Derby Shaving Stick

Tags

4/10, derby, shaving soap

I’ve been stuck shaving with the Derby Shaving Stick for about two weeks now, primarily because I’d been far too lazy in getting a review out the door and couldn’t justify moving on to a new soap when I have such a backlog of them to write.

I say stuck, because, well, I don’t really like it all that much. Don’t get me wrong, it lathers up easily enough, once you manage to dial in the right amount of water to use for the right amount of product (which can be tricky to control like all shave sticks). I’d say it’s comparable to the performance of Arko or Palmolive in that regard.

But I didn’t really like the scent. It’s generic “soap” type scent. Overall, I found it to be unpleasant. It’s fairly strong too, at least when not lathered. When just sitting in the bathroom with the top of the wrapper peeled off, the scent of the soap permeated my bathroom. Fortunately, the scent dissipated a bit once lathered up, but only dropped down from “really strong” to “fairly strong”. So, I suppose, also comparable to Arko in this regard too, although I think the scent of the Derby is slightly more palatable.

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

But yeah, overall, I’m not a fan. 4/10. But at least it is quite affordable, if that’s a major factor for you.

• Cost: This soap was $1.85 for the 75 g shaving stick.

Gear used:

• Brush: Wee Scott
• Razor: Razor: Feather AS-D2
• Blade: Gillette 7 O’clock Black

Ingredient list: Potassium tallowate, potassium cocoate, stearic acid, sodium palm kernelate, aqua, disodium distrylbiphenyl disulfonate, CL77891, paraffinum liquidum, parfum, geraniol, benzyl alcohol, linalool, glycerin.

Alba Botanica – Natural Very Emollient Cream Shave – Mango Vanilla

Tags

6/10, Alba Botanical, Fruit, Mango, non-lathering, vanilla

Once again unto the breach, with a “cream” that was never intended to meet either someone’s face or a shaving brush.

The scent was nice; the vanilla was clearly distinguishable, whereas the mango wasn’t quite as recognizable as mango, more of a muddled fruity sweetness. Which, having had a glance at the ingredient listing, kinda makes sense, since it does have other fruit extracts in there as well.  Still, it smelled nice, and was fairly strong, without fading noticeably.

As for the performance of it as a cream, that was far more of a so-so result. Like most non-lathering products out there, I tended not to be able to get quite the balance of cushion and glide as I like, since I couldn’t adjust anything to my liking by fiddling with the water content. This one seemed a bit low on the glide. It also did cause some clogging of the razor, which can be hard to clean away with a blast of water, since it’s not water soluble like most soaps are. Finally, while I generally have rather resilient skin, this did end up causing a bit of a burning sensation.

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

Overall, I suppose I can consider bumping it up to a 6/10. Definitely can’t say I’d go out of my way to use it again.

• Cost: I purchase this at iHerb.com, where the 8 oz tube shown currently goes for $5.04.

Gear used:

• Razor: Yuma Safety Razor
• Blade: Feather Hi-Stainless

Ingredients: Water (Aqua), Sodium C14-16 Olefin Sulfonate, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Sodium Cocoamphoacetate, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice, Ananas Sativus (Pineapple) Fruit Extract, Calendula Officinalis Flower Extract, Carica Papaya (Papaya) Fruit Extract, Hedychium Coronarium Root Extract, Hibiscus Sabdariffa Flower Extract, Lavandula Angustifolia Extract, Mangifera Indica (Mango) Fruit Extract, Passiflora Incarnata Flower Extract, Passiflora Incarnata Fruit Extract, Vanilla Planifolia Fruit Extract, Citric Acid, Glycerin, Tocopherol, Ethylhexylglycerin, Phenoxyethanol, Benzyl Alcohol, Benzyl Benzoate, Coumarin, Limonene, Fragrance (Parfum).