Category Archives: Man Cave Soapworks

Man Cave Soapworks – Mountain Man shaving soap

19 Tuesday Feb 2013

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Man Cave Soapworks - Mountain Man

Mountain Man is billed as a “woodsy mix of basil, juniper, lemon, sandalwood and patchouli”. All in all, I didn’t find it too bad, but it’s definitely far too sweet of a scent for something that I would consider calling “Mountain Man”. Frankly, the sweetness was enough to mostly drown out the other scents.

Strength-wise, it wasn’t all that good. There was just enough there that you caught a bit of a whiff while shaving, but to actually get a good appreciation of what it smelled like you needed to go straight to the puck of soap.

And the lather, eh. It did the trick, nothing special. It’s your typical melt-and-pour shaving soap.  It provides a perfectly reasonable shave, with a decent balance of thickness and glide. Nothing to write home about, just a nice solid shave, which left the face feeling nice.

So, anyways, I’ll give this one a 6/10. Not bad in any aspect, but it doesn’t particularly stand out at all, IMHO.

Gear used:

Ingredients: Coconut Oil, Palm Oil, Safflower Oil, Glycerin (kosher, of vegetable origin), Purified Water, Sodium Hydroxide (saponifying agent), Organic Shea Butter, Bentonite Clay, Sorbitol (moisturizer), Sorbitan oleate (emulsifier), Soy bean protein (conditioner), Wheat Protein (conditioner), fragrance

Man Cave Soapworks – Gatsby shaving soap

07 Monday Jan 2013

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Man Cave - Gatsby

Gatsby from Man Cave Soapworks is a pleasantly spicy, masculine scent, which is complex enough that I can’t really describe it in much better detail than that. So, I’ll rely on what the proprietor Carrie says about it:

A throw-back to 1920’s Jay Gatsby with base notes of warm, sophisticated rum and amber. Afterthoughts of hazy musk and bay leaves make this blend irresistable. A nice, clean barber’s soap that’d make Daisy Buchanan swoon…

Seems accurate enough to me. It’s a nice scent, and I think I might order one of the solid cologne sticks that they produce in the same scent.

Strength-wise, it was so-so. You could make it out a bit when lathered up, but certainly not strongly.

And the lather itself is typical of many melt-and-pour shaving soaps that I’ve come across. It provides a perfectly reasonable shave, with a decent balance of thickness and glide. Nothing to write home about, just a nice solid shave, which left the face feeling nice.

So, I’m giving it a 6/10. Stronger scent would have been nice, but I’m not complaining too much here.

Gear used:

Ingredients: Coconut Oil, Palm Oil, Safflower Oil, Glycerin (kosher, of vegetable origin), Purified Water, Sodium Hydroxide (saponifying agent), Organic Shea Butter, Bentonite Clay, Sorbitol (moisturizer), Sorbitan oleate (emulsifier), Soy bean protein (conditioner), Wheat Protein (conditioner), fragrance

Man Cave Soapworks – Black Tea and Leather shave gel

21 Wednesday Nov 2012

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Today’s review, by request, is Black Tea and Leather shave gel from Mancave Soapworks. T’is the first non-lathering gel I’ll reviewed thus far, and when I say non-lathering, I don’t mean “doesn’t lather well without a lot of water, but once you get that right lathers up quite nicely” like some other creams designed to be used brushless, I mean “doesn’t do anything whatsoever when a brush and water is used upon it.”

Needless to say, the shave performance is rather different from most. I will say it provides an extremely slick glide. Unfortunately, it comes at the expense of having virtually no cushioning, not only being a gel but a relatively thin one.

Which isn’t to say that it gave a completely terrible shave, but I certainly wouldn’t recommend it for anyone remotely new to the whole wetshaving scene. Those a bit more experienced should be able to judge to what extent they rely upon the cushioning of their usual soap or cream.

As to be expected, you will also be using a lot more of the product on a daily basis than your average cream or soap. I ended up going through about 15 g of the stuff during the course of a 3 pass shave, and that was with laying it on relatively thinly. Thus I’d only expect to get about 8 shaves out of each jar.

The scent is a nice spicy concoction, the black tea being quite evident, with the leathery scent providing a nice base. All in all, it’s an overtly manly scent. Strength-wise, it’s fairly strong, quite noticeable throughout the shave (at least it avoids the problem that a lot of soaps have with the lathering process killing off their aroma).

Overall, I’d give it a 5/10. The scent delivers, but the shave isn’t all that good. Personally, I’d just go with the aftershave balm in the same scent instead.

Gear used:

Ingredients: Aqua, alcohol, glycerin, polysorbate, carbomer, triethamine, methylparaben, propylparaben, fragrance, aloe gel, aloe oil.

Man Cave Soapworks – Gentleman’s Tweed

29 Monday Oct 2012

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After a recommendation from a fellow redditor, I looked into Man Cave Soapworks, and promptly bought every scent they make. As an aside, it seems like most artisan soap makers put little effort into their packaging; I usually only buy the puck itself and just throw it into a mason jar or tupperware. For these, however, Carrie over Man Cave Soapworks appears to have actually put some effort and skill into crafting unique interesting labels for each of her soap scents. So, to any other soap-makers out there, presentation counts too!

Gentleman’s Tweed would be their take upon Creed’s classic Green Irish Tweed scent. Here’s what they have to say about it:

This rich, sporty scent bursts with a sprig of Dublin ivy and a blend of French verbena and lemon. Green herbaceous clover, sublime notes of mysore sandalwood and gray amber will make you wish you were with nary a care on O’Connell Street in Dublin; Guinness in hand.

It’s a bit sweeter than most other versions of this scent that I’ve smelled so far. All in all, it’s an extremely pleasant scent. Unfortunately, it’s not strong enough. Quite nice in the jar, but when lathered and applied to the face? Only the faintest occasional whiff. As anyone who reads my reviews on a regular basis knows, this is all too common of a fault amongst soaps across the board. Seriously people, I like your scents! I want to be able to smell them when I’ve shaving, not just when I’m sticking my nose in the jar.

For the shave itself, it performs about the same as most other Glycerine shave soaps that I’ve come across. Nice and thick lather, fairly decent amount of glide. No issues finding a good balance between the two. Plus it did seem to leave the face seeming a bit softer / nicer than most soaps.

Overall, I’d give it a 6/10. I wish it could be a bit stronger scented, but at that price point it might still be worth a shot.

Gear used:

Ingredients: Coconut Oil, Palm Oil, Safflower Oil, Glycerin, Purified Water, Sodium Hydroxide,  Organic Shea Butter, Sorbitol, Sorbitan Oleate, Bentonite Clay, Soy Bean Protein, Wheat Protein, Fragrance.