Speick Shaving Cream

Tags

7/10, lavender, shaving cream, Speick

Speick is a fairly popular shaving cream (also available as a soap… and a balm, and a deodorant, and an EdT, etc) made out of Germany. The company’s gimmick is the Speick plant (Valerina celtica), which they say helps calm the central nervous system while stimulating the autonomic nervous system. Needless to say, I wasn’t exactly able to verify the veracity of any of those claims.

Its predominate scent is lavender, augmented by a bit of something else. I’d say it’s a bit of a woodsy aroma. That might be the Speick, or it might be some of the other added fragrances; I can’t say I know what Speick on its own smells like. All in all, it’s a nice blend. The strength is pretty decent; comes on at a medium strength, without much in the way of fading at all.

The performance is likewise pretty good. I did find that it was fairly easy to over-water the mix, so I’d suggest going slowly when whipping it up. But if that’s avoided, it provided a good blend of glide and thickness. I did however experience a bit of irritation from something in it, which is fairly rare for me.

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

Overall, it performs solidly in all areas (or at least all areas I consider to be most important), for a fairly reasonable cost. I’m going to give it a 7/10.

• Cost: As mentioned, it’s fairly widely available, and goes for about $7 for the 2.5 oz tube.

Gear used:

• Brush: The Colonel
• Razor: Merkur 45 Bakelite
• Blade: Shark 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, Sodium Myristate, Lavandula Angustifolia (Lavender) Oil, Valeriana Celtica (Speick) Extract, Fragrance (Essential Oils), Potassium Laurate, Sodium Silicate, Sodium Thiosulfate, Cl 15985 (Yellow 6 Lake), Limonene, Linalool.

eShave Mandarin shave soap

Tags

7/10, citrus, eshave, Fruit, Orange, shaving cream

Ok, so I’ve been lazy lately. Sorry about that. During this time, I’ve been using almost exclusively this soap, which I’ve had forever and just hadn’t gotten around to reviewing. So, suffice it to say at least, I’ve got a pretty good idea of how much I like this soap, having tested it for about 4 months straight.

Which isn’t to say that I’m necessarily going to have all that much more to say about it mind you.

The scent is supposed to be mandarin, and for that, I suppose that it fits reasonably well enough. It’s a sweet vaguely orange-y scent. I think I also catch a bit of the Shea butter as well, one of those ingredients in the actual soap that you can still sometimes actually get a whiff of.

It’s a somewhat weak scent. Just strong enough that you can notice it during the shave, if you’re paying attention. Not strong enough to command your attention if you’re not.

As for the shave itself, it’s rather good. It has a very wide range for the amount of water that you can use and still get a good shave. Using just a bit more than a moist brush will do a passable job, add more and you get a good balance of glide and thickness, keep adding water and it thins out only gradually. It never does get to quite what I’d consider to be an ideal balance of the two, mind you, but still overall, I’d say it’s a really good soap. The moisturization is about average for a typical commercial product.

• 8/10 Scent Pleasantness
• 6/10 Scent Strength
• 9/10 Lather Quality

I probably rounded up on the lather quality above, but I’m going to have to round down for the overall due to the weakness of the scent. 7/10.

• Cost: I had purchased this from Fendrihan, where a refill goes for $26.50, or you can purchase it with the bowl for $39.

Gear used:

• Brush: Mühle HJM Black Fibre
• Razor: Feather AS-D2
• Blade: Astra Superior Platinum

Ingredients: Potassium Palmate, Sodium Palmate, Potassium Stearate, Potassium Palm Kernelate, Glycerin, Water, Sodium Stearate, Sodium Palm Kernelate, Fragrance, Palm Kernel Acid, Shea Butter, Cocamide DEA, Pentasodium Pentetate, Tetrasodium Etidronate, FD&C Yellow 5 Al Lake (CL 19140), D&C Red 7 (CL 15850), D&C Yellow 10 Al Lake (CL 47005), Limonene, Citral, Hydroxycintronellal, Citronellol, Geraniol.

Acqua di Parma – Collexione Barbiere Shaving Cream

Tags

7/10, citrus, cologne, lavender, patchouli, Rose, rosemary, sandalwood, shaving cream, verbena, vetiver

Next up, we’ve got a cream that I’ve been waiting far too long to review: Acqua di Parma’s Collexione Barbiere Shaving Cream. Mind you, it’s the only shaving cream the Acqua di Parma makes, so you’ll typically see it called just that, or even just AdP.

The scent is a traditional “Colonia” scented cream, which might not tell you anything about it. Basenotes outlined the scents included in AdP’s main Colonia cologne line as being made up of citrus, lavender, rosemary, rose, vetiver, sandalwood, and patchouli. Suffice it to say that my nose isn’t trained enough to pick out those details. However, it is a scent which I do find fairly pleasant.

And, before anyone asks, yes it does smell fairly similar to the RazoRock XXX, or at least the old version, as I haven’t had a chance to pick up the reformulation yet. The XXX managed to beat it handily strength-wise however, as the AdP was relatively weakly scented during the shave. It didn’t fade all that much, but it was definitely subtle.

The lather quality was superior: whipped up easily, nice wide range of acceptable water levels producing good results, producing a nice thick lather, with great glide, and some decent moisturization properties to boot.

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

All in all, I’m giving it a 7/10. That’s rounding down rather than up, but still. The lather was great, but the scent definitely could have been stronger to suit my tastes.

• Cost: So it looks like this was actually the old version; the soap was reformulated last year, and made unscented. Honestly, there’s no way in hell that a jar of the stuff is worth $70 if we’re going on the lather quality alone. There’s better stuff out there for far cheaper.  A 4.4 oz jar of the stuff will set you back $70. As for the samples shown, I got it off of someone from /r/shave_bazaar, I’m not sure they’re readily available for purchase.

Gear used:

• Brush: Mühle HJM Black Fibre
• Razor: Feather AS-D2
• Blade: Asco Super Stainless
• Scuttle: Robert’s Feats of Clay #4

Ingredient listing: Aqua, Stearic Acid, Cocos Nucifera (Coconut) Oil, Potassium Hydroxide, Glycerin, Myristic Acid, Parfum, Propylene Glycol, PEG=150 Distearate, Limonene, Hydroxycitronellal, Menthyl Lacate, Prunus Amygdalus Dulcis (Sweet Almond) Oil, Triticum Vulgare (Wheat) Germ Oil, Linalool, Hydrolyzed Wheat Protein, Malva Sylvestris (Mallow) Extract, Melissa Officinalis Leaf Extract, Tetrasodium EDTA, Citral, Benzyl Salicylate, Eugenol, Coumarin, Hydroxyisohexyl 3-Cyclohexene Carboxaldehyde, Geraniol, Hedera Helix (Ivy) Extract, Mentha Aquatica Leaf Extract, Vitis Vinifera (Grape) Leaf Extract, Amyl Cinnamal.

QEDman – Spearmint and Tangerine shave stick

Tags

7/10, citrus, Discontinued, Fruit, mint, QEDman, shaving soap, shaving stick, Spearmint, tangerine

Edit: as below, this line is no longer available.

---

So, apparently the owner of the place that made the QEDman soaps for QEDman has retired. They’re down to one last scent available in the shaving stick, the wild orange, and three scents available for the tubs; Anise & Lavender, Grapefruit & Peppermint, and this one, Tangerine & Spearmint.

The lather is decent enough; a good balance of lubrication and thickness; you’ll want to be reasonably generous with the amount of water used. Somewhat narrow sweet spot to get the balance just right, but some good moisturization.

The balance on the scent is definitely predominately the spearmint, which shouldn’t be all that unexpected, considering it’s generally considered a much strong scent than tangerine. You can detect hints of the sweetness of tangerines underneath the minty-ness. Fairly pleasant, although I would have preferred more tangerine.

The strength is reasonable to start, without much in the way of fading. Not strong per se, but definitely not weak.

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

Anyways, it’s a nice enough soap, with good performance in all areas, but nothing to write home about in any aspect. 7/10 overall.

• Cost: As mentioned, the shaving stick in this scent is no longer available, however a 5oz jar can still be found for $13.50. While they do ship to Canada and some other places outside the US, the shopping cart feature only works within the US, so you’ll need to e-mail for a quote.

Gear used:

• Brush: Wee Scott
• Razor: Feather AS-D2
• Blade: Big Ben Super Stainless

Ingredients: Saponified 100% food grade coconut, palm, castor, and safflower oils, with kosher vegetable glycerin, soybean protein, aloe vera extract, and essential oils.

Honeybee Soaps – Coffee Mocha

Tags

7/10, chocolate, coffee, honeybee soaps, shaving soap

Mmmmm… coffee and chocolate, two of my favourite things.

Honeybee Soaps’ rendition thereof is a fairly pleasant mix. It’s heavier on the chocolate, and a bit light on the coffee IMHO, and overall not quite as sweet as I would have expected. Still, it works fairly well, coming off what I’d say is a medium strong mix, without too much in the way of fading.

The lather’s the usual from Honeybee soaps; use a fair bit of water and some elbow grease and you’ll wrest a decent balance of thickness and glide out of the soap. It’s certainly good enough to get the job done.

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

All said, I think I’ll give this a 7/10; it’s good, but doesn’t really stand out in any particular area.

• Cost: Samples are $1.99 per ounce, full 3.5 ounce pucks are $4.99, or $6.99 for 4 ounces in a plastic tub.

Gear used:

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

Ingredients: Coconut Oil, Palm Oil, Castor Oil, Hempseed Oil, Safflower Oil, Shea Butter, Glycerine (vegetable origin), Vitamin E, Water, Sodium Hydroxide, Sorbitol, Sorbitan Oleate, Soybean Protein, Wheat Protein, White Kaolin China Clay, Cosmetic Color and Fragrance Oil.

Al’s Shaving Products – Lather Shaving Cream – Blue

Tags

7/10, Al's Shaving Products, amber, Coriander, geranium, Jasmine, lavender, musk, peppermint, rosewood, shaving cream

So Al’s got a new line of shaving cream which he’s in the process of developing. He sent me out a sampler pack of a bunch of scents that he’s trying out right now, including the one that he currently has available, Blue.

It’s supposed to be a more affordable option than his main line of creams. I guess the million dollar four dollar (the price difference between the two lines) question is whether or not the savings in cost came at the expense of performance? Well, IMHO, yeah, a bit.

Don’t get me wrong here, the lather shaving cream is still a good cream. It’s just not a great cream, which I feel that Al’s main line is. It lathers up easily, however I wasn’t able to get it quite as thick and creamy as I can get the main line. It’s not a very thirsty cream, so just a tad of water would be needed. Folks used to his main line should be warned not to over-water it, as it will start to thin out appreciably if you use the same amount. Still, it yielded a nice and slick cream with some good thickness. Some minor stability issues, but I do mean minor, only thinning out a bit while applied to the face during the shave. One thing it does share with the original formulation is a good amount of volume produced.

The line is designed to also appeal to those who like a more subtle scent to their shaving cream. So, well, anyone who’s been reading my reviews will know that is one aspect I’m not going to be a fan of. That seemed to be the case for the sample I tried, coming in at what I’d consider to be just under a medium strength scent. So great for those of you who don’t like their scents strong I guess.

The “Blue” is designed to be a rendition of Davidoff’s Cool Water, which was itself an homage to Creed’s Green Irish Tweed. It’s a pleasant blend, although like most “cologne-y” scents, I have trouble picking out any of the individual notes. Al says it’s crafted with lavender, peppermint, geranium, jasmine, coriander, rosewood, musk, and amber. Quite pleasant.

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

Overall, I’ll give it a 7/10. It’s a good cream, but I’d mostly recommend sticking with the originals instead, unless you’re one of those folk who do like their creams to not be as heavily scented.

• Cost: $14 for a 100 g tub.

Gear used:

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

Ingredients: Aloe Vera, Water, Stearic Acid, Myristic Acid, Potassium Hydroxide, Glycerin, Coconut Acid, fragrance, Sodium Hydroxide

Knockout Shave Cream – Sonny

Tags

7/10, cedarwood, citrus, floral, knockout shave, lavender, lemongrass, shaving cream, wood

The real question here, is which Sonny are they referring to? The Corleone? Or the Bono?

Sonny is a blend of Cedarwood, Lemongrass, and lavender. The Lemongrass is the strongest of the bunch with the lavender coming in for 2nd. It is a rather pleasant scent; I am a fan of lemongrass overall.

The strength was pretty much spot on, strong, with nothing noticeable in the way of fading. However, the strength probably contributed to one problem:

While I generally have fairly bullet-proof skin, I did notice a fair bit of irritation and a burning sensation from this one. Thus, I’d probably recommend avoiding it if you’ve got sensitive skin, as it’ll probably hit you harder than I. I’ll be docking some points directly from the overall score for this.

Since this cream uses Al’s Shaving Products main line as a base, a lot of you should know what to expect. A very darned fine shave, great thickness and lather slickness, as long as you’re sure to use enough water (and elbow grease)! Good moisturization, good lather stability; great shave.

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

So, normally this would probably be a 9/10, however due to the irritation I experienced, I’m going to downgrade it to a 7/10. Still usable, but there’s better stuff out there.

• Cost: I was provided my samples free of charge for the purposes of this review; you however can get samples (0.25 oz each) of the four current Knockout Shave scents for $7.50, or buy a 4 oz tub of the “Sonny” for $25.

Gear used:

• Brush: Wee Scott
• Razor: Feather AS-D2
• Blade: Gillette Silver Blue

Ingredients: sodium and potassium salts of fatty acids (stearic, oleic, linoleum, palmitic, myristic and lauric), water, glycerin, essential oils (for fragrance).

Whoos Shaving Soap – Death or Glory

Tags

7/10, amber, cardamom, cedar, cinnamon, clove, patchouli, sandalwood, shaving soap, teakwood, Whoos

Whoos’ shaving soap is, claims of being handmade nothwithstanding, fairly obviously a melt-and-pour soap. Not surprising really, seems like most of the soaps sold on etsy are!

It’s got the usual issues you see with a lot of the melt-and-pour soaps out there, the most notable being a sub-par lather stability. It can’t really be claimed to provide all that much cushioning, given that by the time you finish half of your pass, the other half has already started to fade. Unfortunately, adding enough water to fix the stability issues also thins it out too much. All in all, not enough to make it unusable by any stretch, but there’s far better soaps out there.

The scent is a nice spicy concoction; they say it’s got teakwood, cardamom, cinnamon, clove, cedar, amber, sandalwood, and patchouli. The spices are predominate, with the rest providing a nice backdrop.

It comes on quite strong when lathered up, and mostly stays that way without too much in the way of fading while you shave.

• 8/10 Scent Pleasantness
• 9/10 Scent Strength
• 6/10 Lather Quality

Overall, I’m willing to round this one up to a 7/10. Smells nice enough to make up a bit for the performance.

• Cost: A puck of the Death or Glory (or any of their other scents for that matter) will set you back $4.25. Or you can get a set of three pucks of any scent for $11.25.

Gear used:

• Brush: Mühle HJM Black Fibre
• Razor: Feather AS-D2
• Blade: Asco Super Stainless
• Bowl: Hand painted by myself (Yes, I know it’s ugly).

Ingredients: Coconut oil, palm oil, safflower oil, glycerin, purified water, sodium hydroxide, sorbitol, sorbitan, soybean protein, wheat protein, bentonite clay, aloe, fragrance oil, mica.

 

Parker – Sandalwood Sheabutter Luxury Shave Bar

Tags

7/10, cocoa, sandalwood, shaving soap, shea

Now, I’m sure that most of you are aware of Parker due to reasonably popular line of razors, brushes, and stands. But, hey, apparently they make a soap as well. That’s indeed a soap, since this is apparently the only variation they do manufacture, although apparently they used to also carry a “nine herbs” variation.

Anyhow, the scent on this soap is supposed to be a sandalwood. And I get a bit of a hint of sandalwood, but overall it’s a much sweeter scent than I would have expected from just sandalwood. I suspect that’s because the sandalwood’s being overpowered by the scent of the shea butter. There’s also a slight hint of something spicy, which I suppose could be the tumeric. It’s a reasonably pleasant scent, but definitely not what I’d expect from most sandalwood soaps.

It is however, rather weakly scented. It doesn’t start off very strong, and fades a fair bit from there.

The lather is good; it’s a thirsty soap that does need a fair bit of elbow grease as well. Do that, and it makes for a very good shave; nice and thick lather, good glide. Also pretty darned good on the skin moisturization front as well.

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

All in all, I’m reasonably pleased with this product, but definitely wish it was more strongly scented. 7/10. Fairly reasonably priced at least.

• Cost: I purchased this from Maggard Razors, $7.75 for a 100g puck. There is also a “travel” version of the same product, which comes in a watertight container, where you get 50g for $6.25.

Gear used:

• Brush: Mühle HJM Black Fibre
• Razor: Feather AS-D2
• Blade: Ladas Super Stainless
• Scuttle: Robert’s Feats of Clay #4

Ingredients: Aqua, Cocos Nucifera Oil (Coconut), Glycerin, Sorbitol, SLES, Propylene Glycol, Cacao (Cocoa) Butter, Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea) Butter, Glycerin (No, I don’t know why they have Glycerin listed twice), Santalum Album (Sandalwood) Oil, Aloe Barbadensis (Aloe Vera), Prunus Amygdalus Dulcis (Almond) Oil, Olea Europaea (Olive) Oil, Curcuma Longa (Tumeric).

Nanny’s Silly Soap Company – Grapefruit and Lemongrass vegan (original recipe shaving soap)

Tags

7/10, citrus, Fruit, grapefruit, lemongrass, Nanny's Silly Soap Company, shaving soap

Happy Boxing Day everyone! And welcome to anyone who’s here because of the Gizmodo article on weirdly specific review blogs. Since it’s a new year coming up, I think I’ll be spending the next little bit trying to knock off as many different vendors / artisans / manufacturers that I haven’t reviewed before. New year, new products!

So, to keep the trend going (since the last two reviews were brand new to me as well), I’ll be covering off a soap from Nanny’s Silly Soap Company, made by a lady named Sharon Baxter out of England, with some assistance by her grandson Luke.

They appear to be a typical soap company that branched out into shaving soaps, however unlike so many, actually bothered to do their research into what makes a good shaving soap.

The lather I found was pretty good. I did find it needed very little water for optimal performance, and was fairly easy to overshoot that amount, resulting in a thinner lather than I like. In fact, I found I did need to thin it out just a tad more than I liked to get the level of glide I like. I was still able to get what I’d say is a decent balance of the two, as long as the water usage was sparing. Just perhaps not what I’d say is ideal. It had some really good moisturization on the other hand, which I suppose should be expected with a healthy amount of shea and coccoa butter included.

The scent I found to also be quite pleasant; I found you probably got more of the lemongrass than the grapefruit out of it. It wasn’t a strong scent; when first applied to the face, you got a good whiff of it, but it died down a lot fairly shortly thereafter. That having been said, what did stick around really stuck around. I found myself noticing the occasional scent of it a good hour or two after the fact, as did the girlfriend.

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

Overall, I think I’ll give this Nanny’s Silly Goat soap a 7/10. I found this one to be a bit tough to judge; in pretty much all the areas I base the scores upon, it was on the cusp of being rounded up. That having been said, while it’s a solid soap, I wasn’t blown away in any aspect, so I suppose an average score will do.

• Cost: Nanny’s has some samples available, but it seems like what’s available at any given time is rather sporadic. When I bought this sample, it was £0.80, currently unavailable. The full sized product will run you £5.75 (so a bit under $10 USD) for a 100g jar.

Gear used:

• Brush: The Colonel
• Razor: Gillette Travel Tech
• Blade: Ladas Super Stainless
• Scuttle: Robert’s Feats of Clay #4

Ingredients: Aqua, potassium palmitate*, potassium stearate (vegetable), potassium cocoabutterate, potassium shea butterate, potassium cocoate, potassium castorate, glycerine (vegetable), stearic acid (vegetable), kaolin. Essential oil blend.  Limonene, citral, geraniol. *Organic and sustainably grown in Columbia.