unlike so many “artisan soapmakers”, actually make their own soap with their own recipe of fats and lye, instead of just buying a commonly available soap base and fiddling with it a bit or just adding scent.

And it looks like they’ve been successful in figuring out what it takes to make a great shaving soap. They tout it as a “Kokum Butter Shaving Puck”, which makes sense I suppose given that it’s a relatively uncommon ingredient to use in soaps that I’ve seen. Even if it is only the 3rd most common fat used in the soap. But then again, if we were being that picky, then there’s no way that Mitchell’s Wool Fat would get away with referring to themselves as such, considering the lanolin there is only a minor ingredient at best, percentage wise.

Anyways, it lathers up nice and thick. I found it a bit tricky to get the right amount of water needed for the right balance of thickness and glide, but once I get it I was rather pleased. That trickiness is balanced out by the fact that the soap did leave my face feeling rather nice after the fact. All things considered, it’s a top notch shave.

This particular puck is their River City Rum, which I now notice appears to be discontinued. Alas, this is what I get for buying far too many types of soap at a time and holding on to them for too long before getting around to review!

It was a fairly nice bay rum scent, although there was just something about it that seemed a bit off to me, although I can’t put my finger (nostril?) on it. Not that it was unpleasant, mind you, but just not as nice as I find most good bay rums smell.

The strength was so-so; it started off at a medium strength, and faded away to a “relatively weak” by the time I got to the end of a pass.

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

Obviously I can’t really recommend getting this particular scent, as it’s gone, but I’d say it’s probably safe to assume some of their other stuff is pretty decent; I’ll get around to some more in good time! 7/10.

• Cost: Also no longer available are the cakes shown above which I shoved in a tupperware container; they now all come in tins, with a 3.5 oz tin going for $9.95; 5 oz for $12.95; and 8 oz (5 inch wide) tin for $18.95.

Gear used:

• Brush: Wee Scott
• Razor: Edwin Jagger DE81BL (Red)
• Blade: Asco Super Stainless

Ingredients:  Water, Potassium Hydroxide, Sodium Hydroxide, Stearic Acid (Vegetable Derived), Organic Castor Oil, Pure Kokum Butter, Organic Coconut Oil, Organic Avocado Oil, Organic Sweet Almond Oil, Pure Essential Oils, Fragrance (unscented version does not include essential oils or fragrance)

Jody’s Naturals lemongrass shaving bar

Tags

4/10, Jody's Naturals, lemongrass, shaving soap

So I often spend Canada day at a community BBQ / festival along the Gorge inlet. It’s a gorgeous spot (pun intended), and the event is usually quite fun. They’ll have bands playing on the stage, a bunch of food and various other vendors set up along the road, and a classic car show as well. I’m walking along, and notice one of the vendors is a soapmaker. And lo and behold, they’ve got a shaving soap! So, naturally I needed to pick it up.

Unfortunately, it turns out to be pretty terrible.

This soap did not produce a nice thick lather like I prefer. And what little lather I was able to get out of it broke up swiftly. Very swiftly, in fact I think I’m safe in saying that this soap had the worst lather stability of any soap I’ve come across yet. If it wasn’t for the fact that the ingredient listing is slightly different, I’d frankly assume that there was no difference between this and their regular bar soaps. But it definitely appears to have just been made with the ingredients they had on hand, instead of branching out into some of the other fats and oils that tend to make good shaving soaps (stearic acid, tallow, etc) or doing the experimentation that might have been able to get a good balance with the ingredients they were working with. At least the glide was decent, although still far from exemplary.

Scented with lemongrass essential oil, it makes for a pleasant aroma, although it doesn’t start out very strong, and it fades fast… well about as fast as the lather disappears.

• 8/10 Scent Pleasantness
• 6/10 Scent Strength
• 4/10 Lather Quality

Overall, I can’t really recommend this soap. Seems like an example of someone not really doing the research into what’s different between the requirements for regular soap and shaving soap. 4/10.

• Cost: I can’t recall exactly how much I paid, but I reckon it was probably the $5 they’re charging on their etsy site, which gets you a bar in a tin of approximately 2 oz. Also available in cedarwood and lavender.

Gear used:

• Brush: Mühle HJM Black Fibre
• Razor: 1966 Solid Nickel Gillette Tech
• Blade: Astra Superior Platinum
• Scuttle: Robert’s Feats of Clay #4

Ingredients: Water, Palm oil, Coconut oil, Olive oil, Castor oil, Sodium hydroxide (lye), Shea butter, Lemongrass essential oil.

Al’s Shaving Products – Scent of the Month: Zenyatta Aranciata Shaving Cream

Tags

8/10, Al's Shaving Products, citrus, floral, Fruit, Orange, petitgrain, shaving cream, SOTM, wood, ylang ylang

Next up we’ve got another Scent of the Month from Al’s Shaving Products.

The sweet citrus blend of the orange orange and the petitgrain are most immediately perceptible in this scent, supported by the base of the woodsy scents; the ylang ylang softening up the scent a bit. I do rather like it; I was pondering between a 8 or a 9, but as the girlfriend also appears to have quite enjoyed it, a 9 it is.

The strength could have been a bit better, although I know that’s sometimes hard to do with citrus aromas. It came on at what I’d say is about medium/strong strength, and only faded a bit from there.

As for the lather; despite the fact that the fragrance changes can apparently have a slight difference in performance, overall it’s the same great product. Great balance of glide and thickness, being a bit on the thirsty side to get there. Good moisturization, and good lather stability.

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

Anyhow, I’ll be giving this a 8/10 overall.

• Cost: This sample was provided gratis for the purposes of this review. A 4 oz tub will set you back $20.

Gear used:

• Brush: The Colonel
• Razor: Travel Tech head on an Ikon wave handle
• Blade: Asco Super Stainless
• Scuttle: Robert’s Feats of Clay #4

Ingredients: “The forumula of Al’s Shaving Cream is Triethanolamine and preservative (parabens) free and only contains sodium and potassium salts of fatty acids (stearic, oleic, linoleic, palmitic, myristic and lauric) in addition to water, glycerin and botanicals.”

Edwin Jagger – Lime and Pomegranate Shaving Cream

Tags

9/10, citrus, Edwin Jagger, Fruit, Lime, pomegranate, shaving cream

Edwin Jagger’s Lime and Pomegranate shaving cream is a relatively new scent, having replaced the old Sea Buckthorn scent, which I liked fairly well in the soap form.

The lather was very nice; it lathered up very easily into a nice thick cream, with a good amount of glide. Just a bit of extra water was needed for the mix, but it seemed to have a fair amount of tolerance for variation. Good moisturization properties too.

The scent was wonderful; sweet and tangy, I found it invigorating. It’s a great summer-time aroma.

Unfortunately, it fades far too fast; starting off at a reasonably decent strength, it doesn’t stay there for long, and I found that I was only able to really enjoy the scent for the first few strokes of each pass.

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

Overall, I think I’m still willing to fudge the numbers a bit and give this a 9/10; if the scent lasted longer this would probably be a serious contender on the top ten list. As it is however, it falls too short.

• Cost: I picked up the 75 mL tube from shaveabuck for $16, Maggard Razors also sells samples of this scent, either on its own ($2.25), or for a bit cheaper per unit as part of one of their sample packs; also available in a 100 mL tub for $22.

Gear used:

• Brush: The Colonel
• Razor: Feather AS-D2
• Blade: Lord Super Stainless
• Scuttle: Robert’s Feats of Clay #4

Ingredients: Aqua (water), Potassium Stearate, Potassium Palmitate, Potassium Cocoate, Glycerin, Sodium Stearate, Sodium Palmitate, Sodium Cocoate, Cera Alba (Beeswax), Potassium Myristate, Cetyl Palmitate, Parfum (fragrance), Punica Granatum Seed Extract, Potassium Laurate, Sodium Myristate, Sodium Silicate, Sodium Thiosulfate, Limonene, Linalool.

Al’s Shaving Products – Scent of the Month: Bikini Bottom Shaving Cream

Tags

8/10, Al's Shaving Products, aquatic, bergamot, citrus, floral, honeysuckle, kelp, ozone, sandalwood, shaving cream, SOTM

Back again with another scent of the month from Al’s: this one is Bikini Bottom, inspired by the Art of Shaving’s Ocean Kelp line (and evidently Spongebob Squarepants). My first initial impression is of the ozonic scents common to the so-called “aquatic” fragrances; underneath that I mostly pick out a subtle floral; everything else kind of blends in together. Here’s what Al had to say about it:

Bikini Bottom is our new light and refreshing aquatic scent. Notes of kelp that give Bikini Bottom a subtle delicate floral and citrus character that some people associate with honeysuckle.  Notes of petitgrain with touches of bergamot, sandalwood and ozone add to its complexity.  Bikini Bottom has a unique aroma and incredible performance.

Nope, looks like I just misinterpreted something he mentioned. Please ignore. He mentioned that he adjusted the formula to give it a bit more in the way of moisturization; I didn’t really notice much in the way of difference, with either the moisturization or the lather, except for perhaps it needing a bit more elbow grease to lather up all nice like. Or perhaps I was just imagining it; it’s sometimes hard to tell, and it was still at the very least quite close. Either way, it’s still a top notch lather. One of the few actual complaints I have about Al’s products is that he doesn’t give the full ingredient listing, so it’s hard to tell if you think he’s been tweaking things.

Anyways, I can’t really say that I was too much of a fan of the scent, but I’m not really a fan of the aquatic scents overall. I’m sure there’s a lot of you out there that’ll like it more than I.

Strength wise is was quite good; comes on very strong, fading to what I’d say was a middle-strong level by the time I finished one of the passes.

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

Anyhow, I think I’ll round this one to an 8/10. If you do like the aquatic fragrances, I’d highly recommend it.

• Cost: This sample was provided gratis for the purposes of this review. A 4 oz tub will set you back $20.

Gear used:

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

Ingredients: “The forumula of Al’s Shaving Cream is Triethanolamine and preservative (parabens) free and only contains sodium and potassium salts of fatty acids (stearic, oleic, linoleic, palmitic, myristic and lauric) in addition to water, glycerin and botanicals.” With the caveat that the ozone scent isn’t from an essential oil (as no such thing exists).