The Strop Shoppe – Russian Tea limited edition

Tags

9/10, cinnamon, citrus, clove, Fruit, Orange, shaving soap, spice, strop shoppe

Despite its name, “Russian Tea” is an American invention, or at least the mix of tea, oranges, cloves, and cinnamon upon which this scent is based is, where it’s most popular as a Christmastime drink in the Southeast.

Strop Shoppe specifies that it’s a combination of orange, clove, and other spices. Those two scents are definitely quite noticeable in the mix, as well as a cinnamon-y note as well. I didn’t really notice much in the way of tea, however. Overall, it’s a sweet spicy concoction, which I found to be rather pleasant.

And the strength level of the scent is pretty much ideal for me. Nice and strong, without any noticeable fading while you shave.

The performance is excellent, as expected from one of the Strop Shoppe’s special edition soaps. It lathers up easily, very thick with a great amount of glide as well. And some great moisturization properties to boot.

I do however have to mention the inconsistency on the labeling. Again. The label listing of ingredients doesn’t list the cocoa butter or shea butter that another part of the label specifies it has in the “double butter formula”. Also, this soap can’t seem to figure out if it’s the special edition or the limited edition, as both are on the label. I seriously hope that I stop having to see labeling inconsistencies when dealing with the Strop Shoppe in the future. It’s irksome. Frankly, they don’t seem to be getting any better at this whatsoever. For example, on their website, the “Limited Edition – Vivace with Tallow & Lanolin” doesn’t have any lanolin at all in the ingredient listing.

Edit: So, apparently the newer style of the labels for the special edition Russian tea had the labelling fixed. And they’ve since fixed the issues with the ingredient listing on their website for the Limited Editions.

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

So, I think I’ll be giving this a 9/10. A very nice soap.

• Cost: I think this was probably actually the Limited edition, as it’s in the 4 oz tub instead of the 6 oz tub that the special editions seem to come in. But the limited edition doesn’t currently seem to be in stock; the special edition version is however, at $18.99 for a 6 oz tub.

Gear used:

• Brush: Wee Scott
• Razor: Vintage Bakelite Slant
• Blade: Big Ben Super Stainless

Ok… as for the ingredient listing, here is what the label says:

Ingredients: Potassium Stearate, Sodium Stearate, Glycerin, Castor Seed oil, Coconut Oil, Fragrance.

As mentioned above, I don’t think that’s accurate.

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The Strop Shoppe – 1887 Limited Edition with Lanolin

Tags

8/10, Discontinued, shaving soap, soft soap, spice, strop shoppe, tobacco, wood

So, anyways, one thing that I need to keep in mind when I get a limited edition soap to review is that they’re limited. And I should probably review them faster than slower. I bought this soap back in June of last year, and stuffed it under the sink on my “to-do list”. In the meantime, they stopped making it, and you’ll have trouble finding it. So, sorry, here’s a review for a product you might not be able to get.

The Limited Edition / Lanolin formula performs exquisitely. It’s got a very wide sweet spot, and provides great thickness and glide. There are absolutely no issues with lather stability, and it left my face feeling great and moisturized to boot. Anyways, it’s pretty much what I expected out of the Strop Shoppe. For quality wise, at least.

One thing I’ll note is that there appears to be an inconsistency about the packaging. At the top, it says it is “Special Edition: Extra soft – Double butter Formula, Cocoa Butter – Shea Butter.” The ingredient listing at the bottom however doesn’t list any Cocoa Butter or Shea Butter. I presume that this was probably just a left-over from their special edition that they failed to remove when they made up the label for the Limited edition. This is, unfortunately, also something that I’ve somewhat come to expect from the Strop Shoppe; they’re great at making soaps, but the little details of running a business sometimes seem to slip past them. For example, their current listing of a Limited Edition says in the description that it’s made with tallow and lanolin, but the ingredient listing doesn’t mention lanolin at all.

The scent is nice enough. I’ve seen it described elsewhere as “woodsy, spicy, and tobacco”, which doesn’t seem all that far off. The spicy portions develop a bit more once lathered up. All in all, it’s a nice cologne-y scent. The strength is decent; coming on at about a medium strength, without much in the way of fading.

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

Overall, I’m willing to round up and give it a 9/10.

• Cost: As mentioned, it’s not really available anywhere anymore. I had purchased this one $17.50 from MenEssentials.ca.

Gear used:

• Brush: Ecotools Kabuki Finishing Brush
• Razor: Vintage Bakelite Slant
• Blade: Bolzano Superinox
• Scuttle: Robert’s Feats of Clay #4

Ingredients: Potassium Stearate, Sodium Stearate, Glycerin, Ricinus Communis (Castor) Seed Oil, Cocos Nucifera (Coconut) Oil, Lanolin, Fragrance.

The Strop Shoppe – Teak Wood Special Edition with Tallow

Tags

9/10, shaving soap, soft soap, strop shoppe, teak, vanilla, wood

The Strop’s Shoppe Teak Wood is a perfect example of a soapmaker knowing the difference between a light scent and a weak scent. When you lather it up, bam, it’s there. Not really what I would call strongly, but it’s there. None of the straining to detect it that I often find with other soaps that try to pull off a “light” scent. It’s there, unmistakably so, and lasts throughout the entire shave without any fading that I noticed. Anyways, I suppose I might have liked it a fraction stronger, but this is definitely one of the few soaps that I’ve seen try for a “light” scent that doesn’t just fall flat IMHO.

It also helps that the aroma is quite pleasant. A bit hard to describe, it’s sort of a sweet woodsy scent. I can’t pinpoint the woody portion, but I think the sweetness could be vanilla? Hard to say. Heck, maybe it’s just the actual scent of the shea and/or cocoa butter used. I’m not sure. Anyways, I rather enjoy it.

And the lather. This is the first of the Strop Shoppe’s Special Edition soaps that I’ve tried, and wow, I can see why people seem to be raving so much about it. It lathers up extremely easily; a lot of volume, not too much water needed, as I find is often the case for soft soaps. It’s luxuriously thick and slick. And it left the face feeling just great, likely due to the extra Shea and Cocoa butter used.

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

Overall, a rather strong 9/10. The Strop Shoppe’s products started out rather strong when they first started out last year, and they certainly seem to be improving upon that as they go. Now only if we could convince them to offer samples! Anyways, I’d say this is easily within my top 5 favourite soaps / creams.

• Cost: The ~8.0 oz tub pictured (and no, I’m not sure why it’s mislabelled as 2.0 oz, it’s definitely far more than that) ran me $17.99, and is also available in a non-tallow version. Edit: If you want to avoid their website (as there are semi-frequently significant delays in shipping / customer service issues I’ve heard reported), 6 oz and 3 oz tubs are available in Canada from Men Essentials for $19.50 and $9.50 respectively.

Gear used:

• Brush: Ecotools Kabuki Finishing Brush
• Razor: Vintage Bakelite Slant
• Blade: Bolzano Superinox
• Scuttle: Robert’s Feats of Clay #4

Ingredients: Potassium Stearate, Sodium Stearate, Glycerin, Ricinus Communis (Castor) Seed Oil, Cocos Nucifera (Coconut) Oil, Theobroma Cacao (Cocoa) Seed Butter, Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea Butter) Butter, Fragrance.

The Strop Shoppe – Baker Street

Tags

10/10, baker street, bermagot, citrus, floral, Jasmine, juniper, patchouli, shaving soap, strop shoppe, wood

Here dwell together still two men of note
Who never lived and so can never die:
How very near they seem, yet how remote
That age before the world went all awry.
But still the game’s afoot for those with ears
Attuned to catch the distant view-halloo:
England is England yet, for all our fears–
Only those things the heart believes are true.

A yellow fog swirls past the window-pane
As night descends upon this fabled street:
A lonely hansom splashes through the rain,
The ghostly gas lamps fail at twenty feet.
Here, though the world explode, these two survive,
And it is always eighteen ninety-five.

– 1895 by Vincent Starrett

With their Baker Street soap, the fine folks over at the Strop Shoppe attempted to evoke images “of sitting rooms, pipes, and foggy London streets” to start off your day with “The Game Afoot”.

And I would say they succeeded marvellously. The blend of Bergamot, Juniper, Jasmine, and Patchouli have combined wonderfully to create a scent that could easily be something that Mr. Watson or Sherlock Holmes would have worn. This is my 2nd favourite scent, behind TOBS’s Jermyn Street.

And they didn’t skimp on the scent either. The soap itself smells quite strongly, and the lather carries the aroma rather nicely, staying noticeable throughout the entire shave, without fading. I might have liked perhaps just a fraction stronger, but I am hardly complaining.

The shave itself was likewise great. It lathers up very easily into a thick creamy voluminous foam, with quite a wide “sweet spot” for the amount of water it needs to balance the thickness with the slickness. During a normal shave, it left the skin feeling quite and moist afterwards. The only downside I saw was some irritation when I left it sitting on my face for a while (when I was testing how long the scent would last), but that took longer to emerge than the average shave takes me anyways, but those with sensitive skin might want to be a bit wary.

I’m not sure if it’s on purpose or not, but the cakes sent out fit just perfectly into the wide-mouthed mason jars I use to store most of my soaps (when I don’t feel like paying extra for a jar from the manufacturer). A nice bonus. One note, this review was of the original vegan-friendly vegetable-oil based configuration. This scent is also one of ones being offered in a tallow-based soap or in their “special edition” with shea and cocao butter.

• 10/10 Scent Pleasantness
• 9.5/10 Scent Strength
• 9/10 Lather Quality (reflects new scoring as outlined here)

Normally, I might be debating whether or not to give it a 9/10 or a 10/10, but seeing as how this is currently my favourite shave soap to date, I’ll go ahead and round up. 10/10. Sir Conan Doyle would be proud.

• Cost: $9.95 for a 4 ounce puck from their website. Edit: If you want to avoid their website (as there are semi-frequently significant delays in shipping / customer service issues I’ve heard reported), the tallow version can be found in the US for $10.99, or from Canada both the regular (which this review was based upon) and the tallow can be found for $11.50.

Gear used:

• Brush: The Colonel
• Razor: Merkur Progress
• Blade: Shark Super Stainless
• Scuttle: Robert’s Feats of Clay #4

Ingredients: Stearic Acid, Glycerin, Coconut Oil, Palm Oil, Rice Bran Oil, Fragrance.

Saponifying agents : Potassium Hydroxide, Sodium Hydroxide.

May contain : Sunflower Oil (Used as a substitute for Rice Bran Oil when needed).